Adapted by:
Javier Lacort
Senior WriterI write long-form content at Xataka about the intersection between technology, business and society. I also host the daily Spanish podcast Loop infinito (Infinite Loop), where we analyze Apple news and put it into perspective.
Karen Alfaro
WriterCommunications professional with a decade of experience as a copywriter, proofreader, and editor. As a travel and science journalist, I've collaborated with several print and digital outlets around the world. I'm passionate about culture, music, food, history, and innovative technologies.
Over the past few years, Perplexity has done the unthinkable: It made Google Search feel outdated. With a conversational interface, direct answers, linked references, and relentless updates, Perplexity proved that AI-powered search engines aren’t just possible—they’re preferable.
It’s faster, clearer and, for many users, more useful. So useful, in fact, that some keep it open in a fixed tab.
Google noticed. And it has responded.
The most significant—albeit somewhat camouflaged—announcement at I/O 2025 wasn’t a new model or ultra-smart agent. It was this: AI Mode is coming to Search and Gemini. In other words, Google is transforming its core product to resemble Perplexity.
For now, AI Mode is only available to users in the U.S. But the direction is clear. When enabled through the Gemini app, AI Mode replaces traditional search results with direct answers generated by the model. These answers include links to sources, contextual summaries, and the option to dive deeper—ask follow-up questions, make comparisons, and get explanations.
In this mode, the search engine no longer serves up a page of blue links or even a brief summary at the top. It holds a conversation.
Gemini isn’t acting like a chatbot. It’s functioning as an active knowledge engine—a fusion of large language model, browser, and assistant—designed to replace the habit of “googling” with simply asking.
Users can search for flights, summarize documents, get second opinions, and compare articles—all within the same interface, without leaving the page.
AI Mode is more direct and arguably more useful. But it also carries risk—especially for the open web.
Here’s the twist: On Perplexity, at least for now, sources are prominently cited and form a core part of the experience. With AI Mode, Google’s aim appears to be the opposite—to provide responses so complete and well-packaged that users feel no need to click away. It’s a closed, polished, self-sufficient system.
That’s a game-changer. Not just for users, who may stop distinguishing between answers and their sources, but for publishers, creators, forums, and subject matter experts. The content that powers Gemini still comes from the web—but its authorship becomes invisible.
Perplexity pushed Google to evolve. But Google is rewriting the rules. It’s absorbed what makes Perplexity effective—speed, synthesis, natural language—and integrated it into a more fluid but also a more opaque ecosystem. While Perplexity pioneered the experience, Google is responding with dominance.
AI Mode isn’t just a technical update. It marks a paradigm shift in how we search, read, and gather information online.
Users no longer consult a database. They interact with a system that interprets, filters, and synthesizes knowledge. Google sees where search is headed. And it’s moving forward—on its own terms.
Image | Google
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