This week, Google executives opened up like never before — and the result was a gold mine of insight into where Search is headed. Liz Reid (Head of Google Search) discussed trust, ads, and the web’s evolving role in an AI-powered world, while Robby Stein (VP of Product) revealed how AI Mode came to life and why “relentless improvement” drives everything at Google right now.
Beyond the interviews, Search got a fresh layer of updates — from AI summaries and richer previews in Discover to a global “Sponsored Results” label that lets users hide ads altogether.
Google’s head of Search, Liz Reid, recently sat down with The Wall Street Journal’s Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims for a wide-ranging discussion on how Google is reinventing Search for the AI era. After more than 20 years at Google, Reid says this is the most profound transformation she’s seen—one that’s not just technical, but foundational to how people find and trust information online.
Reid compared today’s AI transition to the mobile revolution but said it runs even deeper: Search itself is an information product, and AI is fundamentally changing how information is discovered and delivered. For years, engineers imagined being able to answer nuanced questions and provide information in every language—AI finally makes that possible.
She emphasized that Google has been using AI in Search for years, from BERT to recent ranking models, but that newer technology now allows these systems to appear more “front-and-center” to users through features like AI Overviews.
When asked whether Google is “playing catch-up” with ChatGPT and Perplexity, Reid said Google’s edge lies in blending AI answers with the open web. While some startups imagine an all-chat future, Google believes people still want to hear from other humans—creators, experts, and trusted publishers.
“People still want to hear from other people,” Reid said. “They’re not ready to delegate all their decisions to a model.”
Google’s goal, she explained, is to bridge AI convenience with human context—using AI to summarize information while still driving users toward diverse voices and deeper exploration.
Reid addressed questions about how AI Overviews impact Google’s ad revenue. Contrary to fears, she said ad performance has remained stable, with increased search activity balancing out any reduced clicks. By lowering the barrier to asking questions, she said, users are now searching more often, even if individual queries result in fewer clicks.
She added that AI Overviews are designed to give quick context but still surface opportunities for users to click through—especially for commercial queries like shopping.
The hosts raised the classic “innovator’s dilemma”: can Google evolve fast enough without losing its legacy business? Reid argued that Google’s history of navigating major shifts—like mobile—proves its resilience. The company is both evolving Search and building Gemini, its AI assistant, to adapt from within.
Reid also framed today’s landscape as expansionary, not zero-sum: “This is a moment where everyone can grow—AI makes people ask more questions, not fewer.”
Reid acknowledged that some publishers have seen traffic declines, but attributed this partly to changing user behavior—more people turning to short-form video, forums, and podcasts for information. She said Google is adapting its ranking systems accordingly, but remains focused on sustaining a healthy web ecosystem.
To strengthen connections between publishers and readers, she mentioned new features like inline citations in AI Overviews, personalized “follow” options in Discover, and tools that help users surface content from trusted sources or subscriptions.
Asked about the “Dead Internet” theory—the idea that AI-generated content is overwhelming the web—Reid said the real challenge is filtering out low-value, AI-slop content while rewarding originality and expertise.
“AI-generated doesn’t necessarily mean spam,” she said. “People want human perspective—what’s unique, what’s real, what took effort.”
She noted that AI Overviews often direct users toward deeper, higher-quality content, reducing “bounced clicks” from shallow sites.
In the final segment, Reid painted a picture of Search becoming more personal and expressive. AI allows users to ask richer, more specific questions—“a red wedding dress from a sustainable local brand”—and be matched with equally niche creators or merchants.
Rather than replacing learning or curiosity, Reid said AI can act as a tutor, helping users get started on complex topics and encouraging them to explore further.
“If we do it right, it doesn’t replace learning—it helps you learn,” she said. “AI makes it easier to start, to go deeper, to connect.”
Bottom Line
Liz Reid’s conversation underscored Google’s vision for an AI-enhanced but human-anchored web—one where generative models surface knowledge faster, but trust, creativity, and connection remain central. The future of Search, she suggested, isn’t about replacing discovery with automation; it’s about making curiosity easier to pursue.
Watch the video full video of the interview below:
Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, joined Lenny’s Podcast to discuss the company’s AI-powered transformation—from AI Overviews to the new AI Mode, and how Google rebuilt its product velocity after years of being seen as slow to innovate. A former head of product at Instagram who helped launch Stories, Reels, and Close Friends, Stein now leads the teams shaping the future of Google Search—one that blends information, AI, and human curiosity.
Stein pushed back on the narrative that AI will kill search. Instead, he argued that AI is expanding human curiosity, enabling more questions to be asked and answered than ever before.
“AI hasn’t replaced Search—it’s expansionary,” Stein said. “There’s actually just more curiosity being fulfilled now.”
From simple lookups to multimodal queries using Google Lens, Search is handling billions of new visual and conversational searches monthly. People now take photos of shoes, bookshelves, or homework and ask Google for context. The result: more engagement, not less.
AI Mode is described by Stein as an “end-to-end frontier search experience” built on Google’s latest models. It combines everything Google knows—from 50 billion shopping products updated in real time, to 250 million map listings and the full web—into a conversational interface.
“You can ask anything,” Stein said. “It’s like talking directly to the brain of Google.”
