How often do you search on Google these days? Same as before or have you started using ChatGPT or Grok or Meta to search instead. Think about it. Conversational AI, which is only getting better, is beginning to disrupt one of the internet’s oldest and most foundational dynamics: how people find information online. The paradigm is shifting, the rise of generative AI and user behaviour are changing the way we search for information, and the impact is being felt across the digital landscape.

Earlier we ‘googled’ something and then clicked on various links to come to the exact information we wanted. Now just type your query in any AI chat box and it will give you an analysed, curated response without you needing to go anywhere. It’s much simpler for the user, but it translates into declining traffic to various sites that provide that information to AI. Lost visitors mean lost money.

It is difficult to tract web use, but as per reports monthly traffic to search engines has fallen by 15%. Google last year started adding AI generated summaries to results promising that “Let Goole do the Googling for you”. The decline is being felt across the web. News publishers and content creators are badly hit. AI models are often trained on their content but in their reply they do not give links or attribution, leading to loss of traffic and revenue.  Some news organizations and content platforms have already begun to push back, forming licensing deals with AI companies or placing content behind paywalls to protect their data. The problem is widespread, reference sites have lost traffic by nearly 15% while health sites by 31%.

E-commerce platforms, travel aggregators, and review sites are also under pressure. If I can ask AI to give me a holiday plan with flights and accommodations in a given budget, and get a comprehensive answer, why should I go to a booking or travel site?  

People clicking on websites that monetized through advertisements was the way the internet was fuelled. That system seems to be under siege.. The web of the future may be very different from the one it is today. Already content is being put behind paywalls, making the web less open. Content creators are reaching out to people differently through emails, social media and one to one contact. Many law suits are going on. However, the smaller sites that are equally important do not have the wherewithal to battle the onslaught.

As users of AI we must remember the pitfalls of banking entirely on the responses of AI. It is well known that AI responses are often wrong, biased and inaccurate. Often AI does not give its sources, and unlike traditional websites it does not take ownership of the content it creates and has no responsibility. How the queries we put to AI are stored or used is still unknown, creating concerns of privacy. Some also talk of the need for regulation to stop the collapse of the traditional web.

While the traditional web transforms, what will come in its place is important for humanity as a whole. If the incredible resource of an open web gradually disappears, it will be a great tragedy for everyone.

Published in Lokmat in August 2025