.png)
April 26, 2025
Google is increasingly relying on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its search engine. This is evident from various reports and statements by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, released in conjunction with the company's quarterly results. The integration of AI is intended to provide users with faster and more concise answers to complex questions.
A central element of this strategy are the so-called "AI Overviews," which, according to Pichai, now reach approximately 1.5 billion users monthly. Google is continuously working to make this feature available in more countries, for more users, and for a larger number of search queries. This step comes amid growing competition from AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
In addition to AI summaries, Google is also experimenting with a comprehensive redesign of search under the name "AI Mode." This mode allows users to use multimodal inputs, for example, combining text and images. Pichai mentioned that inputs in AI Mode are on average twice as long as conventional search queries. Visual search functions like "Circle to Search" are also being further expanded. This feature is already available on over 250 million devices and saw a usage increase of almost 40% in the last quarter.
The increased use of AI-generated answers in search, however, also has implications for website traffic. Initial data suggests that the direct provision of information by the search engine leads to a decline in clicks on the original sources. This raises questions about the future role of websites as information providers and could significantly change the online landscape.
Alphabet is investing heavily in the expansion of its AI infrastructure. Investments in data centers, AI hardware, and server infrastructure amounted to $17.2 billion in the first quarter of 2025 and are expected to reach $75 billion for the full year. Another focus is on expanding the Gemini ecosystem. The number of active users of Google AI Studio and the Gemini API has increased by over 200% since the beginning of the year. Gemini models are now integrated into 15 Google products, each with over 500 million users. The Gemini chatbot itself has 350 million monthly active users. With Imagen 3 and Veo 2, Google is expanding its offering in the field of multimodal AI for image and video processing.
Alphabet exceeded analysts' expectations in the first quarter of 2025, achieving revenue of $90.23 billion and earnings per share of $2.81. The company also announced a $70 billion share buyback program. Advertising revenue increased by 8.5% to $66.89 billion, continuing to account for the largest share of total revenue. Growth in the cloud business, however, slowed slightly to 28% compared to the previous year.
Sources: - https://blog.google/inside-google/message-ceo/alphabet-earnings-q1-2025/ - https://searchengineland.com/google-ceo-links-ai-making-search-quality-worse-440365 - https://x.com/theaitechsuite/status/1915790240087691551 - https://www.crn.com/news/ai/2025/google-q1-2025-earnings-ceo-pichai-sees-ai-use-grow-despite-uncertain-economy - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthew-khorsandi-1a332084_google-ceo-sundar-pichai-says-that-the-search-activity-7275244834502680576-WkAA - https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/google-ai-overviews-what-do-they-mean-for-search - https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1h89cxu/sundar_pichai_says_google_search_will_change/ - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-03-24/google-s-ai-search-overhaul-racing-chatgpt-for-the-web-s-future - https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/google-sales-jump-as-ai-lifts-ads-6762833/