Google used I/O 2026 to ship the biggest reinvention of its Search product since the original page launched in 1998. The familiar text box has been replaced by an intelligent AI-powered input that dynamically expands, accepts text, images, files, video, and live Chrome tabs as input, and offers AI-driven query suggestions instead of plain autocomplete. AI Mode, the conversational layer built on Gemini, is now the default for everyone globally — running on the freshly-announced Gemini 3.5 Flash model — and has crossed one billion monthly users. Most consequentially, Search is gaining “information agents” that run 24/7 and alert users when something they’re tracking changes.
What’s actually new in AI Mode
Three concrete shifts from the version of Search that’s been live for the past 18 months. First, the search box itself is no longer a fixed-size text field. The new box expands as you type, anticipates intent, and offers suggestions that look more like model completions than indexed query matches. You can drop in an image, attach a PDF, link a live Chrome tab, or paste a video URL as part of a single multi-modal query. The old Search-then-results-page flow is dissolving into a conversational interface that lives at the top of every Google surface.
Second, AI Mode now runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash by default, replacing the older Gemini 2.5 Flash that previously powered it. Google’s framing of 3.5 Flash is “sustained frontier performance for agents and coding” at roughly one-third the price of comparable frontier models. The model upgrade is global and rolled out for everyone — not gated to AI Pro or AI Ultra subscribers as some of the I/O announcements were. Google said queries in AI Mode have more than doubled every quarter since launch.
Third, and most novel, “information agents” are coming to Search this summer. These are persistent agents the user creates inside Search that monitor specific topics — apartment listings matching criteria, sneaker drops from favorite athletes, price changes on a specific product, news about a research area — and proactively alert when conditions are met. The agents run in Google’s cloud (no local device required) and can be customized, paused, and shared. Initial availability is for Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers, with broader rollout expected after the beta period.
Why it matters for AI Mode and the search market
- The default Search interface is now AI-first. AI Mode used to be one tab among many; in 2026 it is the entrypoint. The traditional 10-blue-links results page still exists but is increasingly secondary to the conversational answer.
- Multimodal input becomes standard. Text + image + file + tab + video in one query is now table-stakes for a top-tier search experience. ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and You.com have to match.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash sets a new price-performance floor. At one-third the price of frontier competitors with sustained frontier-level performance, 3.5 Flash will pressure OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral on mid-tier model pricing.
- Information agents pull Search into the agent era. A 24/7 monitoring agent that proactively alerts is a structurally different product from a search engine that reacts to queries. The line between Search and Spark (Google’s consumer agent, also announced at I/O 2026) is blurring.
- One billion AI Mode users is a meaningful threshold. AI Mode’s monthly user count exceeds ChatGPT’s reported active users by an order of magnitude. The race to define how the world uses AI by default is shifting toward whoever controls the default Search behavior — and that remains Google.
- The “search to answer” disintermediation continues. Publishers, e-commerce, and content sites have to reckon with a Search product that increasingly answers in-place instead of sending traffic onward. AI Mode usage growing means the click-through-to-publisher economy keeps shrinking.
How to use AI Mode today
AI Mode is live globally as of May 19, 2026. Information agents are in beta for AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers starting this summer. Here is how to get the most out of what’s available now.
- Open google.com on any device. The new intelligent Search box appears by default. If you don’t see it yet, the rollout is staged and may take a few days to reach your region.
- Click the box to expand it. Type a question in natural language — the longer and more specific, the better the result. Multi-line queries are supported.
- To add an image, file, video, or Chrome tab to the query, click the plus icon inside the box and select the source. The model reads the attached content as context for the query.
# Example multi-modal AI Mode query
Text: "Find apartments in Seattle near light rail, under $2500/mo,
with in-unit laundry. Compare to these three I already saved:"
Files: saved-listing-1.pdf, saved-listing-2.pdf, saved-listing-3.pdf
# AI Mode reads the PDFs, understands the criteria, and returns
# a comparison table plus new listings that match.- For best results in AI Mode, frame queries as questions rather than keywords. “Best lightweight backpacking tent for two people under $400” produces a better response than “tent two person 400 dollars”.
