Google has been synonymous with search for more than 25 years, and how it reinvents search matters to the billions of people who rely on its powerful knowledge graph. In recent years, we’ve seen the steady encroachment of AI Overviews and AI mode on our search experience. Now, while the transition to inserting AI into your search results appears to be complete, I worry that this could change Google Search in ways that no one wants or can go back. However, Google tells me that is not the case.
First, Google is now on record saying that the change it unveiled during its Google I/O 2026 keynote to this next chapter of search is, according to Google Search head Liz Reid, “truly the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago.”
Google vs. OpenAI
If Google’s long-term effort was to make AI, specifically various Gemini models, inevitable in search, I think the work is almost done. I don’t blame Google for doing this. After all, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been on the rise in recent years, with some people saying they “chatted” instead of “Googled.”
Verb status aside, ChatGPT, while on the rise, remains one target at less than 25% of the search market, while Google hovers around 80%. But ChatGPT’s trajectory is unmistakable in Google’s eyes. It has no choice but to infuse traditional search deeply with AI.
However, how much AI is too much?
There is still a large contingent that wants nothing to do with AI from Google or ChatGPT. I wondered if they could opt out, and during a Google I/O 2026 pre-brief, I asked Google the question. Later I got an email response from a Google representative.
“The AI dimension in the search box gives you quick access to AI tools and an updated query suggestion system that helps you formulate long questions where an AI answer is likely to be the most useful. Using this new search box doesn’t mean you’ll only get AI answers – you’ll continue to get a variety of results on Search.”
Using this new search field doesn’t mean you only get AI answers.
The remarkable thing is that there is no “No, I’d rather not do that” here. You cannot opt out of the intelligent search field. But that doesn’t mean your search results won’t still include some of the classic link and summary results you’ve known and loved since 1998. As a Google spokesperson promised, “No matter what you ask, you’ll continue to get a range of results from Search, just like you do today.”
However, these results will likely be below the AI overviews that are already on top of the classic results. If anything, Overviews can be even more comprehensive and accurate thanks to the intelligent query guidance you received in the search box. It may be pointless to scroll down under them.
It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine a future where AI Overviews are your Google search results and there’s nothing below because it’s not that useful, or at least doesn’t “speak” to you the way the overviews do. They seem to get you because they are designed to respond to your intent in a way that traditional search results never could.
For some, this is progress. For me? The jury is still out.
What about you? Share your thoughts on Google’s new intelligent search box in the comments below.
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