AI Overview’s release in 2024 was Google’s radical effort to retain users’ mindshare and attention when ChatGPT began to dominate the AI search space. Now, to solidify their hold, they’re rolling out ‘Google AI Mode’ to the public. This advanced model serves an entirely different purpose from AI overviews and reshapes how people search altogether.
Understandably, these back-to-back launches make it hard to keep up with what’s needed for SERP success, since each AI-powered feature affects SEO in distinct ways.
The first step in making the most of AI Mode and AI Overview is to understand how they differ: what each one does, how they pull and present information, and what this means for your content strategy.
We’ll discuss all these and more in this article. Let’s dive in.
What is Google’s AI Mode?
Google’s AI Mode is a new, interactive, and conversational search feature that enables users to ask follow-up questions directly within the search interface.
It’s similar to the ChatGPT experience, but with real-time web data and the ability to pull from Google’s extensive knowledge graph.
How AI Mode Goes Beyond AI Overviews
Google AI Mode isn’t just a smarter version of Search: it’s Google’s step toward agentic search, where the engine can reason, cross-check, and keep context like a chatbot. Here’s what makes it stand out:
1. Contextual Reasoning
AI Mode remembers the thread of your search. You can ask follow-up questions without losing context, like we did in the image below. This allows you to get more precise responses to queries requiring further exploration, comparison, or reasoning, without opening multiple search tabs.
2. Real-Time Data Awareness
AI mode uses a custom Gemini version (specifically designed for reasoning and exploration) to generate answers. It also taps into live sources such as stock market data, restaurant availability, Google’s Shopping Graph, and map data.
3. Query Fan-Out
Instead of answering one question in isolation, Google AI Mode breaks it into sub-questions or multiple related subtopics to provide a more comprehensive answer.
4. Multimodal Input
Unlike traditional search, text isn’t the only option. You can continue a search session with your voice or even an image.
Google AI Mode’s conversational and multimodal features are already live in 180+ countries, including the US, UK, and India. But features like Deep Search, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and agentic workflows are gated under Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions, hinting at where Google plans to take Search next.
What are Google’s AI Overviews?
Google’s AI Overviews are automatically generated AI summaries that appear above traditional search results for certain queries.
Think of it this way: if AI Mode is Google’s conversational side, then AI Overviews are its quick notes. Instead of chatting back and forth, Google gives you a ready-made AI summary right at the top of the results page.
How Do AI Overviews Work?
AI Overviews scan top-ranking web results, identify key themes, and generate a short, synthesized answer; designed to give you the “main takeaway” without needing to click. Like AI Mode, they use query fan-out, breaking your question into related subtopics before summarizing each in-line.
Key Traits of AI Overviews:
- Answer-first experience. Links appear, but they’re secondary; the AI summary aims to resolve your question upfront.
- No back-and-forth. You can’t ask follow-ups or refine the query; AI Overviews are static summaries, not conversational sessions.
- Runs on Gemini, but not in real time. They draw from pre-indexed data, not live sources or dynamic feeds.
- Massive rollout. Available in 200+ countries and 40+ languages, AI Overviews reach far more users than AI Mode’s limited release.
If you want to see AI Overviews more often in your searches, you can opt into the “AI Overviews and more” experiment in Google’s Search Labs.
Core Differences Between Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews
Both AI Mode and AI Overviews enhance Google’s search experience, but in very different ways.
Google AI Mode changes how you search, turning queries into ongoing conversations that evolve with context. AI Overviews change what you see, surfacing synthesized answers directly above traditional results.
Here’s how they differ at a glance:
| Feature | AI Mode | AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | How you search | What you see in search |
| Interaction | Dynamic, chat-like, multi-step conversations | Static summary, one-shot condensed answers |
| Powered by | Gemini (real-time data) | Gemini (pre-indexed data) |
| User intent | Broad, exploratory, or complex queries | Quick, straightforward answers to queries |
| SEO impact | Affects SEO indirectly (search behavior) | Affects SEO directly (SERP visibility) |
| Language usage | Available in the English language only | Available in 40+ languages |
| User access and rollout | Available in 180+ countries | Available in 200+ countries |
| Advanced features restriction | Yes, to Google AI Pro or AI Ultra subscribers | No, full access by all users |
How AI Mode and AI Overviews Are Changing Search And What Comes Next
Google’s rollout of AI Mode and AI Overviews isn’t random; it’s a deliberate step toward reshaping how people interact with Search. According to Google, AI Mode was “born from user behavior and built with the future in mind.”
The goal? To make people “happier with the search experience” by meeting them where their intent lives: in conversation, not keywords. But for SEO professionals, that shift also introduces a new layer of complexity: when search becomes interactive, visibility and click behavior change too.
