Google AI Mode is a separate, conversational search mode in Google Search that answers complex questions with an AI-generated response and links to supporting pages. It uses a query fan-out technique to run many related searches at once, and for products it draws on Google's Shopping Graph, which Merchant Center feeds
Google AI Mode is a separate, conversational search mode in Google Search that answers complex questions with an AI-generated response and links to supporting pages. It runs many related searches at once to build each answer, which Google calls query fan-out.
How is Google AI Mode different from AI Overviews?
AI Mode is a tab the user chooses; AI Overviews appear on the normal results page when Google decides they help. Google launched AI Mode to everyone in the US at I/O on 20 May 2025, describing it as an “end-to-end AI Search experience” for power users (Google, 20 May 2025).
Google’s AI features documentation adds that the two “may use different models and techniques”, so the same question can return different answers and links. AI Mode suits questions that need “exploration, reasoning, or complex comparisons”, the kind that used to take 3 or 4 separate searches.
How does AI Mode build an answer?
By splitting the question and searching each part, which is what makes Google AI Mode different from a single search. Google says AI Mode uses “our query fan-out technique, breaking down your question into subtopics and issuing a multitude of queries simultaneously”. Its research mode, Deep Search, “can issue hundreds of searches” for one report.
We tested what that means for a store with one jewelry question split into 5 sub-questions; all 5 were real searches in Google Autocomplete, with 39 suggestions between them (see query fan-out). Each sub-question is a chance for a different page to be cited, so a store’s guide, collection and policy pages matter as much as the product page.
What does AI Mode shopping use?
Google’s product data. Google says the AI Mode shopping experience “brings together Gemini model capabilities with our Shopping Graph”, and its I/O post showed virtual try-on and an agentic checkout that can buy “on your behalf with Google Pay”.
The Shopping Graph is fed by the product data stores send Google, which is why Google’s checklist for AI features includes keeping Merchant Center current and making sure structured data matches the visible page. In our 17 October 2026 check of 16 Shopify product pages, 13 carried Product markup and 3 (19%) had none, so roughly 1 store in 5 gives Google’s product systems less to read than it could. Our Google Shopping service covers the feed side.
Is AI Mode the same as Gemini?
No. Google AI Mode is part of Google Search and links out to web pages; the Gemini app is a separate assistant. Google describes AI Mode as the place where it first brings “Gemini’s frontier capabilities” to Search, which explains the mix-up.
The difference matters for measurement. Visits from Google AI Mode count as Google Search traffic: Search Console includes them in the Web search type, with no separate filter. Visits from the Gemini app arrive as referrals and, in GA4, fall into the AI Assistant channel. AI Mode also takes questions about what you see: Google says more than 1.5 billion people use Google Lens every month, and its I/O post added a live camera option in both AI Mode and Lens. For how we work on visibility across both, see our Google AI Overviews service and the AI search optimization hub.