- To set up an information agent (requires AI Pro at $100/month or AI Ultra at $200/month after the I/O 2026 price cut), click the Agents button below the search box and choose Create new agent.
# Information agent setup (example: track product price drops)
Agent name: Patagonia jacket watch
What to track:
Product: Patagonia Down Sweater jacket, men's medium, blue
Sources: Patagonia.com, REI.com, Backcountry.com
Trigger: Price drops below $190 OR back in stock at any retailer
Notify me: Push notification + email summary on Sundays
Status: Active. Next check: in 4 hours.- Manage your agents from Search → Agents → My agents. You can pause, edit, share, or delete each agent. There’s a per-user cap on simultaneous active agents (initially 25 for AI Pro, 50 for AI Ultra).
- For developers, the Gemini 3.5 Flash model powering AI Mode is available via the Gemini API and Vertex AI. The API behavior is similar enough to the Search experience that you can prototype custom agent-style products on the same model.
# Calling Gemini 3.5 Flash via the API
curl -X POST https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-3.5-flash:generateContent \
-H "x-goog-api-key: $GEMINI_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"contents": [{
"parts": [{"text": "What are the top 3 changes in AI Mode at I/O 2026?"}]
}]
}'How it compares to other AI-powered search
| Capability | Google AI Mode | ChatGPT Search | Perplexity Pro | You.com Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default search interface | Yes — global default on google.com | Opt-in tab in ChatGPT | Standalone product | Standalone product |
| Underlying model | Gemini 3.5 Flash | GPT-5.5 Instant | Claude Opus 4.7 / GPT-5.5 | Multi-model routing |
| Multimodal input | Text, image, file, video, Chrome tab | Text, image, file | Text, image, file | Text, image |
| Persistent monitoring agents | Information Agents (summer 2026) | Limited via Tasks | Spaces with monitoring | No |
| Monthly active users | 1B+ (AI Mode) | ~250M+ (broader ChatGPT) | ~30M (reported) | ~10M (reported) |
| Price (consumer) | Free / $20 Pro / $100 Pro+ / $200 Ultra | Free / $20 Plus / $200 Pro | Free / $20 Pro | Free / $20 Pro |
| Multi-modal input limit | Multi-file, large attachments | Strict file limits | Strict file limits | Strict file limits |
| Integration with own ecosystem | Workspace, Chrome, Android native | Limited | None native | None native |
AI Mode’s structural advantage is distribution. Google ships AI Mode to every Chrome user, every Android user, and every google.com visitor by default. Competitors have to convince users to install an app, change their browser default, or sign up for a separate service. The user-acquisition advantage compounds when AI Mode reaches one billion monthly users — most ChatGPT and Perplexity users are also Google users, but most Google users are not ChatGPT or Perplexity users.
The competitive gap is narrower than the user-count suggests. Perplexity and ChatGPT Search are widely viewed as having better quality on technical and research queries; AI Mode’s strength is breadth and integration. The race over the next 12 months will be on whether AI Mode can close the quality gap on technical queries while competitors find a way to overcome distribution disadvantage.
What’s next for AI Mode and the Search platform
Three threads to watch through the remainder of 2026 and into 2027. First, the information agent rollout. The summer beta for AI Pro and AI Ultra is small; the question is how fast Google extends it to free tier users and how many agents per user the platform sustains at scale. Persistent agents are expensive to run — each one polls the web or specific APIs on a schedule, accumulating real compute cost — and Google will have to balance cost against the user-engagement benefit. Expect tiered limits to be the visible result of this trade-off.
