Unlike traditional search engines that generate a list of web links based on the user’s query or provided descriptions, Google’s AI Mode will deliver answers with responses crafted by AI, utilizing data from Google’s search database. This is different from the AI Overviews available in Google Search, which display an AI summary between the search input and web results.

AI Mode is placed in a specific tab found prominently before the “All,” “Images,” “Videos,” and “Shopping” tabs in the search tab arrangement. It represents Google’s response to language model-based search tools such as Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT search options. These AI models are tailored for internet searches and can provide real-time data better than standard chatbots like Gemini, enhancing their ability to supply relevant and current answers.

Google is also scrapping the waitlist for Labs users in the US to test AI Mode, allowing more people to opt in to try the Search feature before it becomes widely available.

AI Mode itself has also been updated with some new capabilities, including a feature that will save past searches to a new left-side panel, allowing users to quickly revisit topics or ask follow-up queries without starting a new conversation. Visual, clickable cards for products and places are also now starting to appear in AI Mode, providing information like opening hours, reviews, and ratings for businesses, and images, inventory, shipping details, and real-time prices for shoppable products.