What Is Google AI Mode? How To Enable On Mobile & Desktop?

Google AI Mode is a new feature that embodies Google’s vision to improve search and provide relevant information to people, quickly and easily.

Providing a new search experience in a conversational style. Users receive answers to their complex queries promptly, thanks to Gemini 2.5’s in-house superior model.

What Is Google AI Mode? A Simple Explanation

Google AI Mode is a powerful AI search feature, similar to ChatGPT, that answers complex queries using a “query fan-out” technique, which makes it different from AI Overviews summary.

AI mode answers are powered by large language models. It doesn’t show “10-blue links” and “ads” – it delivers direct, natural language answers including inline citations (like AI Overviews offer) and shows relevant websites in the right-side bar.

For marketers, it is an opportunity to show their brand in AI mode as it shows references to relevant websites to search. By using answer engine optimization (AEO) technique, brands can appear in the AI mode citation links.

How Google AI Mode Works?

Google AI Mode uses query fan-out technique also known as thematic search where a single user search is broken down into multiple, related sub-queries that are executed simultaneously.

This technique help AI Mode to dig deeper into the search query and show highly-relevant and helpful answer.

Below is exactly how AI Mode answer to users’ query:

1. Understand Query While Thinking Inmost

Utilizing an integrated model (Gemini 2.5) that handles queries entered by the user by breaking them into single words. In visual, you may see thinking logic in action with counts (representing an AI model searching for multiple websites) and generating answers by synthesising content from the multiple websites.

2. Generate Answer Using Thematic Search

As I said earlier, AI Mode intact thematic search process to overhaul its model capability to generate answers accurately.

When its model understands the query completely, it generates a long summarised answer in a clear and structured format. In between, it shows websites in the right corner with the first being the highest relevant content source.

3. Ask a Follow-Up Suggestions

After an initial answer, users can follow-up questions if they want more answers in the particular from the AI Mode which is another distinct feature from AI Overviews.

They could ask about intent-based questions to get more additional information of the question. For example; I asked about how to implement AEO in blog content and bang!, it gives the answer.

And you can keep asking follow-up questions for more information.

How To Enable AI Mode In Search?

You need gmail account to access AI Mode in mobile and desktop. Following are the step by step guide to enable AI mode in search on mobile (Android and iOS) and desktop.

In mobile (Android & iOS)

1. Open Google App on your smartphone.

2. Search for “labs.google” and open first website.

3. Scroll down to bottom and click on “Search Lab” option.

4. You will see intuitive UI design with a “Turn on” button. Click on this button. Next, click on “Try AI Mode” button to enable this feature in search.

5. You will see “AI Mode” tab appear in the menu. Search your query in the AI Mode and get answers quickly.

In Desktop

Follow the below process to enable AI Mode search experience in desktop.

1. Go to labs.google.com/search/

2. Click on “Join to Try” button appear under new experiment sub heading.

3. Enter email address for which you want to access AI Mode into. After login, click on “Turn On” option.

4. After turning on, accept if you want to receive email updates or skip if you don’t want. Click on “Try AI Mode” button to use in search.

Key Features Of Google AI Mode

AI Mode hosts several features which are mentioned below.

• Generate Instant Summaries: Get concise overviews of news articles, research papers, or long blog posts, but not limited to this.
• Thinking Inmost: For every query, it think before generating answer, which shows deepest conversational experience with AI Mode.
• Code Snippets & Math Solver: Paste code blocks or equations; receive annotated solutions. Good for students and researchers to solve complex solution.
• Citation Links: Every factual statement includes a “Source” link back to the original page. An opportunity for marketers to invade new search revolution.

Use Cases Of Google AI Mode

AI Mode making a widespread application in the following areas.

• Research & Study: Summarize academic papers or generate quiz questions in one click.
• Travel Planning: Provide detailed and personalized responses of of landmarks to get name, history, and visiting tips.
• Content Creation: Ask for outlines, meta descriptions, or marketing headlines, AI Mode drafts them inline.
• Debugging & Coding: Paste an error message and AI Mode suggests fixes and links to Stack Overflow threads.

Conclusion

In my view, AI Mode is a beneficial feature to get a different kind of search experience and personalized responses in a fast-moving world.

Though Google AI Mode shares a few similar familiarities to the AI Overviews and other conversational chatbot such as ChatGPT, it precedently made its presence among global users.

Slowly, businesses and individuals are shifting to AI Mode, with the goal of gaining visibility in the citation sources, to build trust and traffic.

If you’re a business or content creator, now is the time to optimize for AI-driven search experiences by adopting AEO practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

References Mentioned

• SEJ’s Query Fan-Out Patent Overview study
• Google AI Mode official page

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Bharat Kumar

Bharat is a content editor at The Next Tech for the past 3 years. He is studying Generative AI (GenAI) from Analytics Vidhya and share his learnings by writing on Generative Engines, Large Language Models, and Artificial Intelligence. In addition to his editorial work, Bharat is active on LinkedIn, where he shares bite-sized updates and achievements. Outside work, he’s known as a Silver‑rank Valorant player, reflecting his competitive edge and strategic mindset.

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