Second, the relationship between AI Mode and Gemini Spark. Spark (announced separately at the same I/O) is Google’s consumer agent that lives inside Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and the Gemini app. AI Mode’s information agents are inside Search. The two products have overlapping use cases — both monitor things on your behalf, both act through Workspace integrations. Google has not yet clarified the long-term split between the two. The most likely outcome is convergence: AI Mode for ad-hoc queries with optional persistent agents, Spark for proactive workflows initiated by the user, with shared infrastructure underneath.
Third, the publisher ecosystem response. AI Mode generating in-place answers continues to compress click-through traffic from Google to the websites that produce the underlying information. Publishers have been adapting through paywalls, AI-licensing deals (some with Google, some with OpenAI and Anthropic), and direct-traffic strategies. Expect ongoing tension and likely additional licensing or attribution announcements as Google tries to maintain content supply while keeping users in AI Mode.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI Mode available everywhere?
Yes, as of the I/O 2026 announcement on May 19, AI Mode is rolled out globally to all users. There may be a few days of staged rollout in some regions, but no country-level restrictions were announced. The underlying Gemini 3.5 Flash model is available globally via the API. Information agents (the new 24/7 monitoring feature) are initially limited to AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers in the US, with broader regional and tier expansion coming through summer 2026.
How is AI Mode different from regular Google Search?
Regular Search returns a list of links matching keywords; AI Mode returns a conversational answer generated by Gemini, with citations and links inline. The new AI-powered search box dynamically expands as you type, supports multi-modal input (text + image + file + video + Chrome tab in one query), and offers AI-driven suggestions instead of plain autocomplete. Both modes share infrastructure, and you can switch between them within a session — but AI Mode is the new default surface on google.com.
Do I need to pay for AI Mode?
No, basic AI Mode is free for everyone globally. The features that require a paid plan are advanced ones: information agents (AI Pro at $100/month or AI Ultra at $200/month), higher rate limits on multimodal input, longer context windows, and priority access to new features. The free tier includes unlimited AI Mode queries on Gemini 3.5 Flash with no daily cap that Google has disclosed.
How accurate is AI Mode for research and technical queries?
AI Mode is good for breadth and synthesis across general topics. For deep technical, scientific, or research queries, third-party benchmarks consistently show Perplexity Pro and ChatGPT Search with deeper-research modes outperforming AI Mode on accuracy of citations and depth of analysis. Google has not yet introduced a dedicated “deep research” mode within AI Mode, though several Google-watchers expect one in the next few quarters. For now, the right choice depends on use case: AI Mode for general questions, Perplexity or ChatGPT for technical depth.
Can I turn off AI Mode and use regular Search?
Yes. The traditional ten-blue-links results page is still available — toggle to All mode in the Search filter row above results, or use the URL parameter udm=14 appended to a search query (google.com/search?q=your+query&udm=14). Several browser extensions exist to make udm=14 the default. Google has not signaled any intention to remove the classic results page, but AI Mode is now the primary surface most users see first.
How do information agents differ from saved searches or Google Alerts?
Information agents are more sophisticated than Google Alerts in three ways. First, they accept criteria in natural language rather than keyword matching — “apartments near light rail with in-unit laundry under $2500” instead of just “Seattle apartment”. Second, they understand structured data (price, inventory, listings) from underlying APIs and websites, not just text mentions. Third, they can chain criteria and notify on combinations (“price drops AND back in stock”). Google Alerts will remain as a free, simpler product; information agents are the premium evolution.
How does AI Mode handle privacy and personal data?
AI Mode queries are not used to train Gemini models when a user is signed in with a Workspace account on AI Pro or AI Ultra. For free-tier consumer users, Google’s standard privacy policies apply — queries may inform product improvement but go through Google’s standard de-identification and aggregation. Information agents access only the public web and the apps you explicitly connect. The agents do not have access to your Gmail or Calendar unless you separately enable Spark, which is a distinct product. You can delete query history and pause agents from the Search activity controls at any time.