Google’s New AI Mode Alarms Publishers Facing Steep Traffic Losses

Google plans to make a significant search engine change which will shake up the internet while intensifying the challenges faced by news organizations.

Google’s AI tools, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, reduce news publisher traffic since users receive answers directly without needing to click on links. HuffPost, Washington Post, and Business Insider saw declines over 50%, forcing these companies to reduce staff and change their business strategy.

Critics call it “theft” of content. Nicholas Thompson warned, “Google is shifting from being a search engine to an answer engine.”

Forbes reports that Google Search VP of Product Robby Stein announced on Friday that users can activate the new AI Mode by visiting ‘google.com/ai.’ Users can now interact with Google through a chatbot interface instead of entering standard search queries.

good idea. I’ve felt the same way. you can now get to ai mode by heading straight to https://t.co/Q75S7fHStY https://t.co/z0m6fCyyLL

— Robby Stein (@rmstein) September 5, 2025

Forbes also notes that the product lead for DeepMind and Gemini and Google AI products, Logan Kilpatrick, announced on X that AI Mode will become the standard interface in the near future.

The risk, critics warn, is “Google Zero,” a future where Google keeps readers on its own platform and sends little to no traffic to outside sites.  Digital Content Next conducted research which revealed major publishers experienced a 25% decrease in referral traffic during the last eight weeks of this year.

In a clarification, Stein said Google’s plan is not to make AI Mode the default for everyone right now, but to let people choose it more easily. “If you prefer AI mode as your default search tab, there will be a toggle or a button to do that,” he said, as reported by Bleeping Computer.

For now, the traditional “blue links” will still exist, hidden behind a “Web” tab. remain accessible through the Web tab, which users can access. Media professionals predict that AI Mode will eventually take over as the primary search interface.

As one Forbes report put it, the publishing model won’t just be strained  “it will be under siege, to put it mildly.”