The new era of AI

The new era of AI-powered search, which could 'change the web economy'

In DepthSince Wednesday, Google has started displaying artificial intelligence-generated responses, known as AI Overviews, for certain queries, rather than the traditional list of links. Website publishers and brands now fear for their visibility and are trying to find ways to respond.

On July 22, Google users in France discovered that, for certain queries, they could now see a response of several paragraphs – automatically generated by artificial intelligence (AI) – appear before the usual list of links. Users could also, in a tab of the search engine called "AI Mode," have a conversation similar to those offered by AI assistants like ChatGPT or Google's Gemini.

But for professionals in the sector, these new features, which have already been rolled out in many places around the world, represent the latest sign of a much deeper shift that has been underway for several months and is likely to "change the web economy," explained Quentin de Louvencourt of the consulting firm Bain & Company. "In the past, for website publishers, visibility in search engines was a battle for clicks," said this marketing specialist. "Now, many answers are provided to internet users directly by AI assistants, without them having to click. It's no longer the user who visits 30 or so sites as they would with a traditional search engine."

"The emergence of AI in search is a major concern for our members. This issue has exploded since the beginning of the 2025 academic year," said Jérôme Rigourd, head of AI at Union des Marques, the influential advertisers' lobby. In fact, 37% of AI assistant users said they used AI as their primary means of searching online, ahead of traditional search engines, according to a study by the agency Eight Oh Two published in January. "We are moving from search portals that acted as gateways to the web to a system where people are increasingly reasoning in silos and closed loops," said Olivier Ertzscheid, an online search expert and associate professor of information science at Université de Nantes.

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