Search is dead, long live AI search

"I never use Google search for anything any more." 18 year old at a gallery during Berlin Art Week yesterday. Basically, search is broken.

He may have been exaggerating slightly, but I honestly get his point.

I wanted to book a Berlin-Southend flight to visit family. I know the direct flights were pulled a few years ago, and wondered if they had been reinstated by now.

A 'quick' Google. 61 results on the first page alone. The actual answer is in there, but it's so buried as to be almost invisible.

Video attached of a 90 second scroll through all those 61 results. All of which mostly exist to try and sell me something, irrespective of whether they actually answer my line of enquiry.

Now the alternative. Paste exactly the same text into ChatGPT. One second later, the perfect, precise answer in all its minimalist glory.

"Currently, there are no direct flights from Southend Airport (SEN) to Berlin. The available options include flights with at least one stop. For more specific information, you might want to check flight comparison sites like Skyscanner to explore different routes and airlines that can connect you from Southend to Berlin with stopovers."

Imagine that would have been in the affirmative, ie the route was operational again. And, that the coming wave of genAI agents was already up and running.

I could simply say "find me the best price in the next 6 months, leaving on a Friday returning on a Sunday. Check my calendar and make sure I have no late meetings on that Friday, nor am I away from Berlin. Then hold the flight for me for 12 hours and send me a Whatsapp to confirm."

Not only does this devastate Google's business model, it also suggests in the world of genAI-assisted booking, new services will be critical - ie the ability to pay €1-10 to hold a flight for a period of time, while final details are confirmed.

If it only cost €1 to hold a flight for 1 hour, I may even ask my AI agent to hold the three best ones for me, so I can make a human decision on the actual best one for me.

This is now close to reality. I'm surprised that Google's share price hasn't fallen - yes it's doing some things with its own genAI - but given the scale of what it has to lose through search, it still feels vulnerable.