During the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that Google Search is now on a “journey” around artificial intelligence. AI overviews, a contentious and significant change in the way Google provides information to its billions of search users, marked the beginning of that journey.
However, that was only the start.
“2025 is going to be one of the biggest years for search innovation yet,” Pichai stated in his opening remarks on the call, as AI keeps expanding the range of questions that consumers may ask.
Pichai described the next stage of Google’s strategy to integrate AI capabilities from DeepMind, the company’s research center, into Search on the call. Slowly but surely, the Search product is starting to resemble an AI assistant that looks at web sites, searches the internet, and provides a response.
A basic search system that provides you with ten blue links is a far cry from this.
Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, which took the search behemoth off guard, Google has been on this trajectory for a few years. For websites that depend on Google traffic and companies who purchase ads on Google Search, the change has significant ramifications.
Although not everyone is pleased, Google is continuing to advance.
Pichai responded, “You can imagine the future with Project Astra,” in reference to DeepMind’s multimodal AI system, which can process live video from a camera or computer screen and respond to user inquiries about what the AI sees in real time, when asked about the future of AI and search.
In other areas of its business, Google has great hopes for Project Astra. According to the company, Google will develop the operating system for augmented reality smart glasses that will eventually be powered by the multimodal AI system.
Pichai also highlighted a feature that might drastically change how people use Google Search: Gemini Deep Research, an AI agent that takes few minutes to produce lengthy research reports. Deep Research uses Google Search to automate tasks that individuals have historically completed. However, it appears that Google now wishes to carry out such study for users.
“You’re really broadening the range of use cases that Search can handle—things that don’t always have immediate answers but can take some time to do so,” Pichai remarked. “We are exploring all of those areas, and throughout 2025, you will see us presenting users with new experiences.”
Pichai went on to say that Google has a “clear sense” of the search experiences it could produce with Project Mariner, another of its AI agents. People don’t need to use websites personally because that system can use the front end of websites on their behalf.
The CEO of Google also stated that there is a “possibility” to allow people to engage with Google Search more and pose follow-up queries. Although Pichai didn’t go into great depth, it appears that Google is thinking about methods to make its Search experience more like to a chatbot.
Pichai stated, “I believe the [Search] product will continue to develop.” “I believe we have a chance to spur additional growth as you make it easier for people to engage and ask follow-up questions, etc.”
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With hundreds of millions of users each week, ChatGPT has developed into one of the most popular programs on the internet today. It poses an existential risk to the long-term viability of Google Search. In order to combat it, Google is integrating AI capabilities into Search directly in addition to developing a rival AI chatbot with Gemini.
It goes without saying that Google Search’s AI adventure did not start off nicely. Google revealed strange and erroneous AI hallucinations when it implemented AI overviews across Google Search. Among these were responses advising individuals to apply glue on their pizza and eat rocks. At the time, Google acknowledged the need for improvement in AI overviews.
It seems that Google is only beginning to integrate AI into Search, despite this unfavorable rollout.
SOURCE: TECH CRUNCH
