Is AI Search Hurting The Open Web? With Google's Nick Fox

This episode is sponsored by Your360 AI. Get 10% off through January 2026 at Your360.ai (your360.ai) with code: INSIDE.

Nick Fox is the SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google, overseeing Search, Ads, and Commerce. He returns to the AI Inside podcast seven months after our Google I/O conversation when he declared "the web is thriving." In this follow-up, we press Fox on the publisher traffic debate, whether Google will ever embrace a licensing model for news, and why the Personal Context feature announced at I/O is still delayed. We also cover AI Mode's growth to 75 million daily users, why emerging markets are adopting it faster than expected, and what Google has learned about changing search behavior.

Note: Time codes subject to change depending on dynamic ad insertion by the distributor.

CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 - Podcast begins

00:00:41 - Introducing Nick Fox, Google's SVP of Knowledge and Information

00:03:29 - Revisiting "The Web Is Thriving" Claim Seven Months Later

00:05:09 - Publisher Traffic Concerns and Trust in Google's Data

00:08:30 - Preferred Sources: New Feature to Boost Publisher Visibility

00:09:58 - AI Links vs. Traditional Blue Links: Quality and Purpose

00:12:57 - Jeff's Case for News APIs: Should Publishers Embrace AI?

00:16:01 - Google's Response to the News API Proposal

00:17:31 - 3,000+ Publisher Partnerships and the Traffic-First Model

00:21:53 - Advice for Publishers Wanting to Rank in AI Search

00:24:07 - AI Mode Adoption: What Seven Months of User Data Reveals

00:27:07 - Longer Queries, Deeper Exploration: How Users Are Changing

00:29:06 - Global Rollout Insights: US, India, Brazil, and Emerging Markets

00:29:28 - The Learning Curve: Why AI Search Takes Months to Adopt

00:31:11 - Younger Users Leading AI Mode Adoption

00:31:59 - "Catch Me Up" Feature: Embedding AI in New Places

00:34:17 - AI Mode Everywhere: Chrome, Workspace, and Jeff's Chromebook Plea

00:37:50 - Personal Context Update: What's Delaying the Gmail/Drive Integration

00:40:07 - Gemini 3 Pro in Search: Generative UIs and Intelligent Routing

00:43:23 - Google's AI Brand Strategy: Search, Gemini App, and Beyond

00:46:23 - If You Were Starting a Content Business Today

00:48:16 - Thank you to Nick Fox for joining the AI Inside podcast

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