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Google search goes AI Mode

The tech giant is moving beyond AI overviews. What could it mean for the future of search?

An image of Google's AI mode on a phone screen

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4 min read

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You may have noticed a new tab appearing alongside the familiar news, images, and shopping options on the Google homepage: AI Mode.

It’s the tech giant’s latest answer to surging search competition from AI apps like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and the next step after the AI Overviews it now inserts atop many results pages. AI Mode taps Google’s Gemini models to offer a more conversational search experience while drawing from content around the web.

Google started testing the feature in March, rolling it out to users nationwide in recent weeks.

Generative AI tools are already reshaping the way people access information on the web. With AI Mode tucked beside the familiar lists of links, it could accelerate these changes. We spoke with Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, director of product management for Google Search, about what this might mean for the future of search.

“Fan out”: Esmaeilzadeh said Google has been encouraged by how AI Overviews have led to more complex and nuanced queries. AI Mode is designed to build on that with an under-the-hood feature called “fan outs” that breaks questions into subtopics for the model to explore.

“It brings forward a comprehensive response that gives users an overview and then enables them to go deeper themselves when they want to go into various websites and dig in further,” Esmaeilzadeh said.

Traffic jam: But will searchers actually bother to dig further into websites? That’s a key concern for companies that rely on now dwindling traffic from Google searches. The trade group News/Media Alliance, for instance, has already slammed the AI Mode feature for “theft.”

Esmaeilzadeh said “bloggers, creators, and web content” are critical to the success of AI Mode. She claimed AI Overviews have yielded higher-quality clicks compared to traditional search results because users are more inclined to spend time on the site.

“The better we understand the intent, the better we can get people to the best content of the web that’s relevant for them. And then also, more importantly, as we open up more and more intents, more and more questions, we are growing the kinds of things people are asking for, and then we’re able to do more and more connections to the web given that,” Esmaeilzadeh said.

“That is something that is continually central and important to us. And I think it’s important to our users; they want to connect to the rest of the web.”

Web presence: Esmaeilzadeh demonstrated how a searcher might use the tool to conduct an in-depth survey of nearby restaurants. AI Mode might respond to more detailed requests and surface details like signature dishes. A searcher could then follow up with questions, asking which of the menu options are kid-friendly, for instance.

She said Google is better equipped to provide access to real-time information than newcomers like OpenAI because of the years it’s spent assembling databases on shopping, local businesses, and reviews.

Does AI Mode change how those businesses need to think about making that information available online? Because the underlying model, Gemini 2.5, is essentially performing Google searches, the concerns for businesses are the same, she said. But because it “fans out” with those subtopic-based searches, AI Mode should pull from a wider swath of content, Esmaeilzadeh said.

Google has done many experiments with generative AI search at this point, from the early days of Bard to AI Overviews. The goal of all of them, Esmaeilzadeh said, has been to expand access to information.

“Ultimately, we want people to be able to ask anything that’s on their mind, to make it easy for them to ask their questions, to make these follow-ups and continuation easy,” she said.

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