What is Google AI Mode?
Google AI Mode is a conversational search mode inside Google Search, powered by Gemini. You ask a question in plain language, get a written answer with links to web sources and keep refining it with follow-up questions, much like chatting with an AI assistant.
Google introduced AI Mode in 2025 and has since expanded it to more countries and languages, including the Netherlands. It opens as a separate tab in Google Search. Where AI Overviews add a short summary above the regular results, AI Mode puts a full answer and a conversation in place of the familiar list of links.
Google says AI Mode uses a technique called query fan-out: it splits your question into subtopics and runs many searches at once, then combines what it finds into one answer. That makes it well suited to longer, more complex questions.
Why Google AI Mode matters for your brand
In AI Mode, the answer is the page. Searchers see a handful of brands and sources inside the response instead of ten organic results, so being named or cited decides whether you make their shortlist at all. A strong organic ranking helps, but it does not guarantee a place in the answer.
Because of query fan-out, AI Mode can pull in sources for subquestions you never targeted directly, such as pricing, integrations or reviews. Brands with clear, specific content on each of those subtopics give it more to work with. Follow-up questions matter too: a brand that appears in the first answer can drop out when the user narrows the question.
How to improve your visibility in Google AI Mode
Map the subquestions behind your main topics (price, comparisons, use cases, pros and cons) and answer each one on a clear, crawlable page.
Write passages that make sense on their own, so a single section can be quoted without the rest of the page.
Keep your facts consistent across your site, review platforms and directories, since AI Mode combines several sources.
Test prompts the way people phrase them in conversational search, including follow-up questions, instead of short keywords.
Trackbase runs your prompts daily in Google AI Mode and ten other AI models, showing where your brand is mentioned, cited or missing compared with competitors.
Examples of Google AI Mode
A user asks which project management tool suits a 15-person design agency that works with freelancers and gets a comparison of four tools, each with a short reason and a source link.
A follow-up question, "which of these has Dutch-language support?", narrows the answer to two tools, and one brand from the first answer disappears.
For "plan a three-day cycling trip along the Dutch coast", AI Mode combines route tips, bike rental options and weather advice from several websites into one plan.
A B2B payroll software vendor finds its pricing page cited for a cost question, while a competitor's review profile is cited for a question about customer support.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Google AI Mode and AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are short summaries that appear above the regular results for some searches. AI Mode is a separate, conversational search experience where the whole page is an AI answer and you can keep asking follow-up questions. AI Mode also uses query fan-out to research several subtopics at once, which suits longer and more complex questions.
Can you track your brand's visibility in Google AI Mode?
Yes. Because answers vary with phrasing and change over time, you need to run a fixed set of prompts regularly and record which brands and sources appear. AI visibility tools such as Trackbase do this automatically every day, so you can follow your mentions, citations and share of voice in AI Mode next to other AI models.
Does SEO still matter for Google AI Mode?
Yes. AI Mode looks for sources in Google's index, so pages that are crawlable, indexed and relevant have a head start. But ranking alone does not guarantee a place in the answer, since AI Mode selects passages for each subquestion it researches. Combine SEO with content that answers specific questions directly and with a presence on the third-party sites that cover your category.