How Google’s AI Mode Is Reshaping the Search Journey
Traditionally, SEO research meant opening multiple tabs, comparing recommendations, and manually cross-checking data. AI Mode replaces that with a dialogue. You can ask a question, refine it, and keep building context within a single session.
Instead of starting over, it allows you to ask follow-up questions that build on the previous responses.
The example below shows how AI Mode can handle follow-up questions without losing context. The second (highlighted) question, ” Which will be more affordable…” directly relates to the first question.
In another instance, it even cites current data when summarizing verified G2 reviews for the compared tools. That blend of reasoning and live data access marks a clear evolution from traditional search toward interactive exploration.
All these advanced capabilities mean:
- Users can type longer, more detailed, contextual queries (since AI Mode will fan out the query).
- Google AI Mode search sessions will be longer (since users can get all the extra info they need from follow-up questions).
- Traffic from AI Mode citations will be high-quality (since users only click when your content is exactly what they need).
Where Google AI Mode Adoption Stands Today
Many of the early predictions about AI Mode’s impact are already playing out, at least partly. Data from SEO studies and analytics platforms suggest that some behavioral shifts are measurable, while others are still emerging.
1. Longer, More Detailed Queries (Proven)
When Search Engine Land analyzed Google Ads search query reports spanning Jan 1 to June 20 of 2025, they found that impressions and clicks:
- Increased for search terms with 3-4 words.
- Held steady for search terms with 7 or more words.
- Dropped (by about 11%) for search terms with 1-2 search words.
That aligns with AI Mode’s conversational nature as users are typing fuller, more specific questions rather than short, transactional keywords.
2. Higher-Quality Traffic (Proven)
SimilarWeb’s study of over 100k AI Mode users showed that visitors arriving from AI Mode sessions spend more time on-site and view more pages per session compared to those from traditional Google results. This suggests that while overall click volume may shrink, engagement quality and conversion potential rise.
3. Longer Search Sessions (Not Yet Proven)
The same SimilarWeb study found that while Google Search has an average of 5.6 searches per session, AI Mode ranges between 2 and 3.5, even with the Mid-July usage spike (induced by feature updates).
So while AI Mode’s session length is gradually increasing, Google Search’s is still lengthier at the moment.
AI Mode’s Early Adoption Challenge
When Garrett Sussman checked Google Trends data for the term “AI Mode”, he found (as shared in the report above) that apart from search spikes during the feature update in July, “relatively few people are even searching for it”.
In addition, SimilarWeb’s study found that:
- Over 50% of users tried Google AI Mode once and didn’t return.
- Only 20% of users come back for a second session.
- Only about 9% of users used it 5+ times.
This signals that most users are either unaware of AI Mode or lack an incentive to use or continue to use it.
Where AI Mode Is Headed
AI Mode’s growth may accelerate as Google refines the experience and promotes it more aggressively. At launch, Nick Fox, Google’s Head of Knowledge, described it as “the next evolution of Search, designed to understand context and conversation, not just keywords.”
If adoption rises, AI Mode could become a primary search interface, not just an experimental feature. That would make today’s early behavioral shifts (longer queries, higher-quality clicks, more in-depth sessions) the new normal. For SEO teams, that means the goal expands. You’re no longer optimizing to rank; you’re optimizing to be cited, summarized, and clicked from within AI Mode’s conversational answers.
How AI Overviews Are Changing What People See
If a search query triggers an AI Overview, the searcher sees that AI summary first and if it satisfies their intent, they bounce away without clicking on any website.
This AI Overview effect makes it reasonable to expect organic traffic and click-through rates to continually drop as AIO’s adoption deepens.
Current Impact of AI Overviews
While AI Mode changes how people search, AI Overviews change what they see. Instead of prompting conversation, AI Overviews summarize information directly on the results page, often satisfying intent before a user ever clicks.
1. Websites Are Losing Clicks and Traffic
Multiple expert studies have confirmed that, indeed, AI Overviews cause a significant reduction in click-through rates to websites.
This study by Amsive reveals that keywords triggering an AI Overview experienced an average CTR drop of 15.49%. Another study by Seer Interactive found there was a 70% decline (from 2.94% to 0.84%) in organic CTR when an AI Overview appears.
2. AI Overviews Are Prone to Misinformation
Since AI Overviews’ launch in May of 2024, users have pointed out numerous accuracy pitfalls, including one instance where it incorrectly claimed SEO professional Lily Ray is nine years old.
This tendency towards misinformation makes users skeptical of AI Overviews, and SEO professionals are concerned about brand misrepresentations.
