How Britain's Google Search-Choice Proposal Would Include AI Assistants

Britain's competition regulator is considering a change to how people choose a search service on Google Android devices and Chrome: qualifying AI assistants would be eligible to appear alongside other providers. The Competition and Markets Authority published updated proposals Sept. 23, and its consultation page records that responses closed Oct. 9. The page says feedback is being analyzed. This is a proposal under review, not an instruction already imposed through this consultation.

The distinction matters for users wondering whether their next browser session must display a new screen. In its announcement, the CMA said it expected a final decision on the conduct requirement by the end of the year. The documents reviewed do not establish that the proposal has become a final rule. They describe the options the authority wants to make available and the conditions it would attach to participation.

What Would Users See?

Under the proposals, Google would have to give customers a choice of search services when first using an Android phone or opening Chrome, followed by a yearly prompt to select a default provider. The CMA frames this as a question of choice architecture: how options are presented and how that presentation influences decisions. The annual prompt is part of the proposed mechanism, rather than a promise that every user would switch services.

The most notable expansion is eligibility for AI assistants. The CMA identifies ChatGPT and Perplexity as examples of services people increasingly use to search for information, but inclusion would not be automatic. Assistants would have to meet relevant criteria, including technical and security requirements. The proposal therefore concerns a route onto choice screens, not an unconditional endorsement of every AI product or a declaration that all such services are equivalent.

That approach connects competition policy to a changing definition of search. CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said assistants were increasingly used as search services but were not included on Google's choice screens. The regulator's stated aim is to make those options available as they come to market. Its announcement does not claim to have established which assistant or conventional search engine is best for an individual user's needs.

Why Publishers Are Included

The proposed requirements would also make search providers appearing on the screens fairly attribute publisher content when they use it. The CMA says people should be able to access original material and understand where results originated. This is a source-transparency provision attached to the choice-screen proposal. The announcement does not describe it as a licensing agreement, establish payment terms or resolve every dispute over how AI services use published material.

The proposal sits within a broader regulatory process. The CMA says it designated Google as having strategic market status in general search and search advertising in October 2025, then consulted on conduct requirements in January 2026. Its September announcement identifies publisher controls imposed in June and separate fair-ranking and data-portability requirements. Those earlier actions should not be confused with the updated user-choice requirement that remained under consultation until Oct. 9.

For now, the practical takeaway is procedural as well as technological. The consultation has closed, the authority is assessing responses, and its announced timetable anticipates a decision later in the year. If adopted as proposed, the requirement would let eligible assistants compete for a visible place in default-search selection while adding an attribution condition. Whether users change providers, and how competing services qualify, cannot be inferred simply from the publication of the proposal.