Could AI replace Google in Safari? Apple executive suggests it’s possible

Apple's AI efforts have been a stumbling block for the company. Last year, it made a big deal about its Apple Intelligence reveal, but seven months later, the feature has yet to be fully implemented.

Couple that with the constantly delayed, overhauled Siri. Apple planned to make the assistant smarter with the help of AI. The rollout was such a debacle that the company shuffled team leaders in order to get the project completed this year.

While AI might not be working out for Apple, one company executive says there will be a big AI shift coming.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, says the company is "actively looking at" using AI-powered search in its Safari web browser, according to a Bloomberg report. Cue said this while testifying in the antitrust trial in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Google, which was found to have a monopoly and is in the process of determining what business should be broken off from the company.

Cue pointed out that AI companies such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic will eventually replace Google Search.

“We will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “Prior to AI, my feeling around this was, none of the others were valid choices. I think today there is much greater potential because there are new entrants attacking the problem in a different way.”

Apple and Google's $20 billion relationship.

The DOJ's antitrust case against Google has revealed a wealth of backdoor dealings between the two tech giants. Most notable was the annual $20 billion Google pays Apple to be the default search engine for Safari. It does make business sense for Google to pay for this exclusivity, as Safari is the second most-used web browser, right behind Google Chrome.

Cue says Google should still be the default for Safari, but added how he has lost sleep over possibly losing the revenue from the two companies' agreement, Bloomberg reported.

AI searches make up a tiny yet growing number as more people begin regularly using AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini.

A report from SparkToro found that in 2024, there were more than 14 billion Google searches per day, while ChatGPT had far fewer, with 37.5 million. The number of AI searches will continue to grow steadily as more people begin using AI agents on a regular basis.