In This Article
Google’s AI Mode is transforming how people search, discover, and decide – no clicks required. As search becomes more personal, conversational, and AI-led, brands must rethink visibility and influence to stay in the game.
Since March 2025, AI Mode has been quietly reshaping search in the US. Now, the same conversation-first experience powered by Gemini 2.5 is rolling out across the UK. For brands, this is not just another update, it is a fundamental shift in how people discover, assess, and interact with your business. Search has changed – and brands need to evolve with it.
AI Mode currently lives as a separate tab on Google Search, but we expect it to replace the homepage experience altogether. This is Google’s response to the rapidly moving AI landscape, with Perplexity launching Comet as an AI browser, and OpenAI announcing similar plans. The web is being rewritten – not as a browser, but as an AI Operating System. And Google is racing to define that future.
What is AI Mode?
AI Mode transforms Google Search into a smart, dialogue-based assistant. Built on Gemini 2.5, it breaks down complex queries, reasons across them, and generates intelligent, cited answers in a single interface. It is multimodal, drawing on voice, images, and text, and features like Deep Search and agentic tasks (booking, filtering, purchasing) signal where it is all heading. Users no longer scroll a page of blue links. They get what they need in one hit. Zero-click search.
What does it mean for marketing activity?
The core foundations of SEO still matter. Clean site architecture, great UX, technical hygiene, and E-E-A-T-rich content remain essential but visibility no longer guarantees traffic. AI Mode delivers direct answers. Your brand might be quoted, but not clicked. Success now hinges on being cited, trusted, and pulled into AI responses, not just being listed on page one. This is yet another evolution in SEO – one where traditional ranking factors are only part of the picture. LLMs rely on additional trust signals, including semantic relationships, source variety, and narrative strength. We are moving from Search Engine Optimisation to something much broader: Brand Optimisation.
In AI Mode, ads are starting to appear directly within or alongside AI-generated responses, not as separate units at the top of a search results page but contextually blended into the conversation. Currently live in the US and expected to follow in the UK, this shift marks a new frontier for paid search. It means ads are being selected not just by keyword match, but by their relevance to the AI’s understanding of the query and intent.
For brands, this changes the dynamics of visibility. Performance Max and broad match campaigns are likely to be prioritised, while exact match becomes less reliable in a conversation-led search journey. With AI compressing the funnel and curating fewer but more targeted outputs, advertisers have less room to intercept – but greater power to convert when they do.
To compete, brands must rethink how they brief, structure, and optimise creative. Relevance, clarity, and context now matter as much as bid strategies. And with visibility no longer guaranteed through familiar placements, brands will need stronger content signals and first-party data to stay present in the moment of decision.
Why this matters for brands
Zero-click dominance: Visibility is no longer a sure route to traffic. If AI Mode answers the query, users may never reach your site.
AI-curated brand narratives: If the AI does not cite you, you do not exist in the answer.
Personalised search at scale: Search results vary per user – tailored to location, inbox, calendar, previous activity. Broad content strategies alone will not cut it anymore.
Reduced research windows: Fewer stages, less comparison, faster decisions. You need to be relevant in fewer moves.
The SEO era is giving way to the Brand Optimisation era. It’s not just about ranking – it’s about becoming the source that AI turns to.
Why brands need to act now
At Found, we have long anticipated this shift. Our Everysearch™ approach is built for it. We do not see SEO, PPC, and content as siloed tactics – we engineer them together to make brands discoverable across the entire searchable web. Platforms like TikTok, Amazon, Instagram, and now ChatGPT, are as critical as Google. And with Luminr, our proprietary tool, we track AI-led brand visibility at scale – across traditional results, LLMs, and zero-click moments most brands cannot even see.
But being visible is not enough. You need to stand out. That is where our creative AI capabilities come in – enabling brands to produce compelling, brand-safe content at pace and at scale, while always staying true to the strategy and the story. Performance without identity is forgettable. We build both.
Looking ahead
Google’s AI Mode is not a subtle shift – it is a rewrite of how Search works. The funnel is collapsing. The SERP is disappearing. The conversation has replaced the click. Whether you are in SEO or paid, what matters now is presence – in the right places, with the right message, at the right moment.
Found helps brands stay ahead in this landscape – not just by optimising what they have, but by building strategies, systems, and creative ecosystems that push their performance further. We help brands operate at the speed of change – staying in control of the narrative, staying present in the answers, and showing up where it counts.
If you want your brand to be the one AI talks about, explore our AI search services and let’s talk.
