The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has published a revised proposal that would, for the first time, let AI assistants sit alongside traditional search engines on the choice screens Android phones and Chrome show users. Nothing is final. Responses to the consultation are due by October 9, and Google has not yet had to change anything.
The mechanics matter more than the headline. Under the draft, new Android devices and Chrome installations would prompt UK users to pick a default search provider the first time they set up the device or open the browser, then repeat that prompt annually. Google would also have to ensure any provider that appears on the screen, AI assistant or otherwise, “fairly” attributes the publisher content it draws on, so users can trace an answer back to its source.
The inclusion of AI assistants is the departure from earlier choice-screen frameworks, which were built around a list of interchangeable search engines. CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell framed the change as catching up to behavior that has already shifted: “The way people search for information online is changing, with new services creating fresh opportunities for innovation and competition. We’ve listened carefully to feedback and are responding quickly to the rise of AI assistants, which people are increasingly using as their search service, but aren’t included on Google’s choice screens. This is about future-proofing the options available to people in the UK so they can choose the search service they want as these come to market.”
That quote, and the CMA’s own framing, is the strongest signal in the announcement. It confirms the regulator now treats AI assistants as substitutes for search, not adjacent tools, which is a formal regulatory position that most competition authorities have avoided stating outright. Whether that logic survives the October decision, and whether any AI assistant actually clears the “relevant criteria, including technical and security requirements” the CMA has set, remains open. The announcement gives no detail on what those requirements are or which assistants might qualify.
For search visibility, a default-provider prompt that lists an AI assistant next to Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo changes what “ranking” means at the point of setup, not just in a results page. A user who taps an AI assistant as their default effectively opts out of the traditional SERP entirely for a meaningful share of queries, which makes the choice screen a new acquisition channel that sits upstream of any keyword or content strategy.
The proposal also ties eligibility to attribution behavior, which gives publishers a lever they did not previously have with Google’s own AI Overviews rollout: a regulator-set condition that any qualifying assistant must let users reach source content. Search Engine Roundtable, which first reported the revised proposal and Cardell’s statement, noted the CMA has not yet said which specific providers or assistants would meet the technical bar.
UK-focused SEO and content teams should not treat this as settled policy. The relevant near-term action is tracking the October 9 consultation deadline and, if the plan is adopted, watching which AI assistants clear the CMA’s criteria first, since early inclusion on a national choice screen would be a distribution advantage no algorithm update currently offers.
Search Engine Roundtable, in a report by Barry Schwartz on the CMA’s revised choice-screen proposal.
