Google Search has launched two new AI-powered features, transforming the way it responds to user queries. The AI Overview and AI Mode give quick and detailed responses, respectively, without having us read through multiple web pages. While they maybe convenient for users, they could be disastrous for websites that rely on Google’s organic traffic for survival.
With both of these responses readily available on top, users are less likely to click on other websites for answers. Earlier, if your content was well-written, SEO-friendly, and on the first page, you were sure to get those clicks. But now, despite the SERP ranking, your website is less likely to gain the expected traffic. This calls for a complete revamp in how creators approach their content!
In this blog, we will delve into what AI Overview & AI Mode are and discuss their impact on content creators. We’ll also explore the ways in which content creators can save themselves from Google’s AI attack.
Table of Contents
What are AI Overview and AI Mode?
AI Overview and AI Mode are the latest additions to Google Search, giving the world’s most widely used search tool an AI makeover. Let’s understand both these features in detail.
AI Overview
This is the AI-generated summary that comes up, right on top, for any query that you enter in Google Search. Powered by the latest Gemini model, this feature provides users with a quick answer to their query, removing the need to go through multiple links. The AI Overview could either be generated entirely by Gemini or be a summary of a relevant web page.
On the right-hand side of the AI Overview, users also get relevant links to refer to for detailed information. Although initially the results generated under AI Overview were concise, now it provides lengthy results based on your query – often including images and video links too.
Source: Google
AI Mode
This feature turns your Google Search into a conversational chatbot, much like ChatGPT or Gemini. Present as a separate tab in the Google Search results, and soon to replace the “I’m feeling lucky button”, the AI Mode caters to complex queries involving deep research, coding, and maths.
You can type in complex questions and tasks like “Write the Python code to build a Spotify-like app” or “Plan a 50-day workout plan for me so that I can lose 7 kgs for my best friend’s wedding” and AI Mode will not only provide a detailed response but would also generate suitable images, graphs or tables as required. Not just that, it also allows you to ask follow-up questions. Moreover, if you give it access to other Google Apps in your system, it can generate more personalized responses too. Basically, with AI Mode, Google wants users to forget what ChatGPT was and gain back the traffic it lost to AI chatbots.
Source: Google
Learn More: Google Search’s Two New AI Features: AI Overview and AI Mode
What Do AI Overview and AI Mode Mean for Content Creators?
Google Search is home to all the answers. These answers come from various blogs that different people and companies publish through their websites. For the longest time, creators writing valuable content and optimizing it for the right keywords got a chance to rank better and get the traffic that they needed. This helped content creators reach out to a wider audience and probably sell their products or services to more people.
But now with AI Overview, Google is offering a quick summary right at the top, essentially removing the need for anyone to go through even the top-ranking sites. With AI Mode, users can get solutions to even complex questions right within their Google Search interface. This eliminates the need for them to head to a detailed blog on the topic.
This poses an existential threat to content creators who solely rely on Google Search to bring users to their page. Focusing on the quality of content and SEO might no longer suffice to get organic traffic. In fact, SEO might even become obsolete in the near future. While the loss of traffic may not affect the articles listed on pages 2 and beyond – it surely has a big impact on the top-performing articles.
How Big is the Impact?
We can already see the impact since last year, when Google launched AI Overview. Here are some of the insights that have been reported:
- Search Engine Land has some credible data showing a 34.5% drop in click-through rates (or CTR) on Position 1 ranking articles, with an overall drop of 15.44%.
- Chegg, an e-learning website, has even filed a case against Google opposing its AI Overview, claiming that it has affected the site’s traffic and hence revenue.
This is just a start, more such cases will pop up as AI Overviews become more prevalent across different industries.
What Can Content Creators Do?
Adapting to change is often not easy, and AI Overview and AI Mode are major changes. In the long run, these changes would require creators who rely on Google traffic to transform their approach and strategy for content creation. While there are no set guidelines on what content creators can do to save their businesses, here are a few things that may help:
- Optimizing Content for AI Overview: Start by preparing your content to be “AI snippet worthy”, making it easier for the content to appear in the AI Overview.
