Google has a new head of Search — and she’s all in on AI

Illustration: The Verge

There are fewer bigger jobs astatine Google than being the idiosyncratic who runs Search. As of today, there’s a caller idiosyncratic successful that seat: Liz Reid, who has been astatine Google for much than 20 years and has astir precocious been starring the company’s efforts with AI search, known arsenic Search Generative Experience (SGE).

Reid’s promotion is portion of a bigger alteration wrong Google’s Search team. Pandu Nayak, a longtime enforcement overseeing ranking and quality, is present going to beryllium main idiosyncratic of Search. He’ll beryllium replaced by Cheenu Venkatachary, who has besides been moving connected AI products successful Search. Meanwhile, Cathy Edwards, who led a batch of the enactment connected Google News and Google Discover, is taking a occupation connected Google’s semipermanent bets team.

In immoderate ways this is conscionable a batch of mean firm machinations: radical getting caller titles and caller jobs and moving astir aft years successful a circumstantial role. And Prabhakar Raghavan, who has agelong overseen Search, ads, Assistant, and overmuch more, is inactive successful charge.

But let’s work immoderate beverage leaves anyway, shall we? The simplest mode to look astatine these moves is arsenic much grounds that Google believes AI is the aboriginal of search. For 25 years, we’ve each learned to benignant keywords into a hunt container and expect a clump of ranked links successful return. In an AI-powered, multisearch-based world, you mightiness alternatively upload a photo, and the Gemini exemplary could archer you what’s successful it and however to bargain it. You mightiness talk a question into your headphones and get a afloat formed reply retired the speakers.

This is not surprising: CEO Sundar Pichai and others person been saying for years that connection models and different AI systems tin some improve the prime of hunt results and wholly alteration the mode we think astir gathering accusation online. Now, arsenic Google reckons some with a rapidly moving AI scenery and a web progressively filled with AI-generated, SEO-ified junk, making Google Search bully is some harder and much important than ever.

Reid, successful particular, has spent the past mates of years moving connected some AI hunt and multisearch, which unneurotic constituent to a wholly caller mode of reasoning astir Google. In a LinkedIn station announcing her caller role, Reid noted each these caller hunt tools, including the caller Circle to Search feature, Google Lens, and different caller ways of reasoning astir search. “With SGE,” she wrote, “we are capable to service a wider scope of accusation needs and reply caller types of questions, including much analyzable questions, similar comparisons oregon longer queries.” And there’s much coming soon, she said.

Ahead of the SGE motorboat past year, Reid told maine she thinks a batch astir lowering the barroom to asking Google your existent questions. Let’s accidental you search, “What is the champion lawnmower,” she said. “If you deliberation astir wherever you spell further, you’d astir apt privation to instrumentality a representation of your lawnmower and say, ‘best mentation of this,’ but possibly you tin instrumentality a representation of your tract and get to the constituent wherever it’s like, ‘Okay, your tract is hilly, and it’s truly big, and truthful you privation the super-automated 1 that does it for you.’” Google Search has ne'er been bully astatine that benignant of multimodal, context-rich input and output — but Google, similar truthful galore different companies, believes AI tin be.

Google Search volition astir surely look much similar SGE implicit time. It volition progressively commercialized links for answers — and Reid has acknowledged that figuring retired however to mention those answers, and proceed to beryllium a bully spouse to the unfastened web, is portion of her ongoing challenge. Pichai and others person been saying AI is the aboriginal for immoderate clip but person preached patience arsenic the institution tries to wrangle and amended each this nascent technology. But with Reid and Venkatachary present astatine the helm of the product, it looks similar the AI epoch successful Google mightiness beryllium coming faster than we realized.