Google AI Overview and AI Mode

WHAT IS GOOGLE AI OVERVIEWS

You do not need to visit a certain link or open an App to see Google AI Overviews (AIO or Google AIO) in action. Google AIO appears for regular users who use Google search. It’s a feature built within Google Search that provides a quick, AI-generated summary at the very top of the results page (87% of the time right at the very top). But AIOs don’t appear for every search, and they do not appear for the same search term every time.

So what are the conditions that trigger Google AIO to appear? Well, there are 04 main conditions that we know of 

Search Intent

The search intent is the underlying purpose the user had when typing the search term into a search engine. In other words, it’s the “why” behind the search term.  Below is some studies showing when AIOs appear for different search intents.

  • Informational intent (e.g., “History of Neapolitan Pizza”) triggers AIOs most often.
  • Transactional intent (e.g., “Order pepperoni pizza for delivery”) shows AIOs about 15% of the time.
  • Commercial intent (e.g., “Best pizza restaurants in Chicago”) shows AIOs about 19.5% of the time.
  • Including local terms like “near me” or city names doesn’t change the underlying intent.

If Google thinks that adding an AIO would add value  to the user 

If Google decides that adding an AIO would add value to a user’s search experience, then an AIO would get triggered. This gets more complicated because Google has long implemented personalized search, which means that the search results would be subtly different from one user to another. What this means is that an AIO could trigger for you but not for me, even though we both typed in the same search term.

Number of words in the search 

Assuming everything else is equal, longer search terms are more likely to trigger AIOs.  Below are stats on when AIO would appear based on studies 

  • Search terms with 3 – 4 words would trigger an AIO to appear 23–25% of the time.
  • Search terms with 5 – 6 words would trigger an AIO to appear 29–37% of the time.
  • Search terms with 7 words would trigger an AIO to appear 46–49% of the time.

Availability of credible information

A Google AI Overview will appear if and when credible information exists to generate an AI Overview. This means that even if a user types in a 6-word question-type search term, an AIO would not be generated if there is no credible information to generate the AIO. 

What this all means is that the Google AI Overview appearing within the search result page would depend at the time the search term is typed, based on the search results generated at that time, if Google thinks it’s beneficial to show an AI Overview, and credible sources to generate an answer. To put it another way, a Google AIO may not appear for me when I type in the search term “Pizza in Santa Monica”, but it could appear for you. If we take another search term like “best pizza near me in Santa Monica,” an AIO can appear for me, but not you. Both search terms ( “Pizza in Santa Monica” and “best pizza near me in Santa Monica” ) could also trigger an AI Overview for someone else.  

WHAT IS GOOGLE AI MODE? 

Unlike Google AI Overview, which appears only under specific conditions, AI Mode is a destination that users actively choose to visit when they prefer an AI-driven search instead of the traditional results page. It’s almost like switching tabs from Web to Image search in Google.com, but here the tab is AI Mode. Using AI Mode is like consulting an expert librarian: you ask a question, the “librarian” interprets what you need, and then delivers a comprehensive, summarized answer. The difference between AI Mode and AI Overview responses is that in AI Mode, you can keep the conversation going and ask follow-up questions. 

It’s also interesting to note that if two people type in the same search term into Google AI Mode, the businesses the AI recommends can vary drastically (by up to 90%in some cases). We believe Google aims for AI Mode to become the default search experience for users at some point in the future, which is why AI Overviews has a very eye-catching button encouraging users to take a Deep Dive into the results via Google AI Mode. Then, users would have to make an effort to navigate to the traditional search option.

Sources:

https://www.stanventures.com/news/googles-ai-mode-search-volatility-low-overlap-3543/
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/12410098
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/14901683
https://localbizguys.com/how-googles-ai-overviews-are-changing-local-search/
https://www.seo.com/ai/ai-overviews-seo-impact-keyword-study/
https://www.localfalcon.com/blog/whitepaper-studies-the-impact-of-google-ai-overviews-on-local-business-search-visibility
https://seranking.com/blog/ai-overviews/
https://www.fireandspark.com/blog/the-rise-of-comparison-features-in-ai-overviews-what-it-means-for-your-seo/
https://seranking.com/blog/ai-overviews-2024-recap-research/
https://www.sixthcitymarketing.com/2025/02/24/gpt-search-study/