Glossary
AI Mode
In short: AI Mode is Google's fully conversational search experience, in which the whole results page is replaced by a generated answer with follow-up questions.
AI Mode is a separate tab in Google Search in which the entire response is generated rather than a summary placed above ten links. The user types a question in natural language, Google runs several searches in the background (a technique it describes as query fan-out), and a Gemini model writes a single answer with cited sources and suggested follow-ups.
It differs from AI Overviews in degree rather than kind. Overviews appear only for some queries and sit above organic results; AI Mode is always generative and the organic list is secondary. Because the model issues multiple sub-queries, a page can be cited for an aspect of a question it would never have ranked for on its own, which rewards pages that cover a topic thoroughly in clearly labelled sections.
As with Overviews, there is no dedicated crawler and no opt-out short of blocking Googlebot. Entity clarity, consistent NAP data and structured data all help the model attribute facts to the right business.
Seoptist lists Google AI Mode as one of its tracked engines, collected through a licensed SERP data provider rather than by scraping the consumer interface, and reports visibility and share of voice for it alongside the other engines.