05/22/2026
🔥Hot Take: Is Google Still Relevant for Your Business in the Age of A.I.? Your customers don't behave like marketing gurus & tech enthusiasts, so it would be foolish to assume they use technology the same way.
I think the gurus are committing False Consensus bias, assuming everyone uses technology, and more specifically, A.I. tools the way they do.
Yes, plenty of early adopters now use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other A.I. tools instead of traditional Google search. But early adopters are not the market, at least not for most of the target audience of our clients.
Reality check: most people are still much slower to change habits, and Google clearly knows that.
Advertising is still Google's #1 source of revenue. They will not just jump on the A.I. bandwagon and abandon their ad business. They're doing the opposite.
At Google Marketing Live, they announced new ad formats for the A.I. era of Search and described them as helpful additions to A.I. conversations. They are building A.I. into the existing advertising machine rather than replacing it.
That matters because Google already has the distribution, the inside knowledge about search behaviour, the mature ad platform, and long-term established business relationships with key partners like Apple.
Don't forget that they also own YouTube.
Meanwhile, some A.I. pioneers like OpenAI are adding an ad platform to try to monetize ChatGPT.
Google is positioning A.I. Search, Gemini-powered ad experiences, and A.I. Max as ways to make businesses part of the conversation as search becomes more conversational.
They’re also spending at a scale that’s hard to ignore. Google announced that their investment in A.I. will be roughly at $180–190 billion in 2026, which is six times the $31 billion they spent on it in 2022.
So no, I don’t buy the “Google is finished” narrative. Of course, Google is not going to casually destroy the engine that prints its money.
The practical takeaway for most business owners and marketers is simple:
- Google still matters
- Search is changing fast
- Buying intent searches still matter even more
The winners will be the businesses that adapt their strategy to an AI-assisted search environment instead of assuming that Google is disappearing.
Short version:
1. A.I. is changing Google, but I definitely don't think it will kill Google.
2. I strongly believe that Google will be a catalyst in mainstream adoption of A.I.
Do you agree or disagree? Feel free to challenge my assumptions in the comments!
