Google has unveiled a major expansion of its AI Mode search experience, introducing groundbreaking visual search capabilities and conversational shopping features that promise to transform how users discover and purchase products online. The update, rolling out this week to US users, represents Google’s most significant enhancement to AI-powered search since the feature’s initial launch.
Visual Search Takes Center Stage
The centerpiece of Google’s latest update is the introduction of rich visual results in AI Mode. Users can now ask questions conversationally and receive a range of visual responses, fundamentally changing the search experience from text-heavy to image-rich interactions.
“Sometimes what you’re looking for really just can’t be articulated with text,” explained Robby Stein, Vice President of Product Management at Google Search, during a press briefing. “If you ask about shopping for shoes, it’ll describe shoes when really people want visual inspiration, they want the ability to see what the model might be seeing.”
The new visual capabilities shine particularly bright in inspiration-based searches. Users seeking design ideas can simply ask for “maximalist inspo for my bedroom” and receive a curated collection of images that match their desired aesthetic. The system’s conversational nature allows for natural refinements like “show me more options with dark tones and bold prints,” making the search process feel more like chatting with a knowledgeable friend.
Each image result includes clickable links that direct users to the original source, enabling deeper exploration of content across the web. The multimodal experience also supports image uploads, allowing users to start their search by snapping a photo or uploading an existing image.
Revolutionary Shopping Experience
Perhaps the most transformative aspect of the update lies in its shopping capabilities. Google has reimagined product discovery by eliminating the need for traditional filters and categories. Instead, users can describe what they’re looking for using natural language, just as they would when talking to a friend.
“We’re really working here on making AI Mode much more visual and much better for both inspiration and also for inspirational shopping,” said Lilian Rincon, Vice President of Product for Google Shopping, during a press roundtable.
The shopping experience leverages Google’s massive Shopping Graph, which contains more than 50 billion product listings from retailers worldwide. This database refreshes over 2 billion product listings every hour, ensuring users see the most current inventory, pricing, and availability information.
Users can search for specific items like “barrel jeans that aren’t too baggy” and receive a curated selection of shoppable options. The conversational interface allows for easy refinement with follow-up requests such as “I want more ankle length” or “show me acid-washed denim.” Each result displays pricing, stock availability, and includes direct links to retailer websites for purchase.
Advanced Technology Powers the Experience
Behind these user-friendly features lies sophisticated artificial intelligence technology. Google has developed what it calls “visual search fan-out,” a technique that performs comprehensive image analysis to recognize both primary subjects and subtle secondary details within images.
This advanced system runs multiple background queries simultaneously, understanding the full visual context and nuances of natural language questions to deliver highly relevant results. The technology builds upon Google’s existing visual understanding capabilities from Google Lens and Image search, combined with the advanced multimodal and language capabilities of Gemini 2.5.
“This breakthrough visual search experience is rooted in our world-class visual understanding of Google Search with Lens and Image search, combined with Gemini 2.5’s advanced multimodal and language capabilities,” Google explained in its official announcement.
Global Expansion and Language Support
The visual search update comes as part of Google’s broader AI Mode expansion strategy. Earlier this year, the company rolled out AI Mode to 180 countries worldwide, dramatically expanding beyond its initial availability in the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
In September, Google announced that AI Mode now supports Spanish globally, marking a significant milestone in making the AI-powered search experience accessible to Spanish-speaking users worldwide. This expansion followed the earlier addition of five new languages in September, including Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese.
The rapid language expansion demonstrates Google’s commitment to democratizing AI-powered search capabilities across diverse global markets. The company has indicated plans to continue adding more languages and regions in the coming months.
Competitive Landscape and Market Response
Google’s enhanced AI Mode represents a strategic response to increasing competition in the AI-powered search space. Companies like OpenAI with ChatGPT Search and Perplexity have been challenging Google’s search dominance by offering conversational AI interfaces for information discovery.
