What is Google AI Mode, and what does it read on your website?

Your customer no longer types keywords. They type the whole job

Mr Lau runs an air-conditioning servicing firm in Kwun Tong. Between two jobs, ladder still on the van roof, he typed his own trade into Google to see where he stood, and pressed a tab he had never noticed: AI Mode.

No list of blue links came back. A written answer did, with sources down the side and a box inviting the next question. His site loads fast and his number sits at the top. Neither decides whether that answer mentions him.

Once, his customer typed "aircon servicing Kwun Tong" and rang the first tidy-looking firm. Now the same customer writes the whole job out:

My split unit is dripping onto the floor of our flat in Ngau Tau Kok. Who can come this Saturday, and roughly what does a chemical wash cost?

Google says the average AI Mode search in the United States is triple the length of an ordinary query ⁴.

So the owner's question changes. Not "do I rank for aircon servicing?" but "when Google breaks my customer's question into pieces, does my page answer one of them?"

One question in, a handful of searches out

After your customer presses enter, Google turns the sentence into several narrower searches and runs them side by side (it calls this "query fan-out", in case you meet the term). Google described it in March 2025 as "issuing multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and multiple data sources" ⁶, and its help page says AI Mode still works this way ¹.

Picture a purchasing officer. The boss asks one question; the officer fires short enquiries at a batch of suppliers and writes a one-page memo from the replies. Your page is one supplier. If your price, district and Saturday hours are written in your reply, they can go in the memo. If they sit in a photo of a flyer, the officer moves on. He does not ring to ask.

Every follow-up starts a fresh round: Search Console, Google's free report on how your site shows up in Search, counts each as a new search ⁵.

Your customers in Tampines and Mong Kok can use it today

By May 2026 Google reported more than a billion monthly AI Mode users worldwide ⁴, after taking it to over 200 countries and territories ³. On 13 November 2026 Google's help page listed Singapore and Hong Kong among the supported places, and English, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Malay and Tamil among the languages ¹. Cantonese is not listed on its own, and we did not test spoken questions. We found no usage figure for Singapore or Hong Kong, so we give none. A customer in Tampines or Mong Kok can open it today and ask about your trade.

Google asks for nothing new. Many small sites still miss the basics

Here is the part few owners have been told. To be shown as a link in AI Mode, Google's guide says, a page needs only two things: to be in Google's index (the store of pages Google can show at all) and to be able to show a snippet (the short preview text under a search result). Its words: "There are no additional technical requirements" ².

No secret trick, then, but Google does name basics that still count ²: its robots let in by robots.txt (the small file that tells robots where they may go), important content "available in textual form" rather than locked in a picture, and structured data (labels a machine can read: "this is a business, this is its address") that matches the page. We checked all three on our own scan.

The door was mostly open: 17 of the 21 sites let the AI robots in, and none shut them out. The weak point was saying who you are: 10 never told a machine what the business is, and 7 failed the check for a contact route written as text. One limit: we measured whether each site can be read, not whether AI Mode cites it. None of this means writing for a machine; it means putting what you know where any reader can lift it.

Five facts to write where the officer can copy them

Back to the purchasing officer. Each enquiry is narrow: who services split units in Kwun Tong, who works Saturdays, what a chemical wash costs. Your page answers only if the answer is written as text a stranger could quote. State:

• What you do, in your customers' words.
• Where you work: districts, and the address if customers visit.
• Hours and contact details as text, not a picture.
• Prices or ranges, if you publish them.
• Your registered name, spelled the same everywhere.

Now the two-minute test. Open Google on your phone, press AI Mode, and type in full the question your best customer would ask. Read which pages it links, then ask one follow-up. If your name is missing, that is an observation, not a verdict: the answer shifts with the wording.

Our free scan reads your site the way Google's robots do and shows which of these facts it finds as text. We work with owners to put the rest in place, without disturbing what already works in ordinary search.

Questions people ask

Is AI Mode the same as an AI Overview?

No. An AI Overview is the short summary that sometimes appears above the ordinary results. AI Mode is a separate tab where you ask a full question, get a longer answer with links, and keep asking follow-ups. Google says they may use different models, so their links can differ ².

Can I stop Google using my site in AI Mode?

Google says the control is robots.txt (the file that tells robots where they may go), set for Googlebot, its search robot. A few tags in a page's code (nosnippet, max-snippet, noindex) limit what is shown from it ². Blocking Googlebot also removes you from ordinary search, so the useful question is how to be read well, not how to hide.

Will I see AI Mode visits in Search Console?

Yes, mixed in with everything else. Search Console (Google's free report on how your site shows up in Search) counts a click on an outside link in an AI Mode answer as a click, and treats a follow-up question as a new query ⁵. Google reports AI Mode within the ordinary Web search data rather than as a report of its own ², so you cannot split them out.

Does AI Mode work in Chinese?

Yes. Google's help page, read on 13 November 2026, lists Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional), along with English, Malay and Tamil ¹. Cantonese is not listed separately. If your customers search in Chinese, a Chinese page stating the same facts gives AI Mode something to read in that language.

Why does AI Mode name other firms and not mine?

Nobody can tell from a single answer. It depends on the wording, the follow-ups and the pages Google found for each smaller search. What you can check is whether your pages state, as text, the facts a customer needs. The free scan starts there.

Sources

1. Google Search Help, Get AI-powered responses with AI Mode in Google Search, undated. Accessed 13 November 2026.
2. Google Search Central, AI features and your website, 10 December 2025. Accessed 13 November 2026.
3. Google, AI Mode is now available in more languages and locations around the world, 7 October 2025. Accessed 13 November 2026.
4. Google, How AI Mode is changing the way people search in the U.S., 19 May 2026. Accessed 13 November 2026.
5. Google Search Console Help, What are impressions, position, and clicks?, undated. Accessed 13 November 2026.
6. Google, Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode, 5 March 2025. Accessed 13 November 2026.

Our own counts come from our batch of 9 September 2026, 21 sites, one visit each, scored with the published rubric. Not a market survey.