In a prepared statement, Google’s new Chief Financial Officer, Anat Ashkenazi, declared that the tech giant plans to double down on its cost-cutting measures. After the company announced stunning earnings for second quarter 2025, this is a baffling decision. Google is getting ready to see some massive shifts to user behavior and referral traffic coming to publishers. These changes come primarily as a result of the increasing integration of artificial intelligence into its services.
That’s quite a haul—$96.4 billion in revenue, dominating the advertising market. This accomplishment is a testament to its robustness and flexibility in the constantly changing digital world. Ashkenazi’s comments demonstrate a clear willingness to go much deeper on cost reductions. This means the firm is not fully satisfied with its current level of expenditure. This strategy is indicative of a much bigger move across the tech sector to do more with less and find profits within the productivity.
One of the most damaging effects of Google’s AI rollout has been a sharp drop in publisher referral traffic. We shared that in August, publishers saw referral traffic from Google fall by 25% as AI-generated summaries dominated search results. Additionally, between May and June of this year, median referral traffic from Google Search to publishers fell by 10%. Non-news brands were hit the hardest, suffering a massive 14% drop in their referral traffic over that same period.
The policy implications of AI-generated content have caught the eye of the industry titans as well. In July, Jason Kint, the CEO of Digital Content Next, lashed out at Google’s AI summaries. He claimed they produce a “zero-click” ecosystem, where users can find their answers right within a search result, never even clicking through to publisher sites. This trend raises concerns about the sustainability of digital publishing, as many rely on traffic from search engines to drive revenue.
According to an analysis by Pew Research Center, approximately 60% of U.S. adults encountered Google’s AI-generated summaries in search results as of March 2025. This widespread exposure suggests that the integration of AI into Google’s services is reshaping how users interact with information online.
At a recent Fortune conference, Neil Vogel, the CEO of People Inc. went off on Google. He recently dubbed the company a “monopoly,” as he’s emphasized his fears of the company’s overwhelming power in the industry. He underscored that Google is using the exact bot for indexing websites for its search engine and fueling its AI functionalities. This dependence raises challenges for publishers who are working to earn attention.
Though Google has just had better-than-expected financial results for Q2 2025, it does not seem that Google’s cost-cutting order from headquarters is any more flexible. These measures are intended to make operations more efficient. They address the challenges posed by the new, changing role AI technology is playing in search and content delivery.