Google has announced its "AI Mode" in Search for all US users starting today. CEO Sundar Pichai referred to the update as "the total reimagining of search." This will change Google from a link list to an interactive AI assistant.
Delivering the update at the I/O developer conference, Pichai spoke about Google's scale by stating, "Search is bringing AI to more people than any other product in the world," and that the platform does about 8.5 billion searches a day.
AI Mode substitutes the traditional search results page for a chatbot-like experience. The user gets responses from AI and is asked follow-up questions, moving away from presenting just links. Liz Reid, Google's VP and Head of Search, commented that "the search results page was a construct" based on the structure of the web, but that now users demand "more complicated, longer, and multimodal questions" answered conversationally.
Reid further disclosed that AI Overviews have increased Google's usage by more than 10% in big markets such as the US and India.
Google's knowledge and information products chief, Nick Fox, sees AI Mode as a natural extension. "Google's AI models are now capable of reasoning, of transforming, of connecting dots across, of synthesizing," he explained, moving away from the conventional information retrieval.
This development fits the company's vision of making Search an intelligent agent, competent to perform sophisticated tasks.
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Google also announced "Project Mariner," an AI agent that independently executes tasks like travel booking. Other future features include "Deep Search" for in-depth searches and "Search Live" for live visual assistance.
Fox forecasts a radical change, saying, "In three years, we will all think about and use Search in a way completely unrecognizable to today's product."
Google's AI Mode marks an evolution in the way consumers utilize search engines. Introducing conversational AI into search, Google provides more clarity and access to more meaningful responses for more complex questions.
The blue links will still be there for now, but search engines will progress with more intelligent assistance and interaction, and Google is paving the way for AI search innovation.