​What Exactly Has Changed?

AI Mode and AI Overviews have been rolled further into Google Search, shifting the experience from a list of links to a synthesized response layer built on top of traditional search results.

The most visible change is, of course, the search box. Relatively unchanged for decades, Google now prompts users directly into new AI-led features. Instead of just autocomplete suggestions, users are now offered routes into Gemini models, image and document uploads, and conversational prompts in a way that mirrors ChatGPT. Not only that, but Google now actively encourages long-form conversational queries rather than short keyword-based searches. The search engine is adapting to user behaviour in a way it never has before.

Other Shifts You May Have Missed

Alongside the update to search, Google also shared insights into how people in the U.S. are using AI Mode. Voice and image searches now account for more than one in six searches overall, with image searches growing over 40% month over month. The shift to more conversational search also has become evident, with the average AI Mode search being three times as long as a traditional search query. Perhaps most interesting is the reported 80% increase in “queries related to planning” over the last six months.

​In other words, many people aren’t using AI Mode to answer a question; they’re using it to achieve an outcome. They’re asking real questions that they might have asked a person before. These are queries that may have multiple stages and multiple constraints requiring consideration. Instead of asking questions about a holiday destination (e.g., “best time to visit Paris,” “best hotels in Paris,” “best restaurants near Pigalle”), people are using AI Mode to plan entire trips, with queries that look something like this: “I have a $2,000 budget, I’m free in July or August, I love art, plan me a week visiting Paris.”

​What Do These Changes Mean For Brands?

The entire user journey can now take place within a search engine. A 2024 study by SparkToro found that zero-click searches accounted for 58.5% of all U.S. Google searches. Google’s search revolution means that number is probably going to get much, much higher.

The shift is designed to make users’ lives more convenient, but it could make yours a lot harder. As AI agents bring more interactions away from your site and centralize them within search engines, the typical ways we track and analyze user data have to change. We no longer can rely on website sessions, UTM codes or clean user click journeys, making your current attribution model largely obsolete.

​What Should You Do About It?

While Google’ overhaul represents a new phase in how we view user journeys, build our brand presence online and measure success, the fundamentals of search are still the same. Google still values good quality brands that understand their customers, and are trusted by others—it has simply developed more sophisticated signals that can meet the needs of evolving user expectations and behaviours.

Here are some ways to start adapting:​

Unify Organic, Paid And AI Search Strategies

Stop treating organic, paid and AI search as separate channel conversations. Visibility is shifting from channel silos to a unified system. AI synthesizes information from multiple sources, so public relations, SEO, paid media and content all feed the same underlying entity signal.

Stop Focusing On Rankings, And Optimize Your Brand Entity

Visibility is shifting from pages to entities, so your brand, products, leaders and locations need consistent signals across the web. AI doesn’t just pick one ranking URL; it pulls and synthesizes information from across sources to fully understand your brand.

Stop Separating AI And GEO; Embed Them

There is no separate strategy for AI search. Answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) are essentially just SEO applied to an AI surface. Google still rewards helpful, structured and authoritative content, but now puts more emphasis on clarity and extractability.

Start Measuring Causal Outcomes, Not Clicks

AI search and zero-click environments mean users can be influenced without ever visiting your site. Click-through rates and sessions alone don’t show the full picture anymore. Instead, focus on things like brand lift, incremental conversions, geo experiments and assisted conversions.

Ensure You’re Present Throughout The Conversation

Search is becoming a planning and decision-making interface. Users are no longer just asking questions; they are trying to solve entire problems inside search. So you can’t just answer isolated queries with blog content. You need to support decisions by making sure your brand appears in comparison, constraint-based and recommendation-driven queries.

​As Google has adapted to keep users within its platform, you can no longer rely on a single page or ranking. You need to optimize your online footprint so your brand is present throughout complex planning journeys—not just answering one question, but being consistently surfaced across follow-up prompts, comparisons and refinement stages.

This update goes way beyond technical changes; it’s behavioural. Search is moving from a system that helps users find information to one that helps them make decisions. The question is no longer just “How do I rank?” It’s “How do I stay present while decisions are being made?” It’s time we all started taking a lot more notice.​