Google's AI search now has 2.5 billion users according to WIRED

https://preview.redd.it/snevrzp0583h1.png?width=959&format=png&auto=webp&s=91c647cdd222f303310e2fc9f106ae66fe446136 So Steven Levy over at WIRED just put out this piece looking at the biggest shakeup to Google search in like 25 years. Basically, after everything they rolled out at Google I/O 2026, AI Overviews and the whole AI search mode have officially become the default global standard. Sundar Pichai even confirmed that with Gemini fully integrated, Google is completely shifting into this new conversational era. The numbers are pretty crazy. Google's official data says AI Overviews already has 2.5 billion monthly active users, and about 1 billion people are using the updated AI Mode that runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash. On top of that, independent studies show that 60% of searches now end without anyone actually leaving the page, meaning everything stays right inside Google's ecosystem. For news and publishing it's even higher, hitting 69%. Meanwhile, the traffic for pages sitting in the traditional Top 10 search results has absolutely tanked, with their citation and click rates dropping from 76% down to just 38%. This whole update is fundamentally breaking the internet's economic model. Since people can get all the info they need, including multimedia, right there in the search bar, it's completely wiping out organic traffic and ad revenue for independent websites, original creators, and publishers. Source:[https://www.wired.com/story/even-if-you-hate-ai-you-will-use-google-ai-search/](https://www.wired.com/story/even-if-you-hate-ai-you-will-use-google-ai-search/)