Has AI Killed the SERP?
As someone who searches for information constantly, for both personal and professional reasons, my habits have changed dramatically over the past 18 months.
Changing Habits
Before October of 2025, nearly every query or question I had passed through Google Search in some form.
While I’ve been using AI chat platforms for the past few years, that changed dramatically when I gained access to Perplexity Pro through a credit card perk. Even though it was technically “free,” the sunk-cost psychology kicked in and I started using it more and more.
Once I committed to it, I found it consistently more helpful and accurate than the traditional “ten blue links.”
Then in January, I dropped my ChatGPT Plus subscription and switched to Gemini as my primary AI tool.
Now, my workflow looks like this:
- Perplexity (drop in “Google” replacement)
- Google’s Gemini for everyday tasks (document editing, long-term planning)
- Claude (anything code related or work intensive)
Where does traditional search fit in that picture? It doesn’t. The SERP, as I’ve used it in the past 20+ years, is dead to me.
What the AI “SERP” Still Lacks
Even as AI handles more of my queries, one thing still frustrates me: source integration. Most AI tools offer some form of citation, but getting from an AI-generated answer to the actual source material is clunkier than it should be.
When an answer draws from multiple sources, it’s hard to quickly drill into any one of them to understand the context, read more, or verify the claim. That frictionless bridge between AI answer and original source is something I want, but I don’t yet have.
Being an Early Adopter
I know my habits are different from the average person. That makes me an outlier, for now. I don’t think that outlier status will last more than 3 years.
Even my parents are starting to ask, “How do I use this AI thing?”
What they’re really asking is, how do I get better information more quickly?
For me, the real tipping point will come when they stop calling it “AI” and start using a brand name the way they say “Google” or “Kleenex.”
An AI chat product has yet to reach that level of shorthand in my everyday interactions.
What Comes Next
If Google doesn’t reposition their search experience as one powered primarily by a personalized AI, I think they risk being dethroned within a few years.
No other knowledge based product has felt this impactful in my lowly 20-years of using the internet.
(Sorry, Bing. You “tried”.)
My prediction: the search landscape will widen in a meaningful way.
I don’t believe Google will hold 90%+ of the market forever. I don’t expect nine or ten major competitors, but three or four feels plausible to me.
Even that level of fragmentation would be significant, and ultimately good for everyone, in my opinion.
Having spent nearly a decade in marketing, I’ve always been uneasy with how dependent businesses are on a single traffic source. More competition means more opportunity for consumers, publishers, and businesses alike.
This feels like the gold rush of the internet, again.
Are We in a Bubble?
Probably. But this change of the guard is backed by major players with deep pockets and no obvious alternative, which makes a .com-style implosion feel unlikely.
I think we’re entering a period of disruption that will end with more dominant players, at least on some scale of Google Search, than we started with.
