Alphabet shares fell about 15 per cent, wiping out roughly $500 billion in market value in a sell-off described as the worst since the company's 2004 IPO. The drop followed Google's latest earnings and a remark from chief business officer Philipp Schindler that strong growth in AI Mode queries had weighed on revenue, because those queries were monetising at lower rates than traditional search. The tension at the centre of the story is between AI-generated overview pages and the source pages they summarise. When an overview answers a question well enough, users have less reason to click through to the original sites, which cuts traffic to publishers and the ad clicks that Google monetises. Featured snippets and knowledge panels have raised similar concerns for years, but AI Overviews and AI Mode are now a far larger part of the search experience. Google does not break out AI Mode figures in enough detail for outside analysts to measure the effect precisely, so the revenue impact is largely inferred from management commentary. The Alphabet fall came amid broader weakness in tech and AI stocks. Reports that OpenAI is raising funds at a $1.25 trillion valuation rather than the $1.4 trillion it had sought added to nervousness ahead of what is widely expected to be one of the largest tech IPOs. For Australian businesses and professionals, the immediate effect is limited, but the trend is worth watching. Firms that depend on organic search traffic, particularly those with informational content or comparison pages, may see fewer clicks, so it is sensible to check referral and search console data over recent months and build direct channels such as email lists. Nothing in this story changes obligations under the Privacy Act 1988, though businesses sending customer information into AI search or assistant tools should confirm what those tools retain. Investors should expect volatility rather than a clear trend from a single earnings reaction.