AI Mode Optimisation: How To Get Your Products To Show in AI Mode
Article by SEO Director and seasoned SEO Nerd, Liam Challoner.
The annual Google I/O event took place this week and boy did they drop some HUGE announcements, with the crown jewel being that AI Mode is here (well, sort of). The highly anticipated AI Mode has now fully launched for everyone in the US after being previously launched as an experiment only a couple of months ago. So given that it only took a matter of months to go from experimentation to full launch in the US, that tells us two things.
First, AI is Google’s plan A, B and C right now, it’s their number one priority (which it should be) as they are trying their best to maintain as much market share as possible and this addition to their AI catalogue might just do it. Maybe…
Second, I reckon it won’t be long until other markets like UK and Australia will have full access to this given how quickly it’s been developed from experimentation to launch in the US.
As an Aussie SEO and digital marketer, this poses a few questions that I am pre-empting will be on everyone’s lips. Like how do I get my brand to show in these results and more importantly, how do I get my products to show in front of potential customers in AI Mode?
Get yourself a coffee, lock in, let’s unpack this together. I’ll summarise what we know about AI Mode, the implications on shopping and hypothesise how to get your products to show in AI Mode.
What is AI Mode?
Simply put, AI Mode is a new way of searching in Google for queries that require further exploration, reasoning or comparisons. Think like if the Gemini interface and logic had a baby with the traditional Google browser, with some new features added (horrendous analogy but you get it right).
You can use AI Mode to ask longer and more complex queries than what you would typically ask traditional search engines (or you can search normal traditional queries too if you prefer longer, more informed responses).
AI mode uses a “query fan-out” method, which will breakdown your question into subtopics, logically structure the information into subsections and allow you to navigate deeper through topics that are relevant to what you are researching. So unlike traditional search where you would search one query, AI Mode will be looking at multiple semantic queries and terms relevant to what you enter and merge all the information together in a way that it thinks is best.
One key aspect of AI Mode will be Deep Search, which uses the same fan-out method but essentially on steroids, creating “expert-level fully-cited reports in just minutes”.
I personally think this will be insanely helpful in collating the endless information Google has into logical recommendations for just about anything from holiday inspo, summarising research and especially product recommendations.
AI mode will appear in a new tab in search alongside the normal tabs.
AI Mode is run through Gemini 2.5 and the LLM can source information from a range of sources whether that’s web, api connections or even information that it can gather from your past interactions across AI Mode and connected Google apps. This personal context option is at the control of the user, so people can opt in and out if they don’t feel comfortable with the tool analysing all their Google touchpoints across Gmail and Google Sheets, Docs etc.
AI Mode also integrates another one of Google’s recent developments called Project Mariner, which allows AI Mode to trawl the web and use Google for you, navigating through websites, filling out forms for you and completing tasks on websites to come back and give you a summary of information. It can oversee up to 10 simultaneous tasks at once currently. The example Google uses is buying tickets to an event, where AI mode will analyse hundreds of ticket options based on real-time pricing and inventory, even submitting forms to get the required information, then presenting the options back to you. To begin with, this sounds like it will be limited to event tickets, restaurant reservations and making local appointments but will likely expand to a lot more. Imagine just saying ‘organise a 7 day trip to Bali’ and AI mode sorts out every single detail for you, plane tickets, transport, makes bookings and purchases everything, sounds pretty great right?
Another huge integration within AI Mode that will be coming is from Google’s Project Astra, which allows you to talk to the tool directly or even let it see what you are seeing through your camera and get information, tips, reviews etc. Essentially an AI assistant you can chat to and let see what you see, which sounds very interesting. Project Astra even allows you to let the tool make phone calls for you and search the web for information. For example imagine you’re working on a home renovation, you’ve run out of sealant, you don’t really know what you’re doing and your hands are filthy. Handsfree, you can ask the tool to find a DIY YouTube video for you for your exact issue, analyse your project visually to give you personalised recommendations or even ask the tool to handle a phone call with your local hardware shop to see if they have more sealant in stock and come back to you when it has the answer. Basically, you’ve got your own personalised assistant and shopper in the palm of your hands (or in this case resting on your workbench).
So, we’ve got all of these new features all rolled into AI Mode and there’s even more stuff that I haven’t mentioned, how is this going to affect shopping and selling products online?
