Google's AI mode arrives in the UK: What It means for brand performance and ROI

Alistair Hague

Alistair leads Organic & AI SEO at Open Partners, with 27 years of web development and search optimisation experience.

Alistair Hague

Alistair leads Organic & AI SEO at Open Partners, with 27 years of web development and search optimisation experience.

Google rolled out AI Mode in the UK on 29 July, 2025. Built on Gemini 2.5 Pro, it delivers conversational, multimodal answers (using text, voice and images) answers directly within Search.

Along with providing a new, more interactive search experience for end users, for brands, Google AI Mode means even less traffic from standard blue‑link results. In the absence of an AI-first search strategy, this means less site visits, less brand visibility, and less revenue from organic search.

Below, we explore the essentials of AI Mode: what the user experience looks like, how it will impact the already fluid and fast-changing landscape of organic search, and what businesses must do to protect marketing ROI and their brand performance as traditional SEO continues to lose effectiveness.

The essentials of Google AI Mode

Behind the scenes, Google AI Mode uses a “query fan‑out” system that breaks complex questions into sub queries, runs them in parallel, and synthesises a comprehensive, cited response for the end user.

It builds on the earlier AI Overviews experience, but instead of adding summaries above standard results, it can replace the standard search engine results entirely with a chat‑like interface that still includes source links for deeper reading.

UK users will see an AI Mode tab in Search results, an AI Mode button in the Google app (Android and iOS), and optionally a homescreen widget on Android devices.

This follows earlier launches in the US (May 2025) and India (July 2025).

What this means for brands

An AI-first search strategy is non-negotiable

The release of AI Mode compounds the ongoing material impact AI is having on organic search and revenue.

Last year, Gartner predicted that brands will lose up to 50% of their organic traffic and associated revenue by 2028. However, the material impact is already being felt much faster, with a handful of verticals being hit the hardest:

Note: Values are based on aggregated estimates from multiple studies and articles in 2024–2025. The actual impact varies by brand, query type, and implementation of AI search features.

The drivers behind these drops in performance builds on the ongoing impact of AI search, which has rendered many legacy SEO tactics obsolete while others gain importance:

Zero-click search spikes: AI Mode often answers queries fully in‑interface, reducing clicks to websites. Less clicks = less brand awareness and less organic revenue.
Keyword ranks will become less relevant: AI Mode uses semantic understanding, not exact term matches. Classic rank tracking offers limited insight.
Structured, authoritative content will gain visibility: Citation in responses increasingly favours pages with strong structure, schema, depth, trust signals, regardless of their position in classic SERPs.

AI’s impact is rapid and significant – brands must act now

With the impact of AI search already causing material losses for brands, AI Mode sets to compound the impact for slow adopters.

In Q2 2025, AI Mode had over 100 million monthly active users across the US and India. Google also posted a 49% increase in search impressions and record $54.2 B in search revenue suggesting that advertisers still benefit, but must adapt to lower click-through volumes.

Further to this, Google plans to expand features like Deep Search, a research‑oriented mode that runs hundreds of queries at once and delivers AI‑composed reports, and options to switch among AI models (Pro, Ultra) within AI Mode.

The UK launch of Google AI Mode marks a strategic shift from search to answer centric interaction.

Brands must act now to evolve content, adapt their metrics, and ensure they are among the trusted sources AI Mode includes in its answers. Analytical thinking, structured strategy, and authoritative content are how you stay visible in this new era.

If you want your brand to survive in the era of AI search, don’t be late to the game. Start leading it.

Your partner in AI readiness

Open Partners are experts in AI-led marketing, having access to unique technology and a host of proprietary solutions to enable brands to achieve smarter, faster, and better results. To learn how we can help your brand bolster visibility in AI search, protect (and improve) ROI, and improve your competitive market position, contact us below.