Google to make it easier to access AI Mode as default

Google plans to make it easier for users to access AI mode by allowing them to set it as the default, replacing the traditional blue links.

AI mode is an advanced version of Google Search that uses large language models to summarise information from the web, so you can spend more time on Google than visiting websites.

Google AI mode can answer complex answers, process images, summarize information on the web, create tables, graphs, charts, and even help you code.

Right now, AI mode is optional. It’s placed on the left of the “All” tab, so you can accidentally open Google AI search and slowly prefer it over the traditional search.

In a post on X, Logan Kilpatrick, who is the product lead at Google AI Studio, suggested that AI mode would soon become the default mode on Google.

Later, Google’s Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search, clarified that the company only plans to make it easier to access AI mode for those who wish to use it.

Right now, there are no plans to make AI mode the default for everyone, but if you prefer AI mode as your default search tab, there will be a toggle or a button to do that.

This would mean the traditional blue links will not appear by default, but you’ll be able to switch to old results by finding the “Web” tab, which is tucked at the very end of the bar.

AI Mode might become the default mode at some point in future, but when?

I wouldn’t be surprised if AI mode does become the default search page in 2026 for everyone.

Google is still trying to determine how a move like that would affect its ad business.

Google is already testing ads in AI mode and AI Overviews and is pitching AI ad practices to ad partners.

The digital marketing industry is unsure how things will play out when blue links are replaced entirely with AI mode.

Google has about 90% of the search market share and continues to send billions of clicks to publishers across the world.

At the same time, Google does not pay publishers and independent blogs for summarising content.

Instead, the search engine giant claims that the AI summaries send more “quality” clicks to publishers, but it does not have data to back the claim.

Independent research by Pew suggests that fewer people are likely to click on a web result when the search engine shows an AI summary.

Some independent publishers are also discussing creating a “NATO for News” alliance to fight the existential crisis.