Google is expanding its experimental AI Mode in Search with a new multimodal capability that lets users upload or take a photo and receive an AI-generated response about what’s in the image. The new feature, launched on April 7, is now available to millions more users in the U.S. via Search Labs on Android and iOS.
AI Mode, previously offered only to Google One AI Premium subscribers, combines the Gemini language model with Google Lens. The result is an experience that allows the AI to recognize objects in a photo, understand their context, and generate a structured response with links, suggestions, and optional follow-up prompts.
AI Mode now can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colors, shapes, and arrangements. The system works using a “fan-out” technique that generates multiple queries from the image, which are then synthesized into a conversational answer.
Visual Search Meets Conversational Reasoning
Google’s update marks a shift in how search functions. With the new AI Mode, users can move beyond typing keywords or asking voice queries—they can point the camera, take a photo, and start a back-and-forth with the search engine. The feature interprets the entire scene: a cluttered desk could yield product recommendations, workspace organization tips, or links to articles based on the objects it identifies.
The feature brings Google Search, Google Lens, and Gemini together in one product. But beneath that metaphor is a real technical evolution. The fan-out querying method differs from older visual search tools, which often provided direct image matches without layered reasoning. AI Mode adds synthesis and follow-up—qualities central to large language model behavior.
In addition to visual analysis, the system supports voice input on mobile and allows users to refine their queries through a dedicated follow-up text box.
From Internal Testing to Public Release
The new multimodal functionality builds on Google’s earlier experiments with AI Mode and AI Overviews. AI Mode was first being tested internally with Google employees. These early trials featured multi-step queries, like planning meals for groups or comparing materials for winter clothing, and were powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.0.
Unlike AI Overviews, AI Mode is a more interactive experience. It doesn’t just present an AI-generated snippet—it invites users to continue the search through conversation, visuals, or follow-up queries.
Google has stated that AI Mode is not a replacement for traditional search, but rather a complement for more complex, reasoning-intensive tasks. However, it’s clear that with this expansion, the company is steering users toward a different kind of search interaction.
Publisher Backlash and Competitive Pressures
Not everyone is embracing Google’s vision for AI-driven search. Publishers have expressed concern that AI-generated responses are displacing traditional link-based results, cutting into their visibility and ad revenue. According to Bloomberg, some websites have experienced traffic drops of up to 70% as AI summaries reduce the need to click through to external pages.
Many smaller publishers are left with no real choice: blocking Google’s bots to avoid content scraping can lead to sharp losses in search visibility. Those who stay indexed often find their content used in AI-generated responses with little traffic in return.
The backlash reached a new level earlier this month when Chegg filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company’s AI systems were using its educational material without consent. Online-learning Chegg claims that Google scraped its proprietary content and rephrased it using AI in search summaries. Google has denied wrongdoing.
Advertising and Monetization Challenges
The expansion of AI Mode also raises questions about Google’s ad business. The company has already started placing ads inside AI-generated content in Overviews, as confirmed by a May 2024 Winbuzzer report. It’s likely that a similar monetization model will be extended to AI Mode.
But ad placement in conversational AI results presents a new challenge. Unlike traditional search results, where paid links appear at the top or in a designated section, AI Mode generates integrated answers that are harder to interrupt with ads without undermining user trust. The structure of the response is flatter and more synthetic, making commercial inserts more subtle—and more controversial.
For Google, which relies heavily on advertising revenue from its Search product, getting this balance right is critical. If users rely more on AI-generated answers and less on traditional listings, Google may need to overhaul how it embeds sponsored content in these experiences.
Google Squares Off With ChatGPT and Perplexity
Google’s AI Mode update comes amid intensifying competition from AI-native challengers. OpenAI has been steadily expanding ChatGPT’s search capabilities with live web access, allowing users to ask natural language questions and receive up-to-date answers with citations. Meanwhile, Perplexity AI is promoting its Deep Research tool, which aggregates real-time data from multiple sources and surfaces information in a citation-backed format.
Google’s counterpunch is its latest Gemini 2.5 Pro model, which is expected to soon power both AI Mode and Overviews.
That usefulness of Google’s AI integration now includes not just answering questions but seeing and interpreting images. As competitors aim for transparency and precision in AI-assisted search, Google is betting that Gemini’s context comprehension and integration with visual tools will keep it ahead.
Still, the regulatory environment is tightening. The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed remedies that could lead to structural changes at Google, including splitting off parts of its search and browser operations. The DOJ has argued, that Google’s control over the search ecosystem and its integration of AI tools may give it an unfair advantage over competitors and content creators.
As Google, OpenAI, and emerging competitors like OpenAI and Perplexity each refine their approaches, the future of search is shaping up to be more interactive, more visual, and more contested than ever.
