Google rolls out AI search in UK as firms raise concerns over web traffic

Highlights

• Google rolls out optional AI search tool in the UK using Gemini platform
  
• ‘AI Mode’ replaces link-heavy results with conversational summaries
  
• Concerns raised by businesses and news outlets over declining referral traffic
  
• AI Mode already live in the US and India; rollout in the UK underway
  
• Google has yet to finalise how ads and revenue will work under the new model
  

AI Mode arrives in the UK: A shift in search experience

Google is rolling out a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search feature in the UK, offering users conversational-style responses instead of traditional lists of links. The optional tool, named “AI Mode”, is powered by Google’s Gemini platform and has already launched in the US and India.

Unlike Google’s standard search layout, AI Mode delivers summarised answers directly within the results page, with significantly fewer external links.

Conversational responses, fewer clicks

The tool is not intended to replace Google’s main search engine, which handles billions of queries daily. However, experts say the growing integration of AI into search is raising concerns, particularly among organisations that rely heavily on referral traffic from search results—such as retailers, advertisers, and news publishers.

According to the Daily Mail, traffic from Google to its website has reportedly dropped by around 50% across both desktop and mobile platforms since the AI Overview feature was introduced.

Google’s Hema Budaraju, product lead for search, acknowledged the uncertainty around how advertising and business visibility will function in AI Mode but suggested that the tool allows users to express more complex queries naturally.

“These kinds of questions didn’t happen before,” she said. “Now you made it really possible for people to express anything a lot more naturally.”

How AI Mode works

AI Mode appears as both a tab and an option within the search bar. Users who enable it will see AI-generated summaries based on their queries, with links appearing further down the results page. During a demonstration, Google used the example of someone looking for strawberry picking spots for a young family. The AI-generated response included a broad geographical range and only a few links, which were placed lower in the display compared to standard search results.

Though the BBC was unable to test the feature directly due to the UK rollout still being phased in, the tool is part of Google’s broader response to changes in how users phrase and interact with search queries.

Ms Budaraju cited a shift in search behaviour:

“About two years ago, if you spilled coffee on your carpet, you would have searched for ‘clean carpet stain’. Now, it’s more like, ‘I spilled coffee on my Berber carpet, I’m looking for a cleaner that is pet friendly’.”

Concerns from publishers and campaigners

The shift has prompted concern from publishers and advocacy groups. A study commissioned by Foxglove, a campaign organisation, found that users only clicked a link in one out of every 100 searches when an AI-generated summary appeared. Google disputes the study’s methodology.

Rosa Curling, director of Foxglove, argued the feature negatively impacts journalism:

“What the AI summary now does is makes sure that the readers' eyes stay on the Google web page. And the advertising revenue of those news outlets is being massively impacted.”

AI summaries are often derived from existing reporting, but critics say readers no longer click through to original articles—further undermining revenue streams.

Environmental and regulatory context

Google generates more than two billion AI Overview summaries daily in over 40 languages. However, the feature is not currently available in the European Union, where digital regulation restricts its deployment.

There are also concerns about the environmental cost of AI. Large-scale AI systems require significant energy and water resources to run vast data centres.

In response, Google reiterated its commitment to sustainability.

“We are constantly, as Google and as Search, evolving sustainable ways to serve technology,” Ms Budaraju said.