TL;DR
Google AI Mode is a chat-style version of Google Search. You ask a question, Google writes the answer, and you often never visit a website at all. That's zero-click search, and it's why plenty of businesses are seeing more impressions and fewer clicks. It isn't the end of your website. The job just changes, from winning the click to being the business the answer names. Your analytics need reading differently too, and there's a checklist at the bottom to get you started.
Google AI Mode is Google Search with a chatbot bolted to the front. Instead of ten blue links, you type (or say) a question and Google writes you an answer, with a few links tucked in for anyone still feeling nostalgic.
It arrived in Australia on 8 October 2025. You'll find it as the "AI Mode" tab near the search bar, sitting quietly next to Images and News as if it hasn't just rearranged all the furniture.
Behind the scenes it runs on Google's Gemini models. When you ask something complicated, it uses what Google calls "query fan-out". In plain English: it breaks your question into lots of smaller questions, runs a pile of searches on your behalf, reads the results, and stitches together one answer. Then you can ask follow-up questions, like chatting to a very well-read shop assistant who never goes on a smoko break.
Say you type: "Plan me a Saturday in the Adelaide Hills with a good bakery, a short walk and somewhere dog-friendly for lunch." Old Google gave you ten tabs and a mild headache. AI Mode gives you an itinerary. You might not open a single website to get it.
Great news for you as a searcher. Slightly awkward news if you're the bakery.
Three things get lumped together constantly, so here's the quick version.
The common thread: the answer now comes to the searcher, instead of the searcher going to the answer. If you want the bigger picture on getting quoted by all three, start with our guide to showing up in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Gemini. For now, let's talk about the side effect everyone's noticing.
A zero-click search is a search that ends without anyone clicking through to a website. The person got what they needed on the results page and got on with their day.
It isn't new. Type "what time does Bunnings close" and Google has been answering on the page for years, no click required. Same with the weather, the footy score, and converting cups to grams at 6pm on a Sunday.
What's new is the scale. AI answers mean far more complicated questions now get answered on the page too, not just the quick ones.
Your website used to be the destination. Now it's often the source.
The research backs it up. A 2024 study by SparkToro and Datos found 58.5% of US Google searches ended without a click to any website. In 2025, Pew Research Center found that when an AI summary appeared, people clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there wasn't one. They clicked a link inside the AI summary itself on just 1% of visits.
Both studies are American, but Australians use the same Google, so it would be brave to assume we behave wildly differently. And that research is mostly about AI Overviews. AI Mode is the chattier, more complete version, so don't expect it to send more clicks.
This is where most business owners notice it first, usually while squinting at a monthly report and asking why a number has gone the wrong way.
In Google Search Console, impressions (how often you appeared in search) and clicks (how often someone actually visited) used to move together. Now impressions keep climbing while clicks sit still. Put them on a chart and the two lines open up like a crocodile's jaws. SEO people genuinely call it that. We're a fun bunch.
It doesn't automatically mean you're doing worse. Often it means Google is showing you more than ever, and answering the question before anyone needs to visit.
Google counts AI Mode and AI Overview clicks and impressions inside the standard "Web" figures in Search Console. There's no tidy AI Mode filter. Over in Google Analytics 4, a visit from AI Mode generally looks like any other visit from Google. So there's no report called "What AI did to me this month", and anyone promising you one is being optimistic.
Now the good news. The people who still click have usually read the summary already. They're not browsing, they're checking you out. Expect fewer visits but more enquiries per visit, which is why it pays to measure your marketing ROI by leads and sales, not traffic.
When people see your name in an answer, some of them search for you by name later, or just type in your web address. That shows up as branded searches and direct traffic, not as a thank-you note from AI Mode. Keep an eye on both. It's where AI visibility quietly pays off.
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Short answer: it depends on what people are searching for.
Quick "how do I" questions. If you're a plumber, "how do I fix a dripping tap" is going to be answered on the page. That click was never going to book you anyway. It was a bloke with a shifter and a free Saturday.
"Emergency plumber near me" still ends in a phone call. So do searches where people need to compare, book, buy, or trust someone with their money. Local, ready-to-buy searches still reward the businesses that show up in them, which is why local SEO matