The Reuters, Apple is planning to add AI-powered search options like OpenAI and Perplexity to the Safari browser. This move is expected to shake Google's longstanding dominance the default search engine on iPhone devices.
The information was revealed at the antitrust hearing in the US on May 7, when Mr. Eddy Cue - Apple's Senior Vice President - said that Safari had recorded the first decrease in search volume in the past month, due to users switching to AI tools.
Google currently pays Apple about 20% of its annual operating expenses to hold a primary position on Safari, equivalent to about 36% of the platform's search advertising revenue, according to analysts.
Apple's change is seen as a " strong punch" in Google's core business model. Parent company Alphabet's stock has plummeted by 7.3% after the news, soaring about 150 billion USD in market capitalization.
Meanwhile, Apple affirmed that it is actively reviewing how to organize Safari browsers to adapt to the AI trend. Bloomberg quoted Eddy Cue as saying that AI-powered search engines such as OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT) and Perplexity will be included in Safari as official search options in the near future.
Notably, ChatGPT recently announced that it will record more than 1 billion searches per week on the platform, with more than 400 million monthly active users as of February 2025.
Google is not sitting still: this company has deployed the AI Mode mode on the search engine and expanded the AI Overviews feature to more than 100 countries, along with new advertisements to retain users and advertisers.
At the antitrust hearing, CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that Google is negotiating to bring Gemini AI technology to iPhone devices this year, in an effort to maintain a strategic relationship with Apple.