As SEO expert Max Dalaney shared in this article, “Google’s AI Overviews are often so confidently wrong that I’ve lost all trust in them”.
3. Some Brands Are Seeing Impressive Traffic from AIO Citations
Even amidst users’ lack of total trust in AI Overviews, SEO agencies like Boxena Digital have been able to help some clients 28x their visibility score in AI Overviews.
With AI Overviews still accurately answering most quick facts and how-tos, if you optimize your content to gain visibility in AI Overviews, you could position your brand to win in the AI search era.
Where AI Overviews Are Headed
Like Google AI Mode, AI Overviews are likely to grow more accurate and trusted over time. As that happens, brands must accept lower CTRs as the new normal and shift focus toward mentions and citations within AI summaries.
To track and refine that visibility, use a dedicated AI monitoring tool like Keyword.com’s AI Rank Tracker, so your brand stays visible and measurable across both traditional and AI-driven search.
What This Means for SEO: Current Trends and Future Outlook
We’re already seeing AI Overviews reshape search behavior, and, as we’ve covered in earlier analyses, generative AI engines are rewriting the rules for visibility and engagement.
The early data shows:
- Noticeable drops in organic CTR.
- Fragmented traffic patterns and disrupted referral sources.
- Shifts in SERP real estate.
But those are surface-level signals. For SEOs and marketers, the deeper implications lie in how we measure success and how we design content strategies.
1. Rethinking Attribution and Success Metrics
Before AI search, an upward traffic graph looked good in a deck and probably to leadership. It was a quantifiable and easy metric to make your case.
But with Google AI search features becoming more prominent, more SEOs and marketers are having to ditch ‘aggregate channel-level metrics’ and track ‘journey-based metrics’, or simply put, content-influenced pipeline metrics, as to what to report on.
“Think like a leader. If you say “SEO is down 12% QoQ and 30% YoY,” that’s the headline they leave with: SEO is failing. Not helpful. Getting granular shifts the narrative away from things you can’t influence and toward things the business cares about.”
We’re entering, or are arguably already in, an era where SEO success will hinge on user engagement, conversion source, and content influence, not just raw traffic.
This shift aligns with how AI systems now process results: Google and LLMs are evaluating content at the passage level, not the page level. So, while classic SEO reports still have value, their relevance will fade as AI-driven visibility becomes the dominant lens.
2. Evolving Content Strategy and Distribution
Topic clustering is still a valid strategy in this AI-powered dispensation. But you need to look beyond keyword-driven clustering to clustering based on information around latent intents and pain points your customers face across the buyer’s journey.
Here’s an example of how that’ll look:
This approach increases your odds of being cited in AI Overviews or retrieved through AI Mode’s passage-level fan-out, since your content will align with nuanced user intents.
Beyond structure, diversify your distribution. Share content where your audience actually consumes it, like Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Substack, and niche communities. These ecosystems often inform AI models and can indirectly boost brand citations in AI-generated summaries.
Together, these shifts point to a near future where traditional rankings matter less than being referenced, reused, or summarized by AI, whether as a snippet, passage, or cited link. The only question is: who adapts fast enough to stay visible?
How Google’s AI Search Features Compare to Other LLM-Based Search Engines
Most LLM-based search tools, like ChatGPT and Perplexity, retrieve and rank results differently from Google. SEO Manager Metehan Yesilyurt’s experiments show:
- ChatGPT ranks content using Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF), which blends multiple ranking models.
- Perplexity emphasizes freshness, topic coverage, and embedding similarity rather than backlinks or authority.
That means Google rankings don’t necessarily translate to visibility on other LLMs. Lexigate’s study supports this: the #1 Google result appeared in ChatGPT’s top three answers only 13% of the time.
By contrast, Google’s AI search features still rely heavily on its existing ranking and safety systems. Botify’s research found that 75% of AI Overview citations came from pages ranking in the top 12 organic results, suggesting a strong overlap with traditional SEO.
However, other studies, like Pieter Verschueren’s, reported lower overlap (just 22.8% from the top 10 results). The discrepancy likely stems from differences in research scope and industry focus.
Regardless, the pattern holds: strong traditional rankings increase your chances of being cited, even if they no longer guarantee it.
How to Prepare for Google’s AI-Powered Search Future
Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, along with upcoming experiments, are shaping the future of organic discovery. While they disrupt traditional SEO playbooks, brands that adapt early will build a visibility moat.
Start by investing in AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and tracking your performance across both search and AI interfaces. Pair your efforts with accurate AI visibility data to measure what truly matters: where your brand is cited, summarized, and surfaced.
Keyword.com can help you track your brand appearances in Gemini AI Mode and AI Overviews. Sign up for our 14-day free trial to know where your content stands.