Google has been testing AI search features for a couple of years now. AI Overviews appeared, caused a bit of noise, and most business owners filed it away as "something to keep an eye on."
AI Mode is different. It's not a feature bolted onto the side of search. It's a different way of searching entirely - and it's worth understanding how it works, because what gets your business surfaced in AI Mode is not the same as what gets you ranking in traditional results.
What is Google AI Mode?
AI Mode is Google's conversational search experience. Instead of typing a few keywords and getting a page of blue links, you ask a full question - the way you'd ask a person - and Google responds with a direct, synthesised answer.
Think of it like having a conversation with Google rather than querying it.
"I'm looking for a reliable electrician in Derby who can do a full rewire. Do you know of anyone good?" That kind of query. Google doesn't return ten websites for you to visit. It reasons through what it knows, draws on information from across the web, and gives you a response - often naming specific businesses, citing specific sources, and sometimes asking follow-up questions to narrow things down.
It's much closer to what ChatGPT or Perplexity do than to what Google has traditionally done. And that's deliberate. Google built it because that's how people want to search now.
How does it decide what to include?
This is where it gets interesting - and where most business owners are operating blind.
Traditional Google rankings are driven by a combination of things: how many other sites link to yours, how well your pages match search keywords, how fast your site loads, and dozens of other technical signals. The algorithm is complex, but the goal is simple: find the most relevant page for a given query.
AI Mode works differently. It's not looking for the most relevant page. It's trying to construct the most useful answer.
To do that, it's evaluating your business on several levels:
Does it actually understand what you do?
AI Mode needs to be able to clearly articulate what your business is, what services you offer, who you serve, and where you operate. If your website is vague about any of those things, AI Mode can't include you confidently - and a hedging AI is one that picks someone else.
This is why structured data - the behind-the-scenes markup (called Schema.org) that explicitly labels your business type, services, address, and so on - matters so much. It's not just helpful for AI to have. It's the clearest possible signal you can send. "Here is exactly what this business is. No guessing required."
Does it trust the information it finds?
Trust, in AI terms, comes from consistency.
AI Mode cross-references information from multiple places. Your website. Your Google Business Profile. Directory listings. Reviews. If those sources broadly agree - same business name, same address, same phone number, same description of what you do - AI Mode treats that as a reliable signal. If they contradict each other, even in small ways, it creates doubt.
This isn't a new idea - we talked about it in the Google Business Profile guide - but it matters even more in an AI Mode world, because the system is actively comparing sources rather than just indexing individual pages.
Does your content answer the actual question?
Here's something worth sitting with for a moment.
When someone asks AI Mode "who's a good accountant in Chesterfield for a small limited company?", it's not matching keywords. It's reasoning. It's looking for a business that demonstrably serves small limited companies, is based in or near Chesterfield, has evidence of good work - reviews, testimonials, case studies - and ideally has content that speaks directly to that kind of client.
A website that says "we offer accountancy services to businesses of all sizes across Derbyshire" might match a keyword search reasonably well. But it doesn't actually answer the question. AI Mode notices the difference.
Content that specifically speaks to the situations your customers are in - their concerns, their specific needs, the questions they ask before deciding - performs far better in AI Mode than content written for keywords.
What do other sources say about you?
AI Mode doesn't just look at your website. It looks at what the wider web says about you.
Reviews are a significant factor. Not just the star rating, but the substance of what reviewers say. If your Google reviews consistently mention that you're good with anxious patients, or that you turn up when you say you will, or that your quotes are accurate - those patterns become part of how AI Mode understands and describes your business.
Local press mentions, industry directories, citations in other websites - these all contribute to the picture AI Mode builds of your business. More sources saying consistent things means more confidence.
What's actually different from AI Overviews?
You've probably seen AI Overviews - the box that appears at the top of some Google results pages with a summarised answer before the links.
AI Mode goes further. Where AI Overviews are additive - they appear on top of a normal results page - AI Mode replaces the traditional results page. There are no ten blue links underneath. The AI answer is the result.
That's a meaningful shift. In a traditional search, being position four still gets you clicks. In AI Mode, if you're not in the answer, you're not visible at all.
It also handles follow-up questions. You can have a back-and-forth with it. "Actually, I need someone who can also do PAT testing - does that change your recommendation?" It reasons through that too. This conversational depth means AI Mode needs a much richer understanding of your business than a keyword match ever did.
What should you actually do about it?
The honest answer is that the businesses best placed for AI Mode are the ones that have been building genuine online presence - not chasing rankings, but actually trying to be understood.
Practically, that means:
Make sure your website is specific. Vague service descriptions help nobody. Each service you offer should have its own page that explains what it is, who it's for, how it works, and what the outcome is. AI Mode reads and reasons about that content. Give it something to work with.
Get your structured data right. If your site doesn't have Schema.org markup - or it was added years ago and never updated - that's worth fixing. It's the most direct way to communicate your business clearly to any AI system, including Google's.
Keep your information consistent. Your business name, address, phone number, and description should be identical across your website, Google Business Profile, and any directories you're listed on. Every inconsistency is a small erosion of trust.
Earn reviews that say useful things. Star ratings matter, but the text of reviews matters more in an AI world. A review that says "brilliant service, would recommend" is less useful to AI Mode than one that says "fixed our boiler same day, came out to Alfreton at short notice, really fair price." The specifics are the signal.
Write content that answers real questions. What do your customers ask you before they decide to use you? Answer those questions properly on your website. FAQ sections, detailed service pages, blog content that addresses genuine concerns - all of it contributes to the picture AI Mode builds of your expertise.
The window is still open
Most local businesses haven't done any of this yet. Not because they don't care - they just haven't been told it matters.
That's genuinely still a competitive advantage for businesses that act on it. AI Mode rewards depth, consistency, and clarity. Those things take a bit of time and thought to get right. But the businesses that put that work in now are the ones AI Mode will confidently recommend while their competitors wonder where their enquiries went.
If you want to see how your business is currently coming across to AI - not just Google, but ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the rest - our AI Visibility Checker is a useful starting point. Takes a couple of minutes and gives you a clear picture of where you stand.