At a time when our politics is consumed by a set of immediate challenges—including Donald Trump’s reshaping of the Canada-U.S. trade relationship—there’s a risk that we miss what could be the biggest long-term change to Canada’s economy and society. The internet as we know it is on the brink of a radical transformation brought about by artificial intelligence.
These developments cannot be overstated. They’ll likely have major implications for how we access information, conduct business, and engage with the digital world. They’ll also raise profound questions about the future of online democratization, economic disruption, and the concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants.
For decades, the internet has been celebrated as a democratizing force. It’s a vast, open library where anyone can publish content and audiences can explore freely. Search engines like Google acted as guides, directing users to websites, blogs, and businesses through an algorithmically ranked list of links. This model, though imperfect, has allowed small players to compete alongside giants through search engine optimization (SEO) and niche content.
It’s not hyperbole to say that the internet has evolved into the central repository of human knowledge and information. It’s how most of us today engage ideas, facts, and knowledge. It has come to serve a central truth-seeking role in modern society.
The rapid integration of AI-powered search tools, such as Google’s AI Mode, will fundamentally reshape how we navigate the internet and its content. These new interface tools will efficiently synthesize and summarize internet content on our behalf and, in so doing, bypass traditional links and websites.
Think of traditional search as a librarian who points you to a shelf full of articles, books, and websites related to your question. You still have to click, skim, compare, and decide what information to trust.
These AI tools are the equivalent of a research assistant who’s already read those articles and books. They give you a direct answer, synthesize key points, explain them in plain language, and might even suggest what to do next.
It’s the difference between pointing us to information and processing and interpreting it on our behalf. The implications are, as we said, profound.
It’s already happening. Google’s early experiments with AI summaries have led to a staggering 60 percent of searches ending in “zero click”—instances where users are no longer visiting external sites and instead relying on the AI answers. All signs suggest this percentage will rise rapidly in the next 12 to 18 months as the technology gets better and people’s habits are reshaped.
