AI Mode is HereJust when you’d wrapped your head around AI Overviews, along comes another acronym to keep you up at night: AI Mode.After a limited rollout in the US, AI Mode has now expanded to over 180 countries and territories - including New Zealand.This isn't just a simple update to the search engine you know and love. AI Mode is a new tab within Google Search that provides an AI-like interface, designed to be particularly useful for queries that require deeper exploration, reasoning, or comparisons. It’s a new frontier of search, and it’s no longer a hypothetical.And if your brand doesn't show up in those conversations, you'll be left behind.GoogleAI Mode ExplainedAI Mode is a new generative search experience built into Google Search - separate from traditional blue links and even AI Overviews. While a traditional search might give you a list of links, AI Mode provides a more conversational, AI-like interface designed to be particularly useful for queries that require further exploration, reasoning, or comparisons.This new experience is powered by some very smart tech behind the scenes.Search Engine JournalOnce activated, it shifts the entire experience. You’re not just searching - you’re having a back-and-forth with an AI assistant. Very GPT-esque. That means:It’s conversational: Ask a question, then ask follow-ups. You’re not starting from scratch each time.It’s reasoning across topics: AI Mode uses what’s called “query fan-out” behind the scenes. It breaks down your query into multiple sub-questions and pulls together an answer across different angles. That means it's got answers on-hand to any potential questions you might ask relating to your original one. It’s generative + real-time: Responses are generated by the model, but also pull in live web data, so you’ll often see sources, links, or product cards baked into the answer.It’s multimodal: You can type, speak, or even upload a photo. That means visual queries are fair game (...