Google’s AI mode: what it is and what it means for businesses

Below, we explain how AI mode works and how it differs from AI Overviews, how to turn it on and off, and what to do to ensure it mentions your brand. This is part of a wider topic that we call brand visibility in AI.

What is AI mode on Google?

It’s a search engine that works like a conversation. You type in a question, and Google replies with paragraphs of text, a table or a list, with links to sources shown alongside the answer. You can ask follow-up questions, and the model remembers what you were discussing just a moment earlier. Under the bonnet, it’s powered by Gemini – the same model you’ll recognise from the standalone app – but here it draws on the search engine’s index in real time.

AI mode breaks the query down into several smaller ones and searches for each of them separately. Google calls this technique „query fan-out”. So, for the query ‘what invoicing software is best for a sole trader’, the model will check prices, reviews, bank integrations and comparisons separately, and then compile them into a single answer. That is why, in AI mode, the websites that perform best are those that answer specific sub-questions, rather than just the main one key phrase.

How does AI mode differ from AI Overviews?

AI Overviews to krótkie podsumowanie nad zwykłymi wynikami, które Google pokazuje samo, przy części zapytań. Tryb AI włączasz świadomie i dostajesz w nim pełną rozmowę zamiast listy wyników. Oba korzystają z Gemini i z indeksu Google, ale różnią się długością odpowiedzi, liczbą źródeł i tym, co widzi użytkownik.

We describe the difference between an appearance in response and a command in the entry recognition and recommendation. In AI mode, this distinction is particularly important, as the model tends to compile lists of the „best” companies.

How do I enable AI mode in Google?

You don’t need to install anything. AI mode is free and can be enabled in three ways:

• On the google.pl website, click the „AI Mode” tab next to the search box or above the results,
• In the Google app on your phone, select the AI mode icon on the home screen,
• Go directly to google.com/ai.

If you can’t see the tabs, log in to your Google account, check that the search engine is set to Polish, and refresh the page. Google rolls out new features gradually, so they may appear later on some accounts.

How do I turn off AI mode in Google?

AI mode doesn’t switch on by itself, so there’s nothing to switch off: simply don’t use it and search in the „All” tab. To leave a conversation, click on this tab or the Google logo. You can delete your conversation history in AI mode via your Google Account activity settings. AI Overviews are a different matter: these summaries cannot be permanently disabled; at most, you can skip them by using the „Web” tab, which shows only the links.

What does Google’s AI mode mean for businesses?

First and foremost, fewer clicks and more decisions made without visiting the website. A Pew Research Centre study from July 2025 showed that with AI summaries, users clicked on the link in 8% of visits, and without them in 15%. In AI mode, the response is longer than in AI Overviews, so there are even fewer reasons to click. We discuss this in more detail in the article Visibility in AI and SEO.

The second change concerns who comes out on top. In standard results, ten companies have a chance of being clicked on. In the AI mode, the model usually lists a few brands and omits the rest. If your name isn’t there, the customer might not find out about you at all. We describe the mechanism by which the models select brands in the text How AI chatbots choose the brands they recommend.

How can you get the AI mode to mention your company?

Just as with other AI chatbots: provide the model with content it can quote, and corroborating information from independent sources. In its developer documentation, Google emphasises that no special tags or files are required for the AI features in the search engine. All you need is a page that Google can index and display in a snippet. This is good news, because work on SEO It’s not a waste.

Writing content in such a way that the model can extract a ready-made answer from it is AEO. We refer to the work involved in ensuring that the model promotes and recommends the brand as GEO. We have summarised the differences between these concepts in the text SEO, GEO and AEO. We set out the specific measures that will be in place in 2026 in the guide How to get AI to recommend your company.

How can you tell if the AI mode recommends your brand?

Ask the AI mode a few questions that your client might ask, without mentioning your company’s name. For example: „which employment law firm in Kraków” or „which building materials wholesaler in Silesia”. Repeat each question a few times, as the model may respond slightly differently each time, as we explain in the text Why does AI give a different answer every time?. We describe the entire manual test on the page How to find out what AI is saying about your business.

If the brand doesn’t appear, start with the text ChatGPT doesn’t know my company, which also applies to Gemini. If the model mentions the competition but not you, we explain the reasons in the text Why does AI recommend the competition?.

How does Aelo help in AI mode and other chats?

A manual test will show the status on a given day. Module Visibility in AI asks the same frozen set of questions Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, and shows whether the brand appears, alongside whom, and whether the model quotes her website. The results are used to generate a list of tasks in Tickets, and you can prepare the content for the gaps in Studio. With a Free account, you can take your first measurement without a card, and compare the plans in pricing.

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FAQ

Sources

• Google: AI Mode in Search is now available in more languages and locations (7 October 2025): https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/ai-mode-expands-languages-locations/
• Google Search Central, AI features and your website: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
• Google, We're bringing the helpfulness of AI Overviews to more countries in Europe (marzec 2025): https://blog.google/feed/were-bringing-the-helpfulness-of-ai-overviews-to-more-countries-in-europe/
• Pew Research Centre: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (July 2025): https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears/