As of November 30, 2025 (about six months after the podcast), Google Search still opens with the familiar query box and a results page where AI Overviews and other AI features appear above or alongside traditional links, but not as a standalone, chat-style “AI Mode” default interface for most users. Google has expanded AI Overviews to 100+ countries and says they reach over 1–2 billion users monthly and now appear on a majority of U.S. queries, yet they are integrated into the classic results page and cannot be turned off, rather than replacing it entirely. (blog.google) AI Mode itself is an optional, more conversational experience (initially available only to a small percentage of U.S. users and later exposed as a tab/feature), and by mid‑2025 had around 100 million monthly active users in the U.S. and India—substantial, but still a minority of Google’s total search base and not the universal default “front door.” (theverge.com) Because the prediction’s deadline is May 2026 and we are only in November 2025, we cannot yet know whether Google will make this AI‑mode experience the default interface for a large share of users by that date, so the status of the prediction is currently too early to call.