How Google AI Mode lists brands
A conversational tab inside Google Search, built for longer questions.
At a glance
Sep 2026AI Mode is a separate tab next to Images and News in Google Search. It gives a chat style answer built from several searches run at once, with follow up questions kept in context, and it is not the same thing as Gemini or AI Overviews.
- Provider
- Google Search
- Launch
- United States March 2025 (Search Labs), India June 2025
- Models
- Gemini 2.5
- Access
- A tab inside Google Search, and inside the Google app
What Google AI Mode is and how it answers
AI Mode is built for open ended questions that an ordinary results page answers poorly: broad comparisons, advice and research with several parts.
A person asks a longer or exploratory question
AI Mode appears as its own tab beside Images, News and Shopping.
The question is broken into related searches
Google has described running several searches on different parts of the question at once, then reasoning over what comes back.
An answer is written with sources
Gemini 2.5 writes a conversational answer and shows the pages it drew on.
Follow up questions stay in context
A person can keep asking without repeating what they already said, similar to a chat assistant.
How brands are listed on Google AI Mode
A brand becomes visible in AI Mode when it is named in the answer or linked as one of the sources behind it, across a back and forth conversation rather than one query.
Named in the answer
The conversational answer names your brand or product directly.
Linked source
Your page is shown among the sources behind the answer.
Named in a follow up
You are not in the first answer but come up once the person asks a narrower follow up question.
Competitor named instead
A rival is named or linked for a question you also have an answer for.
What tends to influence whether you appear
- The same indexing and eligibility rules Google applies to AI Overviews and ordinary results
- Content that answers one clear question well, since the question gets split into parts
- Being a source Google already trusts enough to cite in Search
- Whether AI Mode has rolled out yet in the person's country and language
Keep in mind
Google AI Mode usage around the world
AI Mode started as a United States only test and reached most major markets within its first year.
Mar 2025
AI Mode announced and launched
Opt-in through Search Labs for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the United States.
200+
Countries and territories with AI Mode
Reached by October 2025, starting from a United States only test seven months earlier.
Why there is no traffic share chart
Google AI Mode usage across India
India got AI Mode a few months after the United States and was the first country outside it to get the feature's voice and camera mode.
7
More Indian languages added
Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, alongside Hindi.
How people use it
Everyday search
AI Mode sits inside Google Search, so it reaches people already searching rather than only those who open a separate AI app.
Voice and camera
Search Live lets a person talk to Search or show it a photo. India was the first country outside the United States to get it.
Local activity
Search Live in India
Launched in India alongside the Hindi language rollout, ahead of most other markets.
What we could not verify. Google has not published an India-specific AI Mode user count, so none is shown here.
How BrandWater measures Google AI Mode
For AI Mode we track whether you are named or linked across the back and forth of a conversation, not only in a single first answer.
Tracked at launch. Observed as its own search surface through DataForSEO's dedicated AI Mode SERP API, separate from both the Gemini API and AI Overviews. BrandWater observes the answers each engine returns through its provider API, which can differ from what a person sees in the consumer app. It has no private access to any model, its training data or its internal retrieval, and it never claims to.
Mention in the first answer
Whether the opening answer names or links your brand.
Mention in follow ups
Whether a narrower follow up question surfaces you when the first answer did not.
Source versus name only
Whether you are a clickable source or only named in passing text.
Language and market
How results differ between English and the Indian languages AI Mode now supports.
Common questions
Is AI Mode the same as Gemini?
No. Gemini is a general assistant app. AI Mode is a tab inside Google Search, built on Gemini 2.5, for exploratory search questions.
Is AI Mode the same as AI Overviews?
No. AI Overviews is a summary shown above ordinary results for some queries. AI Mode is a separate, fully conversational tab a person chooses to open.
Is AI Mode available everywhere yet?
It reached over 200 countries and territories by October 2025, with language support still expanding, so availability depends on where and in what language someone searches.
Sources and data notes
Source 1
Google: Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode5 Mar 2025
Source 2
TechCrunch: Google's Search Live comes to India, AI Mode gets more languages8 Oct 2025
Source 3
People Matters: Google AI Mode launches in IndiaJun 2025
Read the numbers carefully
Other AI platforms
See how Google AI Mode describes your brand.
Start with a first audit. We show where you appear, who is named instead, and what to fix first.