The experience bridges AI Overviews, Lens, and core Search into one unified system. Ask a five-sentence question and you’ll now see an AI Overview at the top, with the option to open AI Mode for deeper follow-ups or visual context.
While competitors like ChatGPT or Claude focus on creativity or productivity, Stein says Google’s focus is squarely on information tasks—planning trips, researching purchases, learning topics—while keeping links and sources visible for verification.
Addressing the emerging world of AEO (Search Optimization for AI answers), Stein explained how Google’s models construct answers. When users ask a question, the AI performs a “query fan-out”—issuing dozens of related Google searches in the background to find the most relevant and authoritative pages.
“The AI is literally doing research,” Stein said. “It’s searching the web, checking its work, and citing sources.”
He encouraged content creators to keep following Google’s long-established principles of expertise, originality, and user intent—the same criteria used in human-rater guidelines. In other words, AI answers still depend on good content.
The idea for AI Mode came from users themselves. Product teams noticed people adding the word “AI” to their Google queries—signals that they wanted a more interactive experience. Within a year, a small team of fewer than 10 people prototyped AI Mode and launched it in Labs.
“It started with five to ten people,” Stein said. “We just built a rough version, saw a moment of brilliance, and knew we had to go for it.”
That scrappy experiment now powers the most significant change to Search since its inception—and demonstrates Google’s renewed sense of focus and urgency.
Drawing from his experience at Instagram and Google, Stein outlined three core principles that guide his teams:
He added a fourth principle: “Stay humble.” Always question your assumptions and listen to users.
“The best products are built by people who are curious, not certain.”
Stein’s leadership philosophy comes down to what he calls “embodying relentless improvement.”
“You have to be the physical manifestation of two things—relentlessness and making things better,” he said.
That mindset inspired the creation of AI Mode: teams saw users struggling to get AI-powered answers from Search and decided to build something entirely new to serve them. Every day’s iteration mattered until a tipping point was reached—proof that small, compounding improvements create breakthrough moments.
While startup culture celebrates lean, fast iterations, Stein offered a contrarian view: transformative products often require more resources, not fewer.
He argued that many teams quit too early because their small size limits momentum. AI Mode’s success came from balancing early scrappiness with a later scale-up phase—bringing enough talent to make a “version that’s great,” not just good enough to ship.
Stein closed the interview with a principle that applies equally to product builders and everyday users: stay curious.
“Curiosity is the root of everything,” he said. “It’s what drives understanding, empathy, and great design.”
For Stein, AI itself is the ultimate engine of curiosity—empowering people to ask anything and learn instantly. With features like Search Live, which lets users talk to Google conversationally, he believes children today will grow up AI-native, able to explore knowledge naturally through voice and visual interaction.
Bottom Line
Robby Stein’s conversation reveals a Google re-energized—fast-moving, human-centered, and curiously ambitious. AI Mode isn’t the end of Search; it’s its expansion—a new gateway to information that blends AI intelligence with Google’s two decades of trust. If Liz Reid represents Search’s philosophy, Stein represents its execution: relentless improvement through clarity, curiosity, and momentum.
Watch the interview below:
Google recently introduced new AI-powered features within Search and Discover that help users connect more directly with web content and expand exploration opportunities. In Discover, the update adds brief AI-generated previews of trending topics, which expand to show related links—making it easier for users to see the gist and then dive deeper. These previews are rolling out currently in the U.S., South Korea, and India.
Simultaneously, Google is enhancing how web content is surfaced via Search AI features. The aim is to surface fresh content and relevant links from across the web, helping users discover newer or niche pages that might otherwise get buried.
Why It Matters
These updates mark another step toward a more interactive, AI-powered search experience. For SEOs and publishers, it underscores the need for clear, structured, and high-value content—the kind that Google’s AI can confidently summarize and highlight. The Discover previews could lead to fewer direct clicks, but sites offering unique insights and strong signals of expertise stand to gain better visibility.
Google’s latest move reinforces a consistent theme: AI isn’t replacing the web—it’s reshaping how people reach it. As Discover and Search grow more context-aware, the value of organized, credible, and human-centered content only increases. The best way forward for site owners is to stay discoverable, structured, and ready for AI to use their content as a trusted source—not just summarize it.
Google is rolling out a new global ad label update: all text and Shopping ads will now be grouped under a unified “Sponsored results” header, replacing the older approach of individually labeling each ad. This label stays visible as you scroll, so users always know which block is paid content.
In addition, Google is introducing a “Hide sponsored results” button. With one click, users can collapse the entire sponsored section and focus exclusively on organic results. According to Google, the number and size of ads haven’t changed—there will still be no more than four text ads in the block—but the new design aims at clarity and simplicity in navigation.
Implications for Users & Advertisers
Bottom Line
Google’s unified “Sponsored results” label and collapse option signal a push toward cleaner, more user-first ad design. For advertisers, it means the bar is higher than ever: your ad must not only win the bid and quality scores, but also survive clarity and control. For users, this is a step toward a more transparent search experience—one where you can choose whether to see paid content or not.
With two of Google’s top product leads pulling back the curtain on AI Search, it’s clear the company isn’t just adapting — it’s rebuilding the way information flows online. Whether through new ad transparency, smarter content previews, or conversational search modes, the message is consistent: AI isn’t replacing Search — it’s redefining it.
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