Google AI Mode: What It Is, How It Works and What Changes

A few weeks ago I watched a friend look for a pediatrician in Google AI Mode with a sentence of almost thirty words, read what it answered, ask two more questions and write down a name without opening a single website. That scene, repeated millions of times, sums up the tool: Google reads the sites for you and hands you the finished answer.

AI Mode is the tab where the search engine answers with artificial intelligence, cites its sources and lets you keep asking. My take, after going through what Google has published and what we see in Search Console, is simple: AI Mode is won in the sub-searches Google fires off behind the scenes, so the unit of work shifts from the keyword to your customer's full question. And since August 2026 you can measure that with official data.

Let's take it step by step, starting with the basics (if you already use it every day, skip to the SEO section).

What is Google AI Mode?

AI Mode (Modo IA in Spanish) is a way of searching that replaces the list of ten blue links with a written answer, with links to where each piece of information came from right next to it. The difference shows when the question has several conditions: "health insurance for a family of four in Santiago that covers dental and costs less than 3 UF" (a Chilean inflation-indexed unit) is a nightmare for classic search and a fairly comfortable exercise for this tool.

It runs on a model from the Gemini family adapted for search, understands text, voice and images, and keeps the thread of the conversation, so you can follow up without repeating everything. It is the deepest version of the generative AI Google has put into its search engine.

It arrived in Spanish in Chile and the rest of Latin America on September 23, 2025, according to launch coverage, and in Spain on October 8 that year. Google does not publish how many people use it by country (I'd like to know too).

For anyone who publishes content, the important detail is a different one: what it answers is built by reading third-party sources. Your site can be cited, summarized without anyone clicking, or left out, and all three things happen on the same screen.

How does AI Mode work behind the scenes?

Google explains it in its documentation for site owners: it uses a technique called query fan-out, which splits your question into several related queries across different subtopics. In the announcement for Spain it explained that it launches many of those queries at the same time. In practice there are four steps:

1. It interprets your question and detects the conditions (where, for whom, how much, compared to what).

2. It breaks it into sub-searches, one per subtopic, and runs them simultaneously.

3. It reads what each sub-search brings back and picks the passages that best answer each part.

4. It writes a single text and links to the sites it used.

A made-up example to ground it. An HR manager in Lima types "which time and attendance software works for a 200-person company with rotating shifts and integrates with payroll". Behind the scenes, Google may be querying "attendance tracking rotating shifts", "payroll integration Peru", "price per user" and "reviews" separately. Each sub-search has its own ranking.

That's why AI Mode cites URLs that aren't on the first page for the original query: it's enough for them to answer one of the parts really well. And that's why my recommendation is to think in sub-questions. If your site explains precisely how it integrates with payroll and your competitor's only says "we are leaders in people management", you know who has a better shot at making it into the final answer.

AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini and ChatGPT: how are they different?

All four use artificial intelligence and get mixed up all the time, even in board meetings. The difference is where they show up and what they're for:

AI Overviews are the summary that appears above the results; AI Mode is a separate section. If you want to know how ChatGPT builds its background queries, I covered it in ChatGPT fan-out queries.

How do you turn on and use AI Mode?

There's nothing to switch on in settings: it shows up as one more option, just like Images or News. Step by step, depending on where you are:

1. On a computer, search for something and choose "AI Mode" in the row of options at the top, or use the button inside the search box. You can also go straight to google.com/ai.

2. On your phone, from the browser, tap the "AI Mode" tab (if you don't see it, swipe the row to the left).

3. The Google app lets you ask with your voice or a photo, which is very handy for identifying a part or a product.

4. Chrome has a shortcut from the address bar.

5. With your personal account and web activity turned on, you can save and come back to what you asked.

If it doesn't show up, update the app or browser; the rollout doesn't reach every account on the same day.

To use it well, write the way you'd explain your need to someone who knows the subject: the full context (city, budget, who it's for) and then follow-up questions to narrow it down. Two loose words give it very little context to work with.

Can you turn off AI Mode?

There's no official switch to remove it. The good news is that it only answers if you go into that section, so you can simply not open it.

If what bothers you is the AI summary in regular search, there's the Web filter, which shows only links to sites, like the Google of a few years ago. It's in the row of options (sometimes hidden under "More"). Extensions that promise to "remove AI from Google" work for a while and then stop working, and they can also read what you search for.

What changes for your company's SEO?

Now for the part that pays my bills (sorry for the change in tone).

First, simple questions generate fewer clicks. If someone wants to know what a term life policy is and AI Mode explains it in five lines, they have no reason to visit your site. That was already happening with AI Overviews, and here it's more pronounced, because AI Mode has no list of regular results below the answer.

Second, queries are getting longer. On some of the sites I work with, more than 65% of the queries Search Console shows already have eight words or more, phrased as full questions, as I wrote at Previsible. That user doesn't type "attendance software"; they describe their whole problem. If your content is only built for the short keyword, it gets left out of several sub-searches.

