Google shows the future of search with a new "AI mode"

At the annual Google I/O developer conference, the search engine giant is showing off all its weapons to compete in the race against OpenAI.

In 2024, Google first showcased an AI-powered search summary tool at its developer conference that would transform its search engine.

But during these twelve months, the world of search engines, where Google was king, has completely changed, and new competitors have emerged with much more advanced tools that challenge the Mountain View company's usual leadership.

To address this threat, Google announced yesterday a "total reinvention of search." Starting in the next few days, users in the United States will be able to activate the new "AI mode" in Google search and the Chrome browser . This way, instead of receiving a list of links or an intelligent summary as before, they will enter a conversational mode where they can ask questions and receive specific answers, similar to Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Google is betting on this new search system despite investor fears that these AI products will destroy the search engine's traditional source of revenue: advertising. In fact, the summaries Google currently offers have already reduced the click-through rate on ads, on which the company relies for much of its revenue.

So far, the company hasn't explained how it plans to integrate advertising into its new AI-powered search offerings, browsers, and apps. Google generated $50 billion in search advertising revenue during the first quarter, more than half of Alphabet's $90 billion total.

Google's rush to accelerate in the AI ​​race in the face of rapid progress by competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic has led the American company to also implement rapid improvements to its language model, Gemini.

Gemini 2.5 features significant advancements in programming, math, and image understanding tasks. It's designed to reason and respond more effectively, improving its performance and accuracy. According to Google, it outperforms its competitors in benchmark tests.

The company is also making a significant leap forward in its subscription plans with the new Google AI Ultra, which costs $250 per month. For this price, users will have access to 30 TB of storage, the most advanced version of the Gemini app, advanced video generation with Veo 2, and early access to the new Veo 3 model. Additionally, in a few weeks, users of this new plan will also have access to Deep Think in 2.5 Pro, Google's new enhanced reasoning mode, and a new AI tool for filmmaking, Flow.

This subscription will also give you access to Project Mariner, Google's investment in AI agents , which will allow them to perform up to 10 tasks simultaneously. Mariner can analyze and work with pixels, images, and code, as well as forms, completing them autonomously, and automatically navigate between sections of a website. It will be able to search for a trip, book it, or compare prices.

Another Google innovation was the announcement of the renewal of Project Astra , a "multimodal" agent that can respond and act on queries and voice commands in real time, using a mobile phone camera or smart glasses to observe the world.

Google plans to integrate Astra directly into search, but will also allow access to Apple iOS devices, not just those using its Android mobile operating system.

And continuing with this commitment to agents, the company also introduced Jules, its agent for programming, and once again, with which it will seek to accelerate ahead of its competitors, who are already making great strides in the use of AI for programmers.