Most of AI usage could be easily (with a little bit of effort) replaced by just searching for the info you need, but those days search results are so poor that asking AI gets so advantageous for the average user (that don’t care / don’t know about privacy and other costs and risks that come with it)
Do you think they did it on purpose?
If I’m understanding correctly, it’s a deliberate strategy to keep users on google instead of clicking away to other websites. “Zero-click results”. I’m guessing the firsthand ad revenue exceeds any referral bonuses, I don’t know.
They aren’t juicing the AI overviews for ad revenue yet, that will come later.
The ads will be in the “AI Summaries” soon