Third, the shortlist. When someone asks about vendors, Google AI Mode gives three or four names with a sentence about each one, and often asks a question back (which area, what budget). Being on that list or not makes a big difference, and it can't be bought with a special setting.

A made-up case to show the effect: a dental clinic in Ñuñoa (a Santiago neighborhood) ranking third for "dental implants ñuñoa" may lose visits from that query and, at the same time, gain presence for "dental implants covered by supplementary insurance near the subway" if it has content that answers that. Total traffic can drop while the quality of what arrives goes up. That's why it's worth looking at the business (appointments, quotes, leads) and not only sessions.

How do you show up as a source in AI Mode?

Let's start with what Google says, because it saves a lot of money. The Search Central guidance says there are no additional requirements to appear in its AI features: your URL has to be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. In May 2026 Google also published its first guide to optimizing for AI search, which I analyzed at Previsible, and it takes apart several myths:

• The llms.txt file gets no special treatment.
• You don't need to cut content into little pieces ("chunking"), because the systems understand the whole document.
• Structured data isn't required to appear in AI search (it's still useful for other things, but it isn't the entry ticket).
• Rewriting everything "for AI" isn't necessary.

With that off the table, this is what I would do:

1. Gather your customers' real questions, the ones that reach sales, support and chat. Write them out in full, with their conditions, because that's how AI Mode will split them.

2. Check which section of your site answers each sub-question in its first paragraph, with the specific data point (price, timeline, requirement, integration). If the answer is buried in paragraph six of the page, it doesn't count.

3. Publish content only you can write. Google distinguishes between commodity content ("7 tips for buying your first home") and content with first-hand experience, and your data, your cases and your criteria are the information that isn't in the other ten results.

4. Keep content up to date. In a 500-prompt study we ran at Previsible, 78% of the content AI tools cited had been published or updated in the previous six months, and queries that named an industry generated 3.4 times more citations (the study covers AI tools in general, not just this one).

5. If you're a local business, look after your Google Maps listing with correct hours and recent reviews, because for questions about businesses AI Mode often shows those listings.

6. Work on E-E-A-T signals with proof, such as an author with demonstrable experience, mentions in industry media and data that matches across your site, your listing and your profiles. If each place says something different, the AI may pick the wrong data point.

I've already said on LinkedIn what I think about schema (that it has become the horoscope of GEO). Use it well, but don't expect it to rescue content that doesn't answer anything.

How do you measure your visibility in AI Mode?

Until recently the answer was "with third-party tools and patience". That changed: since August 31, 2026, Search Console has, for every site, a generative AI performance report that shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by URL, country, device and date. I explained it in detail in the Search Console AI report.

The fine print: that report has impression data and nothing else. No clicks, no CTR, no position. Clicks coming from AI Mode are there, mixed in, inside the usual performance report, under the Web search type, as Google's documentation states.

My recipe to get started:

1. Write down your baseline of AI Mode impressions by URL this month.

2. Build a panel of 20 real customer questions (the ones from the previous step) and run them by hand once a month. Note whether you appear, who shows up in your place and which sources it used.

3. Cross that with what happens in the business: forms, quotes, calls.

What does AI Mode still get wrong?

I use it a lot, which is why I know its quirks:

• It gets things wrong with total confidence, especially prices, timelines and regulations.
• It mixes countries: on legal or tax topics it can bring a rule from Spain to a question about Chile.
• It over-summarizes and loses nuances that are in the original source.
• Sometimes it links to a site that doesn't say exactly what the answer claims.

For health, money or contract decisions, open the sources and check the date and country. And if the error is about your company, fix the information at the origin (your site, your listing, your profiles), because the AI repeats what it finds.

Frequently asked questions

The questions I get most: whether it's free, whether it's the same as Google's assistant, what happens to your activity and whether it has ads.

Is AI Mode free?

Yes, it's part of the search engine and costs nothing. Google's assistant has paid plans, but that's a different product.

Is it the same as Google's assistant?

Not exactly. They share the model family, but AI Mode uses a version adapted for search and lives inside the search engine.

Does it save what I ask?

If you use it with your account, it's stored in your activity like the rest of your history. You can review and delete it from your account settings.

Does it have ads?

Google has tested ads inside its AI experiences, labeled as sponsored. They depend on the country and the type of query.

Where to start this week

If you have a free afternoon, do this: write down the 20 questions your customers ask most, in full and with their conditions. Run them in Google AI Mode and note in a spreadsheet who appears, which source it used and whether your site has content that answers that part better. Then open Search Console and look at AI Mode impressions for your URLs.

It costs nothing, and you'll end up with a very concrete list of content to write or fix. And probably with a surprise or two about who is answering on behalf of your brand.