What Google’s AI mode really means for users
Google is rolling out its AI Mode, a search mode enhanced by artificial intelligence capable of answering users’ questions directly, integrating information from various sources, and turning classic searching into an interactive conversation.
This is more than a technological update: this evolution could rewrite the rules of the Web, SEO, journalism, and the very way we access knowledge online.
How Google’s AI Mode works – and why it changes everything
The new AI Mode is an extension of AI Overviews, the synthetic answers that already appear above traditional search results. With this feature, Google shifts from a simple search engine to an intelligent assistant: users can pose complex questions, receive pre-elaborated answers, and continue the conversation for clarification or further insights, even using images or voice.
Powering it all is Gemini, Google’s family of language models, which processes data and builds answers in real time. The classic list of blue links – the gateway to the Web for years – is now being replaced by AI-generated texts. While this makes searching more convenient, it also risks ‘hiding’ original sites, cutting traffic to millions of pages.
What changes for users: Between convenience and loss of freedom
The experience becomes smoother and more immediate. There’s no need to open ten tabs just to understand a topic: one question is enough and AI summarises the answers. But there’s a price for this efficiency.
- Fewer discoveries, more filtering. Casual searches, unexpected deep dives, and alternative perspectives are in danger of disappearing. AI will show only what it “deems useful,” making us more dependent on its filters and reducing the diversity of content we encounter.
- Greater risk of errors and misinformation. Like any generative system, Google’s model can make mistakes, oversimplify, or “invent” facts. Users will have to learn to verify, maintaining a critical eye on whatever they read – even if it “comes from Google”.
- The fallout for publishers and content creators. The arrival of AI Mode is already shaking up the worlds of publishing and digital communication.
Traffic slump and the crisis of the advertising model
Many international outlets are seeing traffic plummet as AI summarises their content, essentially answering for them. Fewer visits means less advertising revenue and fewer resources to produce quality information. In Italy, FIEG and several publishers have asked Agcom to open an inquiry into Google, arguing that the AI Overviews and AI Mode features violate the Digital Services Act by diverting visibility and revenue away from news organisations.
SEO and survival strategies
Classic SEO – based on keywords and links – is no longer enough. Now, it’s crucial to understand how to appeal to AI: providing original, accurate, authoritative content that can easily be used in its summaries.
Those capable of producing verifiable, localised information (for example, in Italian with clear sources as per the example above) may be rewarded by generative models as trustworthy sources.
European regulations and the fight for transparency
In Europe, Google’s new features land in a landscape already dense with regulation: the Digital Services Act, AI Act, and Copyright Directive. The AI Act, which came into force in 2024, sets transparency requirements: AI-generated content must be labeled as such, and models must disclose their training data.
The DSA, on the other hand, compels platforms to be accountable for how they spread information and manage content. Italy, through Agcom, is tasked with enforcing these rules, even against giants like Google. Italian publishers hope this regulatory landscape will protect them, forcing Google to clearly cite sources or financially compensate the use of their content. But the challenge is formidable: technology advances faster than regulation.
A future without the Web?
Many experts fear AI Mode is just the first step toward a Web mediated by artificial intelligence. In this world, users will no longer browse Web pages but interact with a system that decides what to show them.
The Web could become a sort of invisible database from which AI draws answers, leaving behind the idea of an open and plural Internet. But this future isn’t etched in stone.
Independent, decentralised AIs could arise, based on open source, transparent models that respect copyright and value sources. Europe is already pushing in this direction, creating the European AI Office and the Center for Algorithmic Transparency, both set up to oversee large generative models.
The Italian case: A balance to defend
In Italy, the issue is even more delicate. The national media system is already in structural crisis, and the loss of online traffic risks hitting local newspapers and independent publications the hardest. Major international platforms could concentrate even more power, leaving small outlets off AI’s radar altogether.
Yet, Italy could become a European laboratory: a balance between innovation and the protection of pluralism, automation and human responsibility. The future of the Web – and perhaps of digital democracy – will depend on how we manage this transformation.
The Web is changing, but its spirit can still be saved
Google’s AI Mode opens up extraordinary possibilities but also deep risks. The promise of smart answers could result in a Web that’s less free and more controlled, where AI decides what’s relevant and what isn’t.
It’s up to us – users, journalists, content creators, and institutions – to demand transparency, pluralism, and accountability. Because if AI is the new intermediary of knowledge, the right to free and verifiable information must remain human.
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