At the 2025 Baidu World Conference held today, Baidu founder Robin Li shared insights on the company's aggressive AI-driven transformation of its search engine. Despite initial challenges, Baidu now stands as the most radical player globally in AI-powered search.
Li highlighted that Baidu has revamped its search interface using AI, shifting from text-based links to a multimedia-rich experience dominated by images and videos. Currently, the majority of search results are AI-generated, with rich media—such as images or videos—appearing as the top result 70% of the time.
"This means that for every 10 queries, seven will first display rich media instead of traditional text links," Li explained. He reiterated Baidu's commitment to AI integration across all products, starting with search, following the 2023 launch of its AI model, Ernie Bot. "Baidu aims to lead the industry's transformation," he added.