Has AI Doomed Google? A Look at How Robot Results Are Changing Search

Tech had a mic-drop moment last week when Apple’s Eddy Cue testified that Google searches on Safari had dropped sharply over the past two months. A fall-off like that hadn’t occurred in more than 22 years, he added, pointing at generative AI as the likely culprit.

Alphabet stock plunged on the comments, shedding close to $250 billion in market cap. Google’s share of search traffic has also dipped, falling below 90% for eight months straight. It’s still in pole position, but investors are spooked.

Has AI broken through Google’s moat? As more and more people try GenAI tools for fast summaries and bullet-list compilations, we dig into the figures and look at the challenges facing the search giant’s core business.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Searching for Dominance
3. AI Search Is on the Up
4. How Vulnerable Is Google?
5. Reality Check: Google Isn't Going Anywhere
6. The Bottom Line
7. FAQs
8. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Searching for Dominance
3. AI Search Is on the Up
Show Full Guide
4. How Vulnerable Is Google?
5. Reality Check: Google Isn't Going Anywhere
6. The Bottom Line
7. FAQs
8. References

Searching for Dominance

The agreement, making Google the default search engine on Safari, sends about $20 billion in commissions to Apple every year. For Google, sinking traffic from the world’s favorite handset adds to uncertainty over the company’s future.

Alphabet has lost two federal antitrust cases in 12 months and now faces a potential breakup. Critics have long objected to Google’s hold on the market, which is so tenacious even Microsoft hasn’t been able to pry it off.

Data from Statcounter shows Google powered 89.66% of the world’s internet searches in April 2025, with Microsoft’s Bing placing a distant second at 3.88%. Google’s position once seemed unassailable.

Now technology could do what regulators haven’t – bring balance to the market.

AI Search Is on the Up

A recent survey by marketing agency Higher Visibility found that more than 70% of Americans use AI tools for search, and around 14% said they use AI search daily.

That aligns broadly with findings from the consumer research company GWI. Neither company says traditional search is on the way out – at least not yet – but change is clearly afoot.

Higher Visibility notes that people’s choice of search platform varies depending on the type of information being sought.

Almost 80% say they use Google (or a bit of Bing) for general-purpose searches, while the other 20% will use a site like Amazon or Walmart for product searches. AI search jumps to the fore when people want to do product and price comparisons, saving time and effort by compiling multiple searches into a single summary.

More Interesting is the generational divide. Gen Z is most open to AI search, with 82% reporting they use it at least occasionally. That’s well ahead of the 50% of Millennials, 65% of GenX’ers, and 45% of Baby Boomers who said the same.

Across the board, GWI found that AI search generates the highest user satisfaction, with ChatGPT getting top marks for the information it returns.

Still, the search picture is mixed and messy. Social media comes into play when Gen Z shoppers want to discover new products, while Gen X and Millennials are warming to voice search.

Meanwhile, Google’s own AI summaries have led to a decline in clickthrough rates, a technological own-goal that could signal that the number one name in search hasn’t quite worked out how to integrate AI into its business model.

How Vulnerable Is Google?

Google’s sub-90% search share is down from the 93% it commanded when ChatGPT first arrived in Fall 2022. It’s a marginal loss, but persistent. With the exception of a few upticks, Google has been under the 90% mark for most of the past eight months – an almost unprecedented soft stretch.

With alternative platforms apparently gaining traction and OpenAI claiming around 400 million people use ChatGPT on a weekly basis, Alphabet could argue that there’s no need for a breakup. Technology is already doing the job.

That’s what happened in the early 2000s when Microsoft was the biggest tech target for anti-monopolists. Windows’ commanding share of the PC operating system market eventually gave way to technological change and, arguably, Redmond’s inability to respond effectively.

The truth is that AI’s commercial viability in search is still to be proven. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, investment analyst Michael Nathanson points out that most AI search queries are noncommercial in nature. Google still owns the money-making, click-inducing side of search – and it isn’t even close.

Investors want more reassurance, however. Alphabet (GOOGL) stock was at $165.40 as the market closed on May 15, 2025, down more than 19% from a six-month high of $206.38 in February.

Reality Check: Google Isn’t Going Anywhere

Despite a wave of negative sentiment, a closer look at the numbers suggests Google’s core strengths are solid and likely to get stronger.

In an X article that’s pulled more than 400k views, Wall Street analyst Shay Boloor points out that Google’s search business is “still a $200 billion+ machine with 90% global dominance, growing at 10%, and throwing off cash with 35%+ blended EBITDA margins.”

“Show me a business with better numbers,” he says.

Boloor thinks investors have succumbed to AI hype and accepted conventional wisdom over business fundamentals. He writes:

“The narrative since late 2022 has been this: Google missed AI. ChatGPT caught them off guard. OpenAI is the new frontier. Gemini is mid. Google is late.

“That entire thesis is built on perception. Because when you actually look at the revenue base, the margin profile, the market share, and the product velocity – it becomes clear that this isn’t a company getting disrupted. It’s a company being mis-priced.”

Google generates $157 billion in revenue each year from its non-Search properties.

Cloud: $46 billion
Subscriptions: $42 billion
YouTube: $37 billion
Network: $30 billion
Other Bets: $1.6 billion

What would Google be worth without Search?$GOOGL pic.twitter.com/0KKnGA4FLI

— FinChat (@finchat_io) May 12, 2025

To really understand Google’s strengths, you have to look beyond search and see the bigger picture, he argues. The company is integrating its Gemini AI model across the product suite, scaling-up deployment of TPU architecture, improving its AI agents and quietly growing its enterprise AI footprint.

Boloor concludes:

“This isn’t a company that got caught sleeping. It’s a company that got penalized for not shouting.”

The Bottom Line

Unless federal trustbusters intervene, Google seems well-positioned to fend off AI’s incursion.

The smart money is ignoring the current narrative and focusing on fundamentals, which all point to Google remaining top of the SERPs for the foreseeable future.

FAQs