Google's CEO Sundar Pichai announced during the company's earnings call on Wednesday that generative AI features such as AI Overview and AI Mode are strongly driving growth in Google search queries, dispelling market concerns that AI would replace traditional search.  

Data shows that since its global launch last October, "AI Mode" has exceeded 1 billion monthly active users. It not only achieved a stepwise increase in search queries but also sent billions of clicks to external websites each week through AI features.

Google

Empowered directly by AI tools, Google's core search business revenue grew strongly by 17% year-over-year. Combined with the recently concluded FIFA World Cup, the intensive high-frequency search demand pushed Google search volume to a historical high, further verifying user engagement with the search ecosystem enhanced by AI. Alphabet's total revenue for this quarter reached $119.8 billion, an increase of 24% year-over-year. Although the closing stock price fell slightly by 1.24% due to market sentiment, the position of search as the core profit driver of the group remains solid.

However, the data disclosed by Pichai contrasts sharply with the current survival situation of the digital publishing industry. Many media organizations and publishers point out that traditional website traffic is facing continuous decline due to AI directly generating answers without clear source links.

The rapid development of Google's AI search indicates that generative AI is accelerating the reshaping of information distribution and traffic allocation logic. How to achieve a sustainable balance between improving user search experience and maintaining the content creator ecosystem will remain a core issue in the evolution of search engines.