'We want to make Search so effortless you can ask anything,' as AI Mode launches in India, Google explains how it moves beyond traditional search

Time of India

08-07-2025

In India, where
Google
is practically a verb and the gateway to the internet for hundreds of millions,
AI Mode
is now making its way to users. Tucked inside the familiar Google interface, the feature greets queries with something more conversational and curated than the usual blue links. Ask it where to eat, what to do, or even how to feel about a new trend, and the chatbot-style AI will serve up a smartly written response, often complete with links, summaries, and context.
'We want to make Search so effortless you can ask anything,' says
Hema Budaraju
, VP of Product Management at
Google Search
. So, with AI Mode baked into Search, Google doesn't just want to point you to the internet, it wants to 'Google' it for you, something we've all been doing ourselves for the past two decades. 'It should feel natural to get help from Search with complex needs or vague queries. AI Mode allows that shift,' Budaraju adds.
A smarter search that asks, then answers
Having been in beta testing under
Search Labs
for the past two weeks in India, AI Mode is now rolling out to every Google Search user in the country. That means anyone who uses Google can now do back-and-forth conversational searches with AI Mode. Budaraju says it's more than a "new feature," she's pitching it as Search's evolution to meet users' needs.
This makes India the first international market outside of the US to get the feature, and is one of the largest rollouts of Search's AI features globally, according to Budaraju. "India plays a key role in helping us understand what works across diverse use cases," she says. "We're learning so much from Indian users."
Unlike AI Overviews, which automatically appear for certain searches, AI Mode lives in a separate tab from the main search interface. While some queries prompt
AI Overviews
without any action from users, AI Mode requires a deliberate choice. If you want to have a conversation with Google, you need to navigate to the "AI Mode" tab yourself. At least, that's how it works for now.
The technology behind this conversational search is more sophisticated than traditional search. AI Mode uses query fan-out, 'breaking down your question into subtopics and issuing a multitude of queries simultaneously on your behalf,' Budaraju explains. Under the hood, it's powered by a custom version of
Gemini
2.5, Google's most advanced AI model. When you ask a complex question, the system runs dozens of searches simultaneously before assembling a comprehensive answer.
Instead of users having to refine their searches multiple times to get the right answer, AI Mode handles that process automatically. "This enables Search to dive deeper into the web than a traditional search on Google," Budaraju says, "helping you discover even more of what the web has to offer and find incredible, hyper-relevant content that matches your question." The result is that users can ask complex questions in natural language and get comprehensive answers without the trial and error of traditional search.
Google insists the open web still matters
While traditional search remains the default for all, the question is whether this marks a new era for Search or remains an experimental overlay. Budaraju says it's foundational. "We believe AI can unlock entirely new capabilities in Search," she says, emphasising that this is not a temporary side-feature but the beginning of a long-term evolution. "We're committed to testing, learning, and improving as we go."
Perhaps the biggest shift is this: we no longer see ten links and choose. We ask one question, and trust Google to choose for us. Budaraju sees it as empowerment.
"Our goal is to reduce the effort, not the options. We want users to feel confident they're getting a quality answer, and that they can go deeper if they wish." She points to the query fan-out technology as evidence that AI Mode actually exposes users to more sources, not fewer. It's just that the heavy lifting happens behind the scenes.
But while users enjoy quicker answers, many worry that the internet is quietly turning in on itself. Google, once the guide to the web, is now becoming its filter. The concern is particularly acute for publishers who have built their businesses around search traffic.
She acknowledges these concerns but pushes back against the doomsday narrative. "This is not the first time that people have predicted the death of the web," she says, drawing parallels to previous technological shifts. "Think about the changes that came through mobile and social media, even with these, the web continues to grow significantly and rapidly." She cites a striking statistic: the number of pages published to the web has increased by 45 percent in the last two years alone.
"AI Mode doesn't aim to replace the open web," Budaraju insists. "We link out to high-quality sources, and we believe that giving users context encourages exploration." She argues that the technology actually helps surface content that might otherwise be buried in search results, "a niche Substack, a specialist business," that traditional search might miss. Moreover, she claims that users who do click through from AI Mode are often more engaged. "The traffic might be smaller, but it's valuable.'
Still, the worry remains: if the AI gives you all the answers, why click at all? And if no one clicks, who will write what's being summarised? For Budaraju, the answer lies in viewing this as a partnership rather than a replacement. "We hope that the publisher ecosystem sees this as something we can evolve together," she says. "Our ability to unlock latent user needs that previously didn't exist means there's potential for net new traffic to the ecosystem.'
AI Mode brings familiar risks, Google brings familiar tools
AI Mode isn't a departure from Google Search's founding principles, it's their natural evolution, Budaraju implies again as she did before. "The values of search are the values of AI Mode, because it is a part of Search," she explains. After more than two decades of building quality and safety systems, Google is applying the same rigorous standards to its AI-powered features.
"Our top priority for search is upholding the high bar for quality," Budaraju says. This means the Google should be using the same systems that have fought spam, misinformation, and low-quality content for traditional search now protect AI Mode.
But, the stakes are high. If AI misfires on a medical, legal, or ethical question, who is responsible? The concern is particularly acute in India, where AI-generated health advice or financial guidance could have serious real-world consequences for users who may not have access to alternative sources of information.
Budaraju's answer is careful. "We make it clear when responses are for informational purposes only. Users are encouraged to consult professionals. Responsibility is shared between the platform and the user, and we take that seriously." She emphasises that Google has invested heavily in quality systems and safety measures, drawing on more than 20 years of experience in delivering reliable information through search.
The company says it conducts extensive internal testing alongside adversarial red teaming, deliberately trying to break the system to identify weaknesses before users encounter them.
It's still Search, just a different kind
There's a deeper philosophical question at play: can an AI system truly embody the exploratory spirit that made Google Search transformative? Budaraju believes it can, and should. "We learn a lot from the feedback we receive, and we apply many of these lessons to the technology and features we build," she says. The goal isn't to replace human curiosity, but to amplify it, to make it easier for people to ask the kinds of complex, multi-layered questions that were previously too cumbersome to pursue.
Google says that approach is working. Users are asking much longer queries in AI Mode, two to three times the length of traditional searches, indicating they're bringing their "toughest questions" to the system. It's a sign that people are already beginning to treat Search less like a keyword box, and more like a thinking partner.
So where does this leave us? As AI Mode rolls out to millions of Indian users, Google isn't just tinkering with its search results, it's nudging the entire act of searching into a new format. The blue links haven't vanished, but they're no longer center stage. Instead, you get a response, a summary, a direction. You ask, it answers.
Budaraju frames it as a shift, not a replacement. 'We're still focused on discovery,' she says. 'But we're also helping users express their needs more naturally, even if they don't know exactly what to ask.' It's search, just a little more attuned to how we speak, think, and wonder.
And while the interface feels fresh, the fundamentals of the web are still working in the background, the citations, the sources, the open web that AI Mode is built on. Whether users will keep clicking through or be happy to stop at the AI's summary remains to be seen. That's a question of habit, curiosity, and trust, all things that don't shift overnight.
But for now, AI Mode doesn't try to replace the internet as we know it. It just offers a new way to move through it. Whether this becomes the default way we all Google, or just one more tab we occasionally click into, will depend on how it fits into the questions we ask, and the ones we didn't know how to ask before.
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