The timing of these updates is particularly significant given OpenAI’s recent launch of an online shopping payment feature for ChatGPT, which allows users to make instant purchases within chat conversations. OpenAI has partnered with Etsy and expanded to over a million Shopify stores, while also introducing the Agentic Commerce Protocol with Stripe for in-chat shopping experiences.
Industry analyst Nate Elliott from Emarketer observed that Google’s visual AI Mode enhancements could help the company catch up with ChatGPT. “Combining the value of these tailored results with the power of AI Mode’s ‘fan-out’ search strategy should significantly improve many people’s experiences in AI Mode,” Elliott noted.
Enhanced User Experience Features
The updated AI Mode introduces several user experience improvements designed to make visual search more intuitive and collaborative. A new “Share” button allows users to generate unique links to AI conversations, enabling seamless collaboration on projects like trip planning or group research.
Recipients of shared links can jump directly into ongoing conversations and contribute their own follow-up questions, creating a collaborative search experience that wasn’t previously possible with traditional search engines.
On mobile devices, users can take the visual search experience even further by searching within specific images and asking conversational follow-up questions about what they’re seeing. This capability extends the multimodal interaction beyond simple image recognition to detailed visual analysis and discussion.
Technical Innovation and Implementation
The visual search fan-out technique represents a significant technical achievement in AI-powered search. Unlike traditional search methods that process queries linearly, this system simultaneously analyzes multiple aspects of images and text inputs to provide comprehensive results.
The technology can identify subtle details and secondary objects within images, not just primary subjects. This deeper understanding enables more nuanced and relevant visual results that match both the explicit query and implicit user intent.
Google’s implementation ensures that the visual search experience maintains the same conversational flow that users have come to expect from AI Mode, while adding the rich visual dimension that many queries naturally require.
Future Implications and Development
The introduction of visual search capabilities in AI Mode signals Google’s broader vision for the future of search. The company has hinted at developing AI into a “world model” an artificial intelligence system that can plan and imagine new scenarios by simulating aspects of the real world, similar to human cognitive processes.
This visual search update also lays the groundwork for more advanced agentic features. Google has already introduced experimental capabilities that allow AI Mode to find and book restaurant reservations for users, with plans to expand to other domains like local service appointments and event ticket purchases.
The visual shopping experience particularly positions Google to compete more effectively in the growing intersection of AI and e-commerce, where visual discovery and conversational interfaces are becoming increasingly important for consumer engagement.
Availability and Rollout
The new visual AI Mode features are rolling out to English-speaking users in the United States starting this week. Google has indicated that the rollout may take several days to reach all users as the company gradually expands access to the new capabilities.
The visual search experience is currently available at no additional cost to users, representing Google’s continued investment in enhancing its core search product with AI capabilities. While Google has experimented with advertising in AI Overviews, the company has not yet implemented ads in the visual AI Mode experience.
Industry Impact and Analysis
The launch of visual AI Mode represents more than just a feature update it signals a fundamental shift in how search engines can understand and respond to user queries. By combining visual understanding with conversational AI, Google is creating a more intuitive and natural search experience that better matches how humans naturally seek information.
For retailers and e-commerce businesses, the visual shopping capabilities offer new opportunities to reach customers through inspirational discovery rather than traditional keyword-based searches. The integration with Google’s Shopping Graph ensures that product information remains current and comprehensive.
The conversational nature of the shopping experience also reduces friction in the discovery process, potentially leading to higher engagement and conversion rates as users can more easily find products that match their specific needs and preferences.
As Google continues to expand these capabilities globally and add new languages, the visual AI Mode experience is poised to become a significant factor in the evolving landscape of AI-powered search and discovery.
Sources
- The Decoder – Google expands AI Mode with visual search and new features
- The Verge – Google’s AI Mode image search is getting more conversational
- WWD – Google’s AI Mode Introduces New Update to Provide Better Visual Results for Shopping Searches
- TechCrunch – Google’s AI Mode arrives in Spanish globally
- CNET – Google’s AI Mode Can Now Give You More Visual Inspiration
