The enshitification of search will drive queries directly to AI, either local or centralised. This will provide a before unknown nexus of opinion/ perception / idea control as the primary research tool will no longer return a spectrum of differing ideas and references, but rather a consolidated opinion formed by the AIs operators.

This has really dystopian vibes, since it centralizes opinion and “factuality” in an authoritative but potentially extremely biased or even manipulatively deceptive manner.

OTOH it will provide opportunities for competitive solutions to query answering.