Google’s AI Mode rolled out in the US on 20th of May 2025.
As I said many times over the last 2 years: the Search results page is dying.
For decades, we assumed that a prioritized list is the best answer to a search query. As a user, we had to click through different results, maybe start several searches and compile our own answers based on the multiple websites that we visited.
All the big search engines operate like that: Google, Youtube, Booking, Amazon – until now.
The prioritized list is being replaced by comprehensive, customized and specific answers generated by AI.
Search is changing
And this is not a minor change or SEO detail – it is a radical transformation of how Google operates and serves information.
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai explained that
- AI Mode will be in a separate tab for now.
- Overtime, Google will “migrate it to the main page”.
Many (e.g. The Verge) assume that AI Mode is essentially the future of Search and will transform the way Google answers search queries forever: “The new features coming to AI Mode are mostly things that you simply can’t do with a normal Google query.”
What is AI Mode?
AI Mode is essentially a ChatGPT-style chatbot experience – in Search.
Google says: AI Mode is particularly helpful for queries where further exploration, reasoning, or complex comparisons are needed. People can ask nuanced questions that might have previously taken multiple searches — from exploring a new concept, to comparing options, and beyond — and get a comprehensive AI-powered response with links to supporting websites.
Kevin Indig comments: “The twist of 2025 is that Google is meeting ChatGPT on its own turf. AI Mode lifts Google’s results page into the same chat-first UI that Open AI popularized.”
More technically speaking, Michael King has summarized the evolution as:
- “Reasoning models that generate answers from multiple semantically-related documents.
- Fan-out queries that rewrite the search experience as a latent multi-query event.
- Passage-level retrieval instead of page-level indexing.
- Personalization through user embeddings, meaning every user sees something different, even for the same query in the same location.
- Zero-click behavior, where being cited matters more than being clicked.
(…)
SEO spent the past twenty-five years preparing content to be parsed and presented based on how it ranks for a single query. Now, we’re engineering relevance to penetrate systems of reasoning across an array of queries.”
Marie Haynes documented the process of “query fan-out” in March 2025 here (at the time the product was still in beta within Google Labs). Key learnings:
- “In traditional search, a user submits a query, and Google retrieves results from its index of web pages that are likely to be relevant, helpful and reliable.
- The “query fan-out” means that Google is bringing together the results from multiple related searches into one comprehensive answer.
- Instead of finding results relevant to one query, the system is searching for multiple queries and merging results together.”
How can we track AI Mode?
When AI Mode first rolled out in late May, its presence, impressions and clicks were not included in Google Search Console. This has since changed!
AI Mode (similar to AI Overview) is included in overall Search Console data. However, impressions can not specifically be broken out between Classic Search, AI Overview and AI Mode.
What the latest changes mean for your startup
2025 has been a wild year for Search. And we currently see several major trends converging:
- Decreased click through rates in classic organic Search due to the presence of AI Overview and AI Mode
- Increased referral traffic from LLMs and AI-powered Search such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini as well as first conversions
- Introduction of Ads to AI-powered Search, e.g. AI Overview and AI Mode
Decreased click through rates in Classic Search
In early 2025, Google has dramatically increased the presence of AI Overview and finally rolled it out for Europe (incl. DACH). In our research, we have seen AI Overview now show for more than 60% of top of funnel queries and almost 50% of bottom of funnel queries.
This has led to a phenomenon of a great divide between impressions and clicks: For almost all of our B2B clients organic impressions are going through the roof, whilst clicks decrease as click through rate falls.
Ryan Law from Ahrefs calls this an “open mouth crocodile” as zero click searches change the way users interact with search: “Impressions are increasing because AI Overviews now give companies two chances to log an impression for a given keyword: once as a “traditional” blue link in the search results, and again as a citation in an AI Overview. If your content already ranks highly enough to earn a decent number of organic impressions, there’s a good chance it could also be cited in an AI Overview and earn impressions there, too.”
This trend will likely be accelerated by AI Mode since we will experience even more zero click searches where the AI-generated answer gives people what they need.
Increased referral traffic from LLMs and AI-powered Search
LLM referrals can not make up for the drops that most websites experience in classic Search. For our B2B clients, LLM referrals currently drive between 1 and 3% of what classic Search is driving.
The trend is accelerating since early 2025 though and the quality of traffic is high since many users self-educate and research deeply within LLMs before they decide to click through.
We find that referral traffic from LLMs is highly qualified and tends to convert at a higher rate than general organic traffic. Lily Ray featured our research in her BrightonSEO 2025 keynote:
We have a new and free dashboard that compares Classic Search and LLM referrals side by side and you can now try it here.
Introduction of Ads to AI-powered Search, e.g. AI Overview and AI Mode
Yes, ads are coming! Google says: “We’re also starting to test ads in AI Mode (…). Where relevant, ads may appear below and integrated into AI Mode responses.
For example, someone may use AI Mode to search “how to build a website for a small business with limited resources”. They’ll get a comprehensive response with a step–by-step guide, tips and tricks on how to choose a product, connect with their audience, all the way to testing and launching. In some cases, a website builder might be a good next step, so we may show a helpful ad that can help them get started. From there, they can ask questions to explore possible business ideas, what type of content they should develop, and even learn about their target audience.
Advertisers who are already using Performance Max, Shopping and Search campaigns with broad match, including AI Max for Search campaigns, will be eligible to have their ads appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode.”
We currently do not have a break out between AI Overview and other ad placements.
Now what?
Google says about appearing in AI features: “You can apply the same foundational SEO best practices for AI features as you do for Google Search overall: making sure the page meets the technical requirements for Google Search, following Search policies, and focusing on the key best practices, such as creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.”
This is only somewhat helpful as Michael King outlines here:
“Yes, you still need to make content accessible, indexable, and understood, but the difference is that in classic informational retrieval, your content comes out the same way it goes in. In generative informational retrieval, your content is manipulated and you don’t know how or if it will appear on the other side even if you did all your SEO best practices right and it informed the response. (…)
So, while Google has historically warned us against marketing to bots, the new environment basically requires that we consider bots as a primary consumer because the bots are the interpreters of information for the end user.”
If you are curious, I strongly recommend you to read:
- Michael King’s break-down of how AI Mode works
- Kevin Indig’s summary of the new normal of Search
- James Cadwallader’s talk on agent experience
New focus
In these wild times in Search, our approach here at Flow Agency includes:
- Highly specific content on your website
- For your audience, industry and persona
- To drive their research and decision-making process (bottom of funnel)
- Focusing on your product and use cases
- No more writing for the sake of word count! No more generic, top of funnel, “what is” type content.
- Multi-media approach to win real estate in Search, including subject matter expert quotes, original research, images, videos and podcasts.
- Alignment of brand and positioning across the entire web
- Updating (or pruning) on your own website, social profiles and review sites
- Sharing goals between brand marketing, digital PR and SEO activities
- Cleaning up of old backlinks and references across the web
Ready to take the next step in AI search? See how Flow Agency can help your brand appear in LLMs like Google AI mode.
New success measurement
Kevin Indig explains “In an AIO-and-LLM world, you’re not just fighting for traffic; you’re fighting for mindshare wherever prospects ask questions:
- Google’s AI Overviews
- ChatGPT
- Reddit threads, YouTube comments, Discord chats
Your brand needs to echo across all of them.
That means new KPIs.
In short, SEO is graduating from direct-response to influence.”
