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Google’s AI Mode is making its traditional search business harder to monetise, the company’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler said on an earnings call, according to Gizmodo. Search advertising still brought in $63.4 billion in the third quarter, but fell about $1.6 billion short of analysts’ expectations.

That gives the debate over AI’s business model a concrete twist: Google’s new search experience may be drawing attention while making its most established revenue engine less effective. A very expensive answer box, then, is not automatically a better business. Gizmodo also linked the results to Alphabet’s sharp share-price fall, but the reported comments do not establish that AI Mode alone caused the revenue miss or sell-off.

Discuss: Should Google prioritise AI answers even if they weaken the search-ad model that funds its services, or should it protect the business that already works?

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