FILE PHOTO: Google logo and AI Artificial Intelligence words are seen in this illustration created on May 4, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
| Photo Credit:
Dado Ruvic

AI will kill Google Search was the dire prediction, but in its latest earnings call, the big tech major showed that it is alive and kicking, and unlikely to be dethroned by the likes of ChatGPT.

Alphabet, Google’s parent, reported a 12 per cent YoY rise in Google Search and other related revenue at $54 billion in its earnings for the quarter ended June. In the quarter ended March, the Search revenue growth was 10 per cent. This has prompted analysts globally to highlight the resiliency of its core Search business.

Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google, said in the earnings that Search queries continued to grow year-over-year with the new AI mode “significantly” contributing to it. “AI Mode continues to receive very positive feedback, particularly for longer and more complex questions. It’s still rolling out but already has over 100 million monthly active users in the US and India,” he said.

Google is evolving

Analysts note that despite the rise in usage of newbies like Perplexity or other LLMs that answer people’s queries, Google Search cannot be written off and its revenues will not take a hit.

According to Greyhound Research, considering Google as a “declining incumbent” in Search overlooks “the scale, nuance, and intentionality of its transformation.” Sanchit Vir Gogia, Founder and CEO, Greyhound, said, “Rather than asking users to adopt new paradigms, Google is embedding AI into old ones — retaining intent, traffic, and economic flow.”

“The number of adopters actively using new tools like Perplexity or ChatGPT to search on a regular basis is still low. Most are experimenting with them. Google itself is evolving; they may also soon figure out how to monetise AI Mode if they haven’t already” Subhendu Pattnaik, Chief Marketing Officer, Covasant Technologies, said.

Betting on AI

Tarun Pathak, Research Director, Counterpoint Research, said that search is seeing growth across platforms. “In the long run, only that platform will win that integrates closely with AI experiences. Google has the biggest advantage of its scale,” he said.

Google seems to be betting big on AI overviews. A May report from SEO research firm BrightEdge noted that AI Overviews now appear in over 11 per cent of Google queries, a 22 per cent increase since it launched last year.

Published on July 28, 2025