Google’s financial results for 2025 are out and they paint a very interesting picture of the state of traditional search engines vs AI search.

Google’s revenues grew by 15% in 2025 vs 2024, from $350 billion to $402.8 billion. Net income grew 32% from $100 billion to $132 billion. Advertising revenue on Google grew 11.3% from $264.6 billion to $294.6 billion.

These results contradict media posts and articles declaring the end of the search engines and even headlines like “R.I.P. Search” due to the rise of AI Search via AI platforms ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.

Some marketing experts herald the end of Google's monopoly on search and claim that traditional search marketing in hospitality is becoming obsolete.

Let’s not get carried away. The rumors about the inevitable end of the “traditional” search engines like Google at the hands of AI Search are highly exaggerated.

According to latest data by SEMrush, people interact with search engines 34 TIMES more often than with AI search. AI Search was on the rise over the past year, but still received 34 times less visits than traditional search engines.

Interestingly, based on SEMrush data, ChatGPT adoption did not reduce Google Search usage. On the contrary, there was even an increase in average Google Search usage after ChatGPT adoption.This supports the expansion hypotheses, meaning people did not substitute their typical Googling with ChatGPT-ing.

There is an additional wrinkle to the story: the data for traditional search engines does not include the queries on Google, Bing, etc. that were answered by AI answer engines like Gemini, which blurs the boundaries between traditional search and AI.

For example, Google uses its Gemini AI to provide answers in its Answer Box in its SERPs. Today, nearly 60% of Google searches end up as zero-click queries i.e. people find enough information in the Gemini AI-powered Answer Box and do not need to click on any of the organic or sponsored links.

Bing uses a combination of ChatGPT and its proprietary Prometheus AI and Copilot AI in its Answer Box to boosts its conversational search capabilities, provide a more interactive user experience and up-to-date and context-rich answers, especially for current events and trends.

So, should hoteliers abandon their traditional search marketing? Definitely not! Search marketing on Google and all of its formats: Google Ads (GA), Google Hotel Ads (GHA), organic listings (SEO) consistently contributes to over 50% of hotel website bookings.

In the same time, hoteliers should not ignore the rising AI Search. The most immediate priority is to optimize the property for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the AI version of SEO.

The second priority is to ask the property’s CRS, Channel Managers and cloud PMS vendors to plug directly into Google’s UCP or to AI platforms like ChatGPT via MCP or A2A, allowing travelers to search and book rooms.

Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist

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