Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google introduced AI Mode for Search as a Labs experiment back in early March.
- Now the waitlist is being eliminated in the US, so anyone interested can start testing.
- AI Mode is also getting new history and shopping tools.
The past couple years have ushered in a whirlwind of progress for all things AI, and companies everywhere have been quick to embrace the new tools that affords. Google in particular has been trying to find a home for AI features across nearly all of its product offerings and that includes the granddaddy of them all, Search. While early efforts with AI Overviews could give results that were a little wonky, the company’s new AI Mode has really started proving just how quickly things can improve, and it’s already become a favorite of ours. Now Google shares the next steps for AI Mode.
Google first introduced AI Mode as an experiment back at the start of March. Just two months later, it’s ready to start expanding.
That’s happening in two main ways. First, Google is seriously dialing up the size of this experiment, throwing out the waitlist and letting anybody in the US who wants to give AI Mode a try the opportunity to.
Beyond that, Google will also start letting AI Mode escape the confinement of its Labs experiments and is slowly going to start surfacing AI Mode results in Search, whether you’re signed up to test them or not. That’s a big step, and after the early mess with AI Overviews, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the company really want to take its time here. Still, the momentum behind this news is very promising.
In addition to this new, wider access, we’re also learning about a few functional improvements to AI Mode.
One of the most powerful abilities of AI agents is how they can draw upon conversation history to develop context — you don’t have to treat everything you ask AI Mode as a fresh query, and can keep piling on follow-up questions. Now that’s extending even further back, as Google add a search history panel on the left, letting you easily resume old threads.
Google’s also taking advantage of all the business listings companies have set up with it to get more details on products and in-store availability when using AI Mode.
If you haven’t given it a try yet, well, either sign up now and skip right to the head of the line, or sit back and wait because sooner or later, AI Mode is going to be coming to Google Search for us all.
