In a move that is sure to redefine the search experience, Google has officially launched AI Mode.
AI Mode follows the release of AI Overviews, which Google describes as one of its best-performing launches:
“AI Overviews is one of the most successful launches in Search in the past decade.” - Google
Announced at the 2025 Google I/O Conference, AI Mode is now live for all users in the U.S. as of May 2025, signalling Google’s confidence in its AI-generative approach to the future of search.
What is AI Mode? What does this mean for users, marketers, and the web as a whole?
Here, we break down what AI Mode is, its key features, and the potential implications for users, marketers, and everyone in between.
As of May 2025, AI mode has now been rolled out to all users in the U.S.
So, let’s discuss what Google means by the term ‘AI Mode,’ which was initially released as a Google experiment in March 2025.
Google’s AI Mode is a significant shift in the way it expects users to interact with the search engine.
Instead of the traditional search experience, AI Mode changes search to be more dynamic and conversational.
At its core, AI Mode is powered by Gemini (specifically Gemini 2.5), which is Google’s version of ChatGPT.
This integration aims to allow the system to interpret search queries and generate an array of response types beyond text.
At Google I/O, notable response types that Google indicated were coming soon included:
In Google’s announcement, they demonstrate a use case for AI Mode with ‘Search Live’ by showing the AI a crafted project (a popsicle stick bridge) via a smartphone camera lens and getting tips on how to strengthen the craft with wood glue and popsicle sticks.
Rather than the traditional search experience that displays a list of links, users will see AI-generated summaries.
It would be easy to think that Google’s AI Mode is just a facelift for Search, but there are actually some significant new features that define the AI-powered experience.
For users, the features of AI Mode ensure that their use of Google is faster, more intuitive, and potentially more helpful.
With AI Mode, search results no longer require users to click on multiple links and pull together fragmented answers, AI Mode makes it much easier to search for multi-part or complex queries. The clear and conversational answers are a much quicker way to get the answers users need.
Then, AI mode isn’t just a great tool for search; it can also be used as an effective productivity assistant, capable of handling a growing list of web-based tasks without having to have tens of tabs open at once.
However, there are questions and considerations to keep in mind.
As mentioned, personalized responses can be very effective, but they don’t come without some trade-offs. After all, personalization relies on user data such as search history.
Google has stated that users will keep control over their personalization and that they can turn AI Mode off.
“You’ll see when AI Mode is bringing in your personal context to help. This is always under your control, and you can choose to connect or disconnect it at any time.” - Google
While there is the option to turn AI Mode personalization off, there are still some understandable concerns about how much user data is being leveraged.
As you can imagine, Google’s AI Mode rollout could (and likely will) cause significant disruption for marketers and SEO.
One of the immediate concerns for marketers is the potential drop in organic traffic, as users will get full answers directly from the search page (zero-click searches) and are therefore less likely to click through to sites.
From a content quality perspective, Google’s AI Mode may require brands to focus even more on quality and structure, as Google’s AI looks to increasingly pull information from trusted, well-organized, and authoritative sources to produce answers. It’s likely brands will need to move from an ‘SEO’ to a ‘GEO’ approach.
One thing is for sure — AI Mode means that building brand credibility is more important than ever, publishing expert-led content, getting high-quality backlinks, and maintaining a strong online presence.
Google’s launch of AI Mode is a significant step into the future of search, and the true impact will only be shown as time goes by.
However, what is clear is the quality that content requires to meet industry standards, such as Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
Use the Originality.ai AI Checker to maintain transparency in the age of AI, especially considering Google’s penalties for low-quality AI spam.
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