A tab, not a waitlist
AI Mode had run as an opt-in Search Labs experiment since March 2025. At Google I/O on May 20, 2025, Google said it would roll out to everyone in the US that week, dropping the Labs sign-up and giving the feature its own tab in Search next to the ordinary results list. [1]
The same post said a custom version of Gemini 2.5 was moving into Search for AI Mode and for AI Overviews, which had launched a year earlier on an older model. For Overviews this was a model swap inside an existing feature, not a new one. [1]
Dozens of searches behind one answer
AI Mode answers a query by running many searches at once and synthesizing the results into one response, with follow-up questions kept in context rather than starting over each time. Google's own framing was that it suited complex, multi-part questions an ordinary results page handles poorly. [1][2]
Google also previewed a Deep Search mode that issues dozens or hundreds of queries to produce a cited report in minutes, plus shopping features including virtual try-on and an agent that could purchase an item once it hit a target price with user approval. Those were announced as coming later in 2025, not shipped in the May 20 rollout. [2]
Complement first, replacement eventually
Google described AI Mode as sitting alongside AI Overviews rather than replacing it, with AI Mode's capabilities meant to reach Overviews gradually over time. The rollout removed the opt-in barrier from the more conversational of the two, which is the change that mattered for how many people saw it. [2]
Atlas interpretation: Search's results page had been a list of links to click since the 1990s. Putting a synthesized, sourced answer in a tab with no sign-up needed made that the default experience for a much larger share of Google's US traffic, not a lab feature a curious minority tried once. [1]
Sources
- AI in Search: Going beyond information to intelligence
Google · May 20, 2025
- Google's AI Mode rolls out to US, will add support for deeper research, comparison shopping and more
TechCrunch · May 20, 2025