Google’s new AI Mode is changing everything about how we find and interact with information online. This isn’t just another search update,  it’s a fundamental shift that sidelines the open web and redefines the future of digital marketing.

What began with AI Overviews, quick summaries designed to save users time — is evolving into a full takeover of how we access knowledge. Here’s what you need to understand:

• AI Overviews push traditional website links down the page. In AI Mode, actual links barely appear at all. 
• Google no longer encourages visits to external websites. Instead, it nudges users to stay inside its own tools by prompting follow-up questions and interactions. 
• This results in fewer clicks to publishers’ sites, starving the open web of essential traffic. 
• AI Mode feels cleaner and more useful because it removes the clutter Google’s own algorithms helped create. 
• Yet it’s built on content scraped from those very same sites it now sidelines. 

This isn’t just a technological innovation,  it’s an extraction. Google is moving to own not only the question but the answer itself. And it’s all happening under the guise of “intelligence,” rather than traditional search.

So what does this mean for marketers and brands?

We are witnessing a platform consuming the very ecosystem that fueled its power. If search engines no longer drive users to websites, the open web as we know it won’t survive. That makes marketing more critical than ever. Brands must rethink how they build visibility and engage audiences in a landscape where direct traffic from search is shrinking.

Winning requires creative strategies that go beyond traditional SEO, leveraging owned channels, building strong communities, and harnessing content formats that AI can’t easily replace.

The web is changing. Marketing isn’t just important. It’s essential for survival.