Apple may be preparing to dismantle one of the most profitable arrangements in tech history: its $20 billion-a-year deal to make Google the default search engine in Safari.
That’s the takeaway from bombshell testimony by Apple executive Eddy Cue during the Department of Justice’s antitrust trial against Google. Cue revealed that Apple is actively exploring partnerships with AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Anthropic. And while Google isn’t going anywhere just yet, Cue made one thing very clear:
The age of traditional search is ending.
On Episode 147 of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer explained why this moment may be much more than just a PR problem for Google. It’s the early signal of a tectonic shift in how we all find information—and who profits from it.
When a Single Data Point Rocks the Market
Cue’s testimony mentioned that, for the first time ever, Safari search traffic had declined—a dip he attributes to users turning to AI instead. It’s just one data point. But it was enough to send Alphabet shares tumbling by more than 7%.
Why such a dramatic reaction? Because Google’s dominance—and ad revenue—depends on being the default destination for search. And if Apple’s 2 billion devices begin to route even a fraction of that traffic to AI search engines, the entire business model behind online search begins to wobble.
The Realization About Search That Changes Everything
Roetzer had his own aha moment recently that seems to validate these larger trends. While researching AI’s impact on jobs using ChatGPT’s deep research capabilities, he watched in real time as the system pulled, vetted, and synthesized data from sources he never would’ve found via traditional search.
In two minutes, AI conducted a search better, faster, and more thoroughly than he could.
"For the first time, I realized that I don't think traditional search exists in the near future," he says. "I don't know why I would ever go to a traditional search engine now. I think all search in the future just happens through your assistant of choice."
Whether that’s ChatGPT, Gemini, or another AI tool, the old search experience—typing keywords into a box and sifting through 10 blue links—is rapidly becoming obsolete.
A Shift in Consumer Behavior Is Already Underway
If you think this sounds like a fringe prediction, think again. On the show, I spoke with Roetzer about how I couldn't remember the last time I used Google for anything beyond checking restaurant hours. For some people, even for complex research or local vendor searches, AI assistants are increasingly the first stop.
And Apple’s interest in bringing multiple AI providers into Safari—OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, and even Elon Musk’s xAI—only accelerates that shift. Cue called these services viable alternatives to Google for the first time, admitting that prior to AI, "none of the others were valid choices."
Now, not only are they valid, but they’re improving fast.
What This Means for Google—and Everyone Else
The implications go far beyond market share. Google’s cash-cow search ad business is built on eyeballs viewing links and clicking ads. But if future consumers rely on AI agents that deliver direct answers, without links or ads, that model could collapse.
Roetzer paints a future where AI not only finds information but evaluates its own sources, ranks their quality, and generates concise, accurate briefings. No click-through required. No ads needed.
It’s what users have always wanted: the best answer, immediately, with no friction.
That creates challenges for companies built on SEO, content marketing, and web traffic. If AI handles discovery, the path to visibility and conversions changes completely.
A Moment Bigger Than Most Realize
Whether or not Google weathers this disruption depends on how it integrates AI into products like Gemini and Google Workspace. But Roetzer believes the broader shift is already happening:
"I just don't know that going to Google.com is a thing the next generation's going to ever do," he says.
This isn’t just a technology story—it’s about behavior change. As more people discover that AI is better and faster at finding what they need, expectations around information, accuracy, and convenience will be permanently altered.
And as Roetzer summed up on the show, this is happening fast and we need to be planning for it. Because a world without traditional search may be closer than we think.
Mike Kaput
As Chief Content Officer, Mike Kaput uses content marketing, marketing strategy, and marketing technology to grow and scale traffic, leads, and revenue for Marketing AI Institute. Mike is the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing and the Future of Business (Matt Holt Books, 2022). See Mike's full bio.