How does shopping work in Google’s AI Mode?
With AI Mode, shopping online looks to be revolutionised, from getting inspiration for styles to their new virtual try on tool.
AI Mode uses Google’s Shopping Graph, which is their machine learning data set, which works off real time data from billions of products. So, that means that AI Mode can analyse all of this data based on the criteria you search and provide you with highly relevant and even personalised recommendations. So if you are looing for a travel bag, you can specify that you need one big enough for a 3 day trip to Melbourne, that can fit in overhead storage on a plane but also safely store your laptop, in a certain design with a specific colour choice, with a water bottle holder, under a certain price (I can keep listing criteria to make my point but I’ll stop) and Google will analyse billions of product listings to find the most convenient and best option for you. The possibilities seem endless here!
They also have some advanced price tracking and purchasing options, so once you’ve got your heart set on a product, you can tell AI Mode to track the price of the product and when they detect a price drop, they will notify you and can even purchase it for you using their “buy for me” feature, checking out through the retailer’s website on your behalf. Referred to as Agentic Checkout, you can set your preferences for products, Google will track the product and even complete the purchase automatically when the timing is right, meaning you can configure AI Mode to shop for you while you’re off living your best life.
To take it a step further, the virtual try on tool or “try it on” feature allows you to upload a photo of yourself and AI Mode will show you exactly what you’d look like wearing the product. I’ve seen a few retailers who have try on assistants online which can sometimes work well and typically require you to select a model that looks similar to you. This virtual try on tool within AI Mode takes a lot of the guess work out as you are the model! You’ll be able to see exactly how it looks on you and make a more informed purchase decision.
How do I get my products to show in AI Mode?
So, let’s chat about what we know for sure.
We know that AI Mode sources information from across the web and that for product listings specifically, it heavily uses Google’s Shopping Graph, their AI driven machine learning model.
We know that some of the key sources that Shopping Graph gathers its information from include Google Merchant Center, data it can scrape directly from retailer websites, User Generated Content (UGC), reviews and other external touchpoints.
So based on this, as an SEO I would be focusing heavily on improving the quality of your merchant listings through the products you upload to your Google Merchant Center feed, unique product optimisations on your website (technical and on-page) as well as getting ample positive reviews.
I recently wrote an article on how to optimise for organic product grids in Google SERPs and a lot of these principals will apply to getting your products to show in AI Mode. Let’s chat through some of these key recommendations.
Ensure your product feed is accurate
Are all of your products available online being correctly pulled through your Google Merchant Center feed? Do you have a lot of products that are classified as “Needs attention”? Before optimising for AI Mode, this is probably the first place to check to ensure that your products are valid.
Obtaining the Top Quality Store Badge
In Google Merchant Center, this is given to stores who offer an exceptional shopping experience across Google’s shopping touchpoints. These are already displayed across free listings in organic search now and likely will be used in AI Mode alongside store ratings which we can see in the previews shared by Google, so obtaining this will be a key aspect. To get the Top Quality Store Badge, see how your store compares to the competition within the “Store quality” section of Google Merchant Center and improve aspects like product imagery, page speed, eWallet options, store rating and delivery times/costs. Side note on the eWallet options, given that Google’s new “buy for me” feature allows AI Mode to purchase for you, will they favour purchasing from online stores that have Google Pay configured? Maybe, maybe not, but just a thought to keep in mind…
Optimising product titles
Accurately describe your product with keyword optimised terms. Don’t stick to basic naming conventions when it comes to your product titles within the feed, you need to give Google relevant information about the specific product like colour, sizing, brand, fabric, gender etc. Don’t go over the top, it still needs to accurately reflect your product, but you also need to provide as much context as possible.
Price competitiveness
With organic product grids in what you would call traditional Google search, we’ve seen retailers who offer the same product, with worse delivery times and less reviews, outrank competition, likely due to being cheaper. That’s often what the customer cares most about at the end of the day! This will be a big aspect of AI Mode when presenting products in front of users that are available at multiple retailers. If you can successfully monitor pricing amongst your competition for retailers who sell the same or similar products, will we start to see brands drop pricing ever so slightly to trigger AI Mode’s price tracking features and drive conversion? Unclear exactly how this will look but will be interesting feature to keep an eye on.
