Customers have changed how they search. The shift is significant and it is already happening. Google AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly active users globally, and the data on how people are using it should change how you think about both your visibility on Google and the search experience on your own website.
This is not a post about keeping up with technology for its own sake. It is about a commercial opportunity that most merchants will miss because they are focused on the wrong problem.
Table of Contents
- What Google AI Mode Is
- The Behaviour That Made AI Mode Inevitable
- What Merchants Need to Do Right Now
- Google AI Mode eCommerce – can it be Good for eCommerce?
What Google AI Mode Is
Google AI Mode is the most significant transformation of Google Search since the search engine launched. Rather than requiring users to translate their real needs into keywords, AI Mode allows people to ask questions in plain language, have back-and-forth conversations with search, and receive synthesised answers that draw from multiple sources across the web.
The numbers from Google’s own usage report tell the story clearly. The average AI Mode query is now triple the length of a traditional search query. Follow-up queries, where shoppers continue the conversation to refine their search, have grown by more than 40% per month. More than one in six AI Mode searches are now multimodal, meaning people are searching with images, voice, and video, not just text.
Shopping is a core part of how people use AI Mode. When shoppers research a purchase, they begin on traditional search and then click into AI Mode to go deeper. They ask follow-up questions about price, availability, size, material, and brand. They get answers that compare options, surface promotions, and in some cases allow them to complete a purchase without leaving Google at all.
This is not a future scenario. It is the current state of how your customers are researching before they reach your store.
The Behaviour That Made AI Mode Inevitable
The important context that most commentary on AI Mode misses.
The behaviour AI Mode serves is not new. Customers have always searched for solutions, not products. Even when a shopper knows exactly what product they want, there are still variables at play: price, service quality, delivery time, return policy, availability. The search has always been for the right solution, not just the right SKU.
What changed is not customer intent. What changed is the merchant’s ability to meet it.
The eCommerce industry has known about this gap for years. Tools like Zoovu, which powers guided selling experiences for Microsoft, Canon, and GE Healthcare, were built on exactly this insight. Rather than asking “Do you want 16GB or 32GB RAM?”, Zoovu’s guided selling assistants ask “Are you gaming, travelling, or working remotely?” — shifting the conversation from product specs to customer needs. The goal was always to replicate the experience of a knowledgeable sales assistant who listens first and recommends second. Mordor Intelligence
Einhell implemented a guided configurator with Zoovu and saw a 60% sales lift within the first 90 days. These results were not driven by better products. They were driven by a better buying experience: one that understood the customer’s problem before recommending a solution. Connecting Africa
The gap was always there. What AI Mode has done is move solution-based search from an on-site feature that brands had to build and pay for separately, into the default way people search on Google. The expectation is now set at platform level, before your customer ever reaches your website.
What Merchants Need to Do Right Now
Be Part of the Suggested Solution on Google
You need to show up in AI Mode search results. This sounds obvious, but the path to appearing in AI Mode recommendations is different from traditional SEO.
AI systems extract compatibility, specs, use cases, and customer review sentiment from product pages to match conversational queries. If your product data is vague, your descriptions are generic, or your Google Merchant Center feed is incomplete, you will not be part of the suggested solution. A competitor with better-structured product data will be. Digital Commerce 360
The specific attributes that matter most, according to Google’s own data, are: price, location, colour, brand, availability, size, material, style, type, and quality. These are the attributes shoppers are asking about. They need to be present, accurate, and current in your product data.
Your Google Merchant Center feed is not just a tool for Shopping ads anymore. It is the data layer that AI Mode uses to surface your products in conversational results. Treat it accordingly.
Match That Same Experience on Your Own Website
The second risk is closer to home, and it is the one most merchants are not thinking about yet.
Your customers are using AI Mode every day. They are getting comfortable with conversational queries, follow-up questions, and answers that synthesise information across multiple sources. Then they arrive on your website and find a keyword search bar.
93% of online buying starts with a search box, but most end in frustration, because the typical search experience is still designed around traditional keyword search, which is outdated for how people actually ask questions. Insider
Shoppers who use on-site search convert at two to three times the rate of shoppers who do not. That makes your site search one of the highest-intent, highest-leverage touchpoints in your entire funnel. If it cannot handle a natural language query, it is costing you revenue.
The upgrade does not require an enterprise budget. Tools like Zoovu, as well as AI search layers available natively through platforms like Shopify, make conversational on-site search achievable for mid-market brands. The prerequisite is structured product data, which, if your Merchant Center feed is in order, you are likely already most of the way there.
Can it be Good for eCommerce?
This is the part that deserves more attention than it is getting.
Most coverage of AI Mode focuses on the risks: losing organic traffic, AI intermediating the customer relationship, brands becoming invisible in a world of AI-generated answers. Those risks are real. But the upside for merchants who adapt is significant.
Shoppers Who Find You Through AI Mode Are Ready to Buy
When a shopper finds your product through an AI-led query, they have not just found a product. They have found a solution to a specific, articulated problem. The purchase intent at that point is meaningfully higher than traditional search, where the results page is just the start of the journey and your filters, sorting, and product copy still have to do the hard work of convincing the shopper they are in the right place.
AI Mode hands you a pre-qualified customer. That changes your conversion equation.
One Query Can Return a Full Basket
This is one of the most underappreciated commercial opportunities in AI Mode shopping.
Consider a shopper asking: “What do I need to build a garden wall?” In traditional search, that shopper would need to first research what materials are required, then search for each product individually: bricks, mortar, a spirit level, a trowel, sand. Multiple sessions. Multiple decision points. Multiple opportunities to lose them to a competitor.
In AI Mode, a well-structured merchant with a complete product catalog and good data can return a multi-product recommendation in a single response. The shopper gets a complete solution. The merchant gets a basket, not a single unit.
The same logic applies to categories like skincare routines, home office setups, sports kit, and baby products. Any category where multiple products naturally combine to solve a single problem becomes a basket-building opportunity in AI Mode.
Shoppers Can Include Price, Availability, and Promotions in the Query
Traditional search cannot handle “I need a product that is currently on promotion” or “show me affordable tiles for a small bathroom.” Those queries return generic results that still require the shopper to filter and sort their way to what they actually want.
AI Mode handles these queries natively. A shopper can specify their budget, their requirement for in-stock availability, and their interest in promotional pricing all in a single query. For merchants whose Merchant Center data includes current pricing, stock status, and active promotions, this is a direct route to the high-intent shopper who already knows what they are willing to spend.
The Framework Has Not Changed. The Scale Has.
To summarise the shift plainly:
Conversational search: (customer) I have a problem. (merchant) Here is a solution.
Traditional search: (customer) keyword. (merchant) Here is what you might be looking for and some additional elements and data that might help you get closer to exactly what you are looking for.
The customer has always preferred the first experience. What AI Mode has done is make it the default.
What is an AI readiness assessment and what does it cover?
What does Google AI Mode mean for eCommerce merchants?
Google AI Mode changes how shoppers discover products by enabling full-sentence, solution-based queries instead of keywords. For merchants, this means two things: product data must be structured clearly enough for AI systems to match it to conversational queries, and on-site search must be upgraded to deliver a similar experience once shoppers arrive.
Not sure if your store is set up for how customers are searching today?
We work with eCommerce brands to close the gap between how customers search and what their stores deliver, from product data and Merchant Center optimisation to on-site search and conversion strategy.
