What is Google AI Mode?
AI Mode is a conversational mode in Google Search that answers a question with an AI-written response and links to supporting websites, and lets the person ask follow-up questions. Google built it for questions that need exploration, reasoning or comparison.
Cited from the66th.com/glossary/ai-mode
How AI Mode works
A person asks a question that might have taken several searches before, such as comparing two services. AI Mode can split it into related searches across subtopics, read the pages they return, and write one answer with links. The person can then ask a follow-up, and the conversation continues from there.
Google's guide to AI features sets AI Mode next to AI Overviews, its other AI feature in Search, and says the two may use different models and techniques, so their answers and links vary.
| AI Overviews | AI Mode | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A summary on some regular results pages, shown when Google judges it adds to classic Search | A search experience for nuanced questions that might have taken several searches |
| Built for | Getting the gist of a topic quickly | Questions that need exploration, reasoning or comparisons |
| Links | Links to explore and learn more | Links to supporting websites in the response |
Where AI Mode came from
Google introduced AI Mode on March 5, 2025 as a Search Labs experiment, first offered to Google One AI Premium subscribers. The announcement says AI Mode uses a query fan-out technique, issuing multiple related searches at the same time across subtopics and data sources, then bringing the results together in one response.
Search Console counts AI Mode as part of regular search. Google's Search Console help says clicking a link to an external page in AI Mode counts as a click, standard impression rules apply, and position follows the same method as a regular results page.
What it means for your business
A buyer comparing options in AI Mode gets a written answer with a handful of links in place of a page of results. The pages that can be linked are the ones that answer the follow-up questions: what a service costs, how providers compare, and whether a business serves the buyer's area.
Google says no special optimizations are needed to appear in AI Mode. A page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and the site must stay included in Search Console's Search generative AI control, which is on by default. The rest is the SEO work that makes a page worth linking. That work sits at the center of our generative engine optimization service.
Common mistakes
- Assuming AI Mode shows the same links as AI Overviews. Google says the two can differ, so check both.
- Looking for AI Mode as its own line in Search Console's main Performance report. Google counts it inside the Web search type there, and shows AI feature impressions on their own in the Generative AI performance report.
- Treating AI Mode as a project separate from SEO. Google applies the same Search requirements, plus one Search Console setting that is on by default.
Related terms
Sources: Google, Robby Stein, Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode, 5 March 2025; Google Search Central, AI features and your website, 10 December 2025; Google Search Console Help, What are impressions, position, and clicks?; Search Console Help, Search generative AI control.