It's time to prepare for a new chapter, Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's head of search, reportedly warned staff.
“Things have changed,” he told Google employees at an all-hands meeting last month, “and it's not what it was 15, 20 years ago,” CNBC reported, citing a transcript of the meeting. .
According to the media, Raghavan also said, “Life won't be boring forever.''
Search remains a key part of Alphabet's business, with “search and other” revenue accounting for $48 billion in the final three months of last year, more than $5 billion more than the same period in 2022. did.
Raghavan's warning to employees comes as rivals such as startup Perplexity AI seek to take away Google's lead by developing their own search engines.
CEO Aravind Srinivas announced Tuesday that the company has raised about $63 million in a new funding round that values the company at more than $1 billion. Perplexity's backers include Jeff Bezos and his Nvidia.
Raghavan also mentioned new competitors at the meeting, CNBC reported. “They may have a new gizmo out there that people want to play with, but they still turn to Google to validate what they see. Because in this era of generative AI, that’s even more important.”
Google search hasn't changed much in over 20 years, but it's also been affected by the AI boom. Last year, Google announced that it was “significantly enhancing” and “improving” the search experience for users with an AI-powered version called Search Generative Experience (SGE).
SGE is still in its early stages, but about a month ago Google began testing AI Overview, which provides some users in the US and UK with an overview of AI-generated search results.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is ramping up its search efforts. Last year, the company started rolling out new AI features, such as allowing users to visually search on Bing.
Microsoft said it was “reinventing” search when it introduced a new version of Bing that incorporates AI last February. CEO Satyanadera said at the time, “AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with search, which is the biggest category.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside of normal business hours.