---
title: "Google AI Mode"
url: https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/google-ai-mode
type: Page
---

# Google AI Mode

Google AI Mode explained: when it launched in the US and UK, how it differs from AI Overviews, how query fan-out works and how to optimise content.

GEO glossary

## Google AI Mode

Google AI Mode is a conversational search mode in Google Search that answers complex, multi-part questions with an AI-generated response and links. It runs many related searches behind each question, supports follow-up questions and appears as its own tab on the results page.

## When did AI Mode launch?

Google announced AI Mode as a Search Labs experiment on 5 March 2025 and began rolling it out to everyone in the US on 20 May 2025. It started rolling out in the UK on 28 July 2025, running on a custom version of Gemini 2.5. In the UK it appears as a tab on the results page and in the Google app on Android and iOS.

## How is AI Mode different from AI Overviews?

AI Overviews sit above the normal results for queries where Google decides a summary helps. AI Mode replaces the results page with a conversation. Google says early UK users asked questions two or three times the length of traditional search queries, and that the mode is built for tasks such as comparing products, planning a trip and understanding complex how-tos.

Both rely on query fan-out. Google describes AI Mode as breaking a question into subtopics and issuing a multitude of queries at once on the user's behalf. Its Deep Search option can issue hundreds of searches to produce a fully cited report.

## How to optimise for AI Mode

Google's guidance is the same as for AI Overviews: no special markup or files are needed, and AI Mode traffic is included in the Web search type in Search Console. Because AI Mode answers long questions by searching many sub-questions, coverage matters more than a single target keyword.

A page that answers the follow-up questions a buyer would ask, such as cost, timescale, alternatives and risks, gives the system more passages to retrieve.

## Example

A prompt such as 'which electric family car has the most boot space for under £40,000 and can charge at home overnight' might fan out into searches about boot capacity, list prices, battery size and home charger speeds. A dealer page with a clear specification table and current pricing could be retrieved for several of those sub-queries.

## Related terms

- [AI Overviews](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/ai-overviews)
- [Query fan-out](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/query-fan-out)
- [Prompt tracking](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/prompt-tracking)
- [Generative engine optimisation (GEO)](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/generative-engine-optimisation)

## Further reading

- [How to Measure Performance in AI Search](https://marketingsignals.com/insights/how-to-measure-performance-in-ai-search)
- [Query Intent Shift: What to Do When Google Changes What Your Keyword Means](https://marketingsignals.com/insights/query-intent-shift-what-to-do-when-google-changes-what-your-keyword-means)

Our [AI SEO & GEO](https://marketingsignals.com/service/ai-search-optimisation) service puts this into practice for brands in the UK and US.

## Sources

- [Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode, Google (5 March 2025)](https://blog.google/products/search/ai-mode-search/)
- [AI in Search: Going beyond information to intelligence, Google (20 May 2025)](https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-ai-mode-update/)
- [Google Search: Introducing AI Mode in the UK, Google (28 July 2025)](https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/ai-mode-search-uk/)
- [AI features and your website, Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)

## Ready To Get Found In AI Search?

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