Generative AI search: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2025

But Google’s global search dominance makes it the most important player, and the company has already rolled out AI Overviews to more than a billion people worldwide. The result is searches that feel more like conversations. Google and OpenAI both report that people interact differently with generative search—they ask longer questions and pose more follow-ups.    

This new application of AI has serious implications for online advertising and (gulp) media. Because these search products often summarize information from online news stories and articles in their responses, concerns abound that generative search results will leave little reason for people to click through to the original sources, depriving those websites of potential ad revenue. A number of publishers and artists have sued over the use of their content to train AI models; now, generative search will be another battleground between media and Big Tech.