Google Just Changed the Game: Enter AI Mode
I feel sorry for all those who blocked AI bots from crawling their websites – all in a bid to protect their creative work from being used to train artificial intelligence. Because today, the inevitable next step happened. Google has introduced AI Mode, a brand new feature now rolling out in the UK that generates results using generative AI. It’s the biggest shake-up to the world’s most popular search engine in decades – and it’s drastically changing how we’re found online.
Much like ChatGPT or Claude, those who opt into AI Mode will experience that familiar conversational tone, with far fewer links to traditional web pages. It won’t replace Google’s standard search, which still processes billions of queries every day, but it signals a major shift. The writing’s on the wall: traditional search is slowly dying as the public embraces this new way of discovering information. In short, it’s killing search traffic as we know it.
What does this mean for businesses and publishing platforms like Creative Boom? Can we survive this new onslaught? Or are we doomed? Because if AI can answer your audience’s question in a neat little box at the top of Google, with no need to click through, then the value of creating content, the kind we’ve all poured time and care into over many decades, suddenly feels diminished.
So, how do we keep traffic coming through? How do we make sure our content still finds our people?
Well, we can no longer rely on algorithms alone. We've got to build direct relationships with our audiences. And yes, many of us have been doing that for a long time – not as a backup plan, but as a considered part of the marketing process. That includes newsletters, communities, podcasts, and events.
We need to show up consistently, in human ways, and create work that connects beyond just being “searchable”. It’s why I made Creative Boom a daily habit, not just a platform. It’s why we launched our own community on Mighty Networks back in February – free from the whims of Silicon Valley. It’s why I’m writing to you here, on this blog, with no middleperson in between.
Search used to be the front door. Now, we need more doors. Side doors. Back doors. Secret garden gates. Little round windows. And we need to make those routes so warm, inviting, and useful that people want to keep coming back.
When Facebook bought Instagram in 2019 and began shifting the goalposts, we doubled down on our newsletter. We improved its content and design and built our subscriber list. We realised pretty quickly that we couldn’t rely on these “rented” spaces.
We can’t fight the tide of AI or the changing landscape of social media. But we can choose how we respond. We can invest in spaces we own, in stories that only we can tell, and in relationships that last longer than any algorithm. We can keep showing up – consistently, generously, and with a bit of fire in our bellies.
Because if the future of the web is about trust and humanity, then maybe the real currency isn’t clicks or traffic. Maybe it’s something far more powerful: belonging.
I’ve been banging the drum of community for some time now. We bring people together in every tips or insight piece we write. We include creatives in the narrative. We’ve realised Creative Boom is more than us. And that instinct – to open the gates, not guard them – turned out to be the best move we ever made.