Google Will Soon Charge Fees for AI-powered Search Tools

Google, the search engine used by every second person, is considering charging for its Artificial intelligence-powered search tool. Alphabet’s Google is planning to revamp its business model for the first time with a proposal of putting premium services behind the paywall, as per the reports by Financial Times.

Google said, “We don’t have anything to announce right now”. But they also said they were “not working on or considering” an ad-free search experience but that it would “continue to build new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings across Google”.

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As per the reports by FT, Google is looking forward to adding certain AI-powered features to services offered for premium subscriptions, which already have access to its Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs. Engineers are working on tools to deliver the service but the executives have yet to make any decision regarding its launch.

The traditional search engine, Google, will remain free of charge for everyone and the ads will still appear alongside even for subscribers.

Google also said, “For years, we’ve been reinventing Search to help people access information in the way that’s most natural to them. With our generative AI experiments in Search, we’ve already served billions of queries, and we’re seeing positive Search query growth in all of our major markets. We’re continuing to rapidly improve the product to serve new user needs.” 

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Even though Google generates around $175 billion in revenue from Google ads, due to the competitive threat from OpenAI ChatGPT it is exploring ways for AI-powered search tools. Generative AI uses more computing tools, making it more costly for Google than its traditional search. Thus pushing it to give paid subscriptions for SGE. 

The analysis also shows that Google ads business might suffer if AI completely overtakes traditional searches. The company is still thinking and working on AI-powered tools. Let’s see how it unfolds for billions of Google search users across the globe. Not everyone will opt for a paid subscription.

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