Why Is Google Testing AI Mode in Search?

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What does Google’s AI Mode rollout signal for the future of search? That AI-generated answers are moving from an experiment to a default layer of the search experience, fundamentally changing how discovery and visibility work.

This episode of Found in AI marks the launch of a new weekly Thursday segment covering major developments in AI search and what they mean for content strategy, visibility, and discovery.

Cassie Clark is joined by AI researcher Adam Whistler, one of the first people to identify and analyze Google’s rollout of AI Mode inside traditional Search. With no announcement, documentation, or public roadmap, the experiment signals one of the most significant shifts in search behavior since the early 2000s.

The conversation breaks down how AI results are being layered into Google’s default experience, what this means for organic visibility, and why brands and creators need to start preparing now—before AI Mode becomes mainstream.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What Google’s AI Mode rollout reveals about the direction of Search
• Why Google is testing AI results quietly, without formal announcements
• How AI-generated answers are being layered into traditional search experiences
• What this shift means for organic visibility and discovery
• How AI Mode could reshape the user journey from question to decision
• Why preparation matters before AI Mode becomes the default

If AI Mode moves into mainstream Search, discovery will no longer begin with links—and this episode explains what that shift means and how to prepare.

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Content Strategist
Website → cassieclarkmarketing.com

Keywords: AI Search, FSA Framework, Generative Search, AEO, GEO, AI Visibility, Structured Content, Content Strategy, Entity Authority, SEO Strategy, Search Trends, Digital Visibility, LLM Citations, Freshness Signals, Content Optimization

P.S. Is your brand losing its "Answer Authority"?

Most series A/B and enterprise brands are being "nudged" out of AI search results because of entity gaps and "stale" content. I am opening 3 specialized audit slots for January 2026 to help you reclaim your Share of Voice using the FSA Framework (Freshness, Structure, Authority).

Request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/

Transcript

0:15

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hey, welcome back to Found in AI. I'm Cassie Clark, a fractional content strategist, and today we're kicking off something new. Every Tuesday, we're still running deep dive guest interviews and experiments, but on Thursdays, we're shifting into something that I think you desperately need right now. AI search is changing daily, and the news around it seems to change by the hour. So Thursday episodes are now dedicated to weekly AI search updates, as in what's changed, why it matters, and how it affects your visibility across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and everything else that decides whether your content gets found or forgotten. Think of it as a quick news update plus a filled report from someone who's actually a little deep in this stuff. My goal remains the same, help you stay visible without drowning in the noise. Case in point, Google has been quietly testing an AI mode inside traditional search. This isn't officially announced. Google has been very quiet about it, and it looks like they're rolling it out in phases. So a handful of beta testers suddenly get access, it disappears, it reappears for others, and every time the behavior changes a smidgen. This is one of the biggest shifts in how we've seen how Google might service AI answers alongside of or on top of traditional results. To make sense of what this actually means and why it matters long term, I'm joined today by Adam Whistler, an AI expert and one of the first people I've seen publicly digging into how this mode works. He's been analyzing patterns, catching changes in real time, and raising the right questions about where Google is heading. So for our very first Thursday news update, we're starting with something significant. What Google's AI mode experiment signals, what we've learned so far, and how this could reshape visibility for brands and creators. All right, let's get into it. So yeah, you're absolutely right. This all started with a tiny change to Google's web user interface. So on Friday the 5th of December, I logged onto Google and I noticed that the classic search button was gone, right? It was just not there anymore. So Google, the search engine, no longer had a search button, and in its place was AI mode powered by Gemini. And I thought, wow, like I wonder when that happened. So I went looking for a news article or press release or like a positioning statement from Google themselves, kind of documenting the change and maybe talking about their strategic justification for it. And I just literally couldn't find anything, right? Like the closest coverage I could find was a conversation that Google's lead product manager, a guy called Logan Kilpatrick had on X back in July of this year. So somebody tweeted or like z-ted or whatever we're supposed to say now at Logan Kilpatrick and said, you know, when are you guys going to lead into AI search and make AI the default search experience for Google? And Logan just replies with this like smiley, winky face. And shortly after that, Google obviously decided they needed to do some damage control because Google's VP of search, a guy called Robbie Stein jumps into the same threat and he's like, look, I wouldn't read too much into this. We're just focused on making AI search as good as it can be for the people who want to use it, but we're never going to force it down your throat. And that was it in terms of coverage. So apparently not many people are talking about this change yet, but in my opinion, it's a really significant signal from Google, because as we know, Google is by far the world's largest search engine. Last time I checked they had 89.6% share of the global market. And the next closest thing is being at like 4%, right? So Google handles whatever that works out as 22 times more search volume than its closest competitor. Unlike we were saying, there's a reason that the verb to find something online is to Google rather than to Bing, right? So they're obviously in this position to dictate search trends and just railroad consumers into search behaviors. And they've been in that dominant position since quite literally the year 2000, almost 26 years now. Back in the year 2000, the front end was still Yahoo, but the back end was powered by Google's ranking engine. And for all of those 26 years, searches functioned in fundamentally the same way, which was like I as a user, I search for something, I get links back. And then the next step of the journey is that I decide where to go. And under that model, you could say Google was kind of like a directory or like the world's most powerful signpost, right? Like that was the deal. It pointed you to everyone else's content and everything in the digital ecosystem from base economics upwards from the dot com boom through to the present day was built around that deal. Like if I'm doing SEO, I'm improving my ranking in that list. Like if I'm a publisher, then I'm looking for organic traffic from that list. Like if I'm a business, I'm building on the assumption that user journeys are going to start on Google and then continue onto my site. That was the model, right? But now, instead of being the signpost, Google have clearly told us that they are the destination. So, you know, the output of searches now isn't here's 10 options, go and explore, off you go. It's like, here's the answer, fully synthesized, handed to you on a silver plate with a bow on top and the decoration, the little garnish on the side is a couple of citations for the handful of people who are going to dig deeper, which we know from studies by people like Pew Research is in the order of one to 2% of users. So yeah, I think it's a huge change. Yeah, no, I agree with you. So I did a little bit of digging after, after you made that post on LinkedIn. And after I'm like, wait a minute, mine is also AI mode. I do still have the Google search button underneath the search bar. So interesting. Okay. Wait, is yours not like that? There's a reason. No. Okay. So I went to Reddit, and I'm doing some search over Reddit, because if anybody knows anything, it's the Redditors. Right. Someone made a comment that like, it was like 153 days ago, they had posted about, hey, my search button is gone. And then I got to thinking, I mean, mine has not been this way. So it has been a new rollout for me, I guess I just finally made it into beta testing. So one Redditor made a point to say, Google has been spending millions of dollars on AI models. They're going to funnel everyone over into eventually, because why would they waste that money? So yeah, in that, in that context, what do you think that means for brands who are doing maybe just SEO, maybe a little bit of geo? What do you think is going to happen there? I'm so sorry, I spoke over you there, there's a little bit of lag on my line. Do you want to run that line again for the recording? Oh, just dust off your crystal ball. What are you predicting? Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, like Google's incentives here are super clear, because if they can answer queries directly and keep users in their own ecosystem for longer, and then monetize that answer layer with like AI native advertising formats down the line, you've hit the nail on the head, why would Google send that traffic away for free? And we do know that ads are coming to Gemini because that was leaked literally yesterday as we're having that conversation. So yeah, I mean, in terms of what it means for businesses and content creators, if a user is going to see one synthetic answer instead of 10 separate blue links, then I think as content creators, we're no longer worrying about can I be in position two instead of position three or four? It's can I be part of the answer at all? Which in turn shifts optimization away from like our old core activities, like keywords and backlinks and more towards the kind of things I've seen you talk about in the FSA framework. So that's things like entities and structure and clarity and chunkability. And that has huge implications for how we create content and how we get found and how we monetize and ultimately who's going to survive and thrive in this new era of search. One really interesting prediction I saw yesterday on LinkedIn was from a serial blogger. I think the guy has like 25 separate blogs. And he mentioned he'd been approached by brands to mention their brands on his blog so that they would be swept up in generative content. So rather than being paid for like a review or for coverage, he was just getting paid for mentions on his high authority site. So yeah, I mean, it is a huge shift, right? We've seen this huge change in this kind of unspoken social contract we have with Google where they were going to call and index the content. We were going to play the SEO game and they were going to reward us with visitors. But now it's we create the content and in return, we might get some visibility inside of answers. And that's really a brave new world. It's one we haven't seen since the invention of Yeah. Yeah. I think this is like the biggest shift in search since maybe 1998, something like that. It's been a while. I did also see that mention of, hey, pay us, we're going to pay you for a brand mention instead of, hey, give us a review. I think that's going to change a lot of how affiliate marketing works now, which I think is going to be interesting. OK, final final question I have for you. And maybe this maybe we might know an answer. Maybe this is just an educated guess. So because Google is doing this beta testing with a mode, I just got pulled into it. Maybe you just got pulled into it. But they've been doing this for a couple of months because you do work with AI and all that kind of thing. Where how soon do you think they're going to push everyone into that? Educated guess. I know that's like. Oh, next year, certainly. Absolute next year. Yeah. 2026, it would be the default search experience. It meets Google's goals in such an obvious way, allows them to say that they have greater market share and to onboard, I mean, potentially billions of users in a way that, you know, they don't object to and potentially don't even notice. So, yeah, I think they're testing the waters for backlash. I think that's why we haven't seen a positioning statement. And I think they're going to Trojan horse their entire audience into AI search by the end of probably quarter one or quarter two. I would have thought 2026. So that's why this quiet little Google experiment is such a big deal at the moment. If AI mode becomes part of mainstream search, even partially, it changes the entire discovery journey. It shifts how buyers evaluate solutions, which content gets surfaced and who shows up in those early high intent moments where decisions actually start forming. And if that future is coming, even in phases, we need to be preparing for it now, not after Google finally makes the announcement. All right. That's it for this week's Thursday update. If you found this helpful, share it with someone on your team who's trying to make sense of all the AI search chaos happening right now. And if you want deeper breakdowns, experiments, and frameworks like the FSA framework, subscribe to the newsletter or check out the blog at CassieClarkMarketing.com. I'll see you Tuesday for our next interview and next Thursday for whatever Google, ChadGBTU, Perplexity, and Gemini decide to hit us with next. Until then, stay visible.