Apple Considering Own AI Search for Its Browser

Apple is weighing a shift towards AI-powered search for its in-house browser. The company’s SVP of services, Eddy Cue, confirmed the iPhone-maker is actively looking at incorporating emerging AI search providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity, into its browser, with discussions held in the past.

While none of these players are expected to replace Google as the default option shortly, Cue predicted that AI search providers are on track to replace traditional search engines such as Google. He noted that Safari had seen a decline in search usage last month for the first time, attributing the drop to users turning to AI tools.

While he pointed out that AI search engines still have work to do in building out robust search indexes to match traditional engines, many AI-powered tools already offer features compelling enough to drive user adoption. “There’s enough money now, enough large players, that I don’t see how it doesn’t happen.”

Currently, Apple offers OpenAI’s ChatGPT through its Siri voice assistant, and it is expected to integrate Google’s Gemini later this year. Cue revealed the company has also explored AI offerings from DeepSeek and xAI’s Grok. Despite Apple’s growing interest in GenAI, the executive said that Google should remain the default search engine in Safari. Cue has apparently lost sleep over the prospect of compromising the pair’s partnership, noting that the deal still delivers the most favourable financial terms in the market.

Apple receives around $20 billion a year from Google in return for making its search engine the default option on its devices. Cue’s comments come just weeks after Google CEO Sundar Pichai indicated that the company is preparing to finalize an agreement with Apple to bring its Gemini AI to iPhones by mid-2025.