Product reviews & general brand sentiment
Do your products have real, unique, relevant and quality customer reviews? It’s no surprise that often products that rank well currently in organic product grids have a lot of high rated reviews (this goes for both reviews left directly on your website and external sources). Google want to show users what they deem the most useful products and this is a key criteria in determining that when picking between retailers who sell the same or similar products. AI Mode won’t be any different and ensuring that you are sourcing quality reviews will have an impact on if your products will show within AI Mode.
Beyond just products, how your brand is viewed and trusted will also determine your success. Make sure you have a well thought online footprint and quality experiences across all touchpoints online.
On-page optimisation & technical SEO
Put on your traditional SEO hat and ask yourself some questions around your product page experience. Do your product landing pages have optimised heading structures, unique and helpful content descriptions, quality imagery with alt text, size guides, FAQs, shipping and returns information. From a more technical standpoint are you having any indexing or discoverability issues being flagged within Google Search Console? Are your products all available to crawlers via your sitemap? Are your reviews visible and crawlable?
Structured data
We know Google validates feeds by crawling your website to ensure the information provided matches what customers can see when shopping online. Through having optimised structured data on your product landing pages, you can ensure Google can validate and crawl crucial information about your products like pricing, availability, shipping details, loyalty programs, reviews and even product group relationships. I have put together a Google Merchant Center & Structured Data/Schema Checklist that you can use to see how key product attributes that you upload in your feed can be added to your product landing pages through structured data.
Other AI Mode considerations & predictions
Checkout will eventually be available directly within AI Mode (beyond “Buy for me” application)
As mentioned, AI Mode can already alert users about products they’ve had their eye on, when prices and conditions are met it can even buy it for you now if set up. I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing full funnel experiences in AI Mode, from discovery all the way through to purchasing, without the need to go to companies websites for just about any product. This is the logical next step and the way Google has been shaping up their search experience for the last few years, trying to remove as many steps and friction points as possible and they’re kind of already doing it.
Paid Ads will become prominent in AI Mode
It’s still early days with AI Mode but even in their previews for shopping related terms we can see sponsored ads present. And if I know Google how I think I know Google, they will likely look for more ways to monetise this further so don’t be surprised when you start seeing more paid ad variations within the platform. Plus, with all of the touch points they have access to, this data will likely feed into ad personalisation.
AI Mode in summary
This is truly a pivotal moment in search. It’s actually quite mind boggling trying to comprehend how big of a change this is, not in technology but in how we use the web.
I personally believe this is the right step from Google’s standpoint, they recognised that other tech like ChatGPT were closing in by providing more summarised, deep thinking and contextualised results. AI Mode is how Google will stay ahead.
From a user/customer standpoint, AI Mode opens a door to new possibilities in sourcing information, completing deep research and shopping, all at the snap of your fingers, all within seconds. This experience that AI Mode offers is what sets Google apart, no other platform/tool/tech or whatever you want to call it is at this level, so why wouldn’t people shift to this?
So, lets see how this plays out.
If you’re not sure where to start for your brand, get in touch with the Alpha Digital team, we would love to have a chat.
Happy optimising, cheers!
AI Mode FAQs
Will AI Mode replace AI Overviews?
Nope (well not at this stage). AI Mode will be available in a separate tab where the traditional “All” tab will still be available, which is where AI Overviews displays its results.
Is AI Mode different to Gemini?
AI Mode utilises Gemini’s frontier capabilities to operate AI Mode and is powered by Gemini 2.5. So ultimately, you can expect a somewhat similar experience when using AI Mode when comparing to Gemini, but there will likely be some features that are respectively exclusive. From what I can see, one of the differences is that Gemini conversations don’t contain ads when using the app but obviously AI Mode will have a sponsored element.
When will AI Mode be available in Australia?
At the time of writing this it is unclear when AI Mode will be available within the Australian market, however given how rapidly AI Mode progressed through experimentation to full release in the US, I would speculate we would see this before the end of 2025 at least (again, this is just my humble guess).
What will happen to my traffic with AI Mode?
The reality is if this does have a large uptake in usage, organic traffic will likely be more competitive and receive less clicks. Only the most authoritative sources of information and brands who really control their individual presence and online touchpoints will succeed. Also worth considering that organic / referral revenue might be attributed completely differently if Google’s AI Mode is navigating through websites and making purchases on behalf of customers.