Everything You Need To Know About Google’s New AI Mode

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; artificial intelligence (AI) is almost impossible to escape, and search is no exception. With AI growing at such a fast rate and search engine users wanting answers quicker than ever, it’s no surprise that Google is planning to launch its new AI Mode. Currently in its testing phase, AI Mode is a natural expansion of Google’s AI Overviews. It will offer a more personalised, conversational, and intuitive version of search that will be able to deal with complex queries easily. As with every announcement Google makes, digital marketers and businesses everywhere will be wondering what AI Mode means for organic search traffic and how they can best position themselves for success when it rolls out. Don’t fear! Our experts have put together this handy guide to everything you need to know about Google’s AI Mode and what it might mean for your online visibility.

What Are AI Overviews?

As AI Mode is an expansion of AI Overviews, it’s essential to understand what they are before diving into the nitty gritty of Google’s latest AI development. AI Overviews use Gemini, the search engine’s AI model and traditional search.

AI Overviews have been integrated into Google search results for over a year now and use generative AI to provide users with a ‘summary’ of various resources at the top of search results without ever having to click off the page. Google cares about making the user search experience as convenient and streamlined as possible, and AI Overviews help fulfil this mission. More than a billion people now use the search feature.

Currently, the types of queries that will bring up an overview in results include those that are broad and informational, explanatory, how-to’s, or comparison-based. Google’s new AI Mode takes this further.

What Is AI Mode?

So, how exactly does Google’s AI Mode build on AI Overviews? After feedback, Google found that users want more AI responses for searches. This is where AI Mode comes in. It’s a new search mode that takes AI Overviews a step further.

AI Mode runs on Gemini 2.0 and uses advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities to help answer the most complex search queries. Rather than single question-and-answer searches, the AI Mode search bar allows users to engage in a ‘conversation’ on any topic. Perfect for tough queries that require clarification and follow-up questions to dig deeper, it offers a much more streamlined search experience than traditional search, which could lead users to make multiple individual searches to find their answers.

Google says you can ask AI Mode “anything on your mind” and receive an AI-powered response that allows you to follow up for further information. Whatever your query, you can expect an easy-to-understand response, content in a range of formats, and linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. to relevant content for wider reading.

When Is AI Mode Being Launched?

Google announced that AI Mode was being launched and was going through the testing stage on March 5, 2025. On March 24, the search engine giant issued an update saying that it had expanded its testing to another group of users. Although it is yet to be officially rolled out, you can opt-in to Search Labs on the AI Mode website to be added to a waiting list to be granted access. Although there is no clear timeline, it’s expected that AI Mode will soon be available to all users.

How Can You Prepare For AI Mode?

The launch of AI Mode signifies a further push towards AI-powered responses, which means website owners and SEO professionals will need to take note and ensure that their content is optimised for this wave of search.

On announcing the new search type, Google said:

“AI Mode is rooted in our core quality and ranking systems, and we’re also using novel approaches with the model’s reasoning capabilities to improve factuality. We aim to show an AI-powered response as much as possible, but in cases where we don’t have high confidence in helpfulness and quality, the response will be a set of web search results.”

So, with Google saying it will favour AI responses over traditional search results wherever it can, you need to make sure your website content is ready so you can keep your visibility up and capture as much organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page. as possible.

Quality, relevant content will be more critical than ever, but there are some steps you can take to ensure you increase your chances of being included in AI search results:

• Optimise content with E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, trust) in mind
• Make sure content is fresh and relevant to search queries
• Keep the search intent of keywords as a focus and ensure that your content clearly aligns with this
• Semantic keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. structuring of content
• Ensure all content has schema markup
• Optimise your content with conversational search in mind by including FAQs where possible
• Include summaries, bullet point lists, and tables in your content that make it easy for AI to cite
• Collect reviews from clients and customers and use 3rd party review platorms so they are picked up by Google and LLM
• Brand and domain mentions via digital PR, authoritative link building and listicles will also increase the chance of being included in Ai search results

We’re Here To Help

If news of Google’s AI Mode has left you wondering what steps you should take to ensure you can maintain your organic traffic or even improve on it, then don’t panic! Our friendly team of professionals here at Click Intelligence is on hand to help. We’ve got our fingers firmly on the pulse when it comes to all things related to Google Search and its changes, and we have the experience and know-how to help you smash your SEO goals. Sound good? Book a call to learn more about how we can help you today!