- Features Snippet: Your content still has a chance to appear as a “featured snippet” by ranking at the top. This snippet has a better chance of catching attention as users scroll through AI Overviews.
- Simplifying the Structure: Make sure your content is structured in a way that is simple for the LLM to summarise. This way, if the AI Overview quotes your blog, the link to your site will appear with it. This adds a level of trust and makes it more likely to be clicked on by the user.
- Building Direct Traffic: Organic traffic from Google might take a hit, which is why content creators need to shift their focus to community building and branding. You need to tap into your brand name to get direct traffic, making users directly search for your website.
- Adding Interactivity: Make your website more interactive by adding elements that users might need to explore your content. For example, websites or blogs with coding content can add code execution blocks; finance websites can add built-in calculators, etc.
- Diversifying Your Content: If your content is limited to just text, it’s time you enriched it with images and videos. This would give your content a chance to show up in the image or video search on Google.
- Promoting Content on Social Media: Make your brand visible on social media sites like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. This way you get to interact with new sets of audiences and engage with your existing audience in new ways.
These are just some of the many possible things that even we would be exploring in the days to come. Although AI Overview and AI Mode seem threatening at the moment, I’m confident one can find a way through.
Why Did Google Launch AI Overview and AI Mode?
Google is omnipresent, from software to hardware – you can find it in everything. But what brings in the most money to Google’s parent company Alphabet, out of all the Google products, is Google Search! The ad traffic from Google Search is Alphabet’s money-making machine. As Generative AI started making its way into our lives through various apps and everyday tools like WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail, Copilot, Notion, etc., Google felt the FOMO and planned to AI-size its biggest product – Google Search.
Along with this, it also started getting competition from AI-powered search engines like Perplexity AI. This led to the development of AI Overview, which behaves like any AI search engine. Not only does it give a relevant answer to the query, but it also provides relevant links to help us fact-check the responses.
The Generative AI wave was led by ChatGPT, the LLM-powered chatbot that has answers to all our questions (although sometimes factually incorrect). ChatGPT, unlike Google Search, could take up longer, much more complex questions. This started the trend for chatbot search, which was slowly replacing Google Search for most people. Now we have chatbots like DeepSeek, Claude, Grok, and even Google’s own Gemini, answering our questions and offering real-time updates! To capture the traffic going to AI chatbots for difficult queries, Google came up with the AI Mode.
In short, with AI Overview and AI Mode, Google plans to revitalise Google Search and bring back its pre-ChatGPT glory!
Future of AI Overview and AI Mode
Going forward, Google plans to increase the presence of AI Overviews and AI Mode across different types of queries, and display ads within them. Ads are how Google makes money through Google Search. If the search is limiting users’ attention to its AI features, it plans to add Ads within these features.
The company also plans to add agentic capabilities to the AI Mode to help it execute users’ tasks in real-time. Once out, this would be a direct competition to the Scheduled Tasks feature on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Soon, AI Mode would also be helping users shop better with its ‘Try On’ Feature. Google also intends to help its users with real-time support through its video chat feature and more.
Conclusion
With AI Overview and AI Mode, Google plans to quash any doubt over its “search engine” dominance. With summaries and detailed responses available right within Google Search, users are set to find it simpler to get answers for all kinds of queries. These features are just a start. Powered by the most efficient Gemini models – both AI Overview and AI Mode are Google’s way to bring AI to its most popular and loved Search feature.
However, these new features now pose a threat to other content creators as users would now be less likely to click on other websites to get their responses. As clicks drop, content creators will have to change the way they operate and evolve to match the AI wave. Until last year, AI was just knocking at the doors of our lives; today it’s becoming a part of it. If you find this blog or any of our blogs in your feed, know that ‘good content‘ cannot be contained by anything – be it AI Overview or AI Mode.
Anu Madan is an expert in instructional design, content writing, and B2B marketing, with a talent for transforming complex ideas into impactful narratives. With her focus on Generative AI, she crafts insightful, innovative content that educates, inspires, and drives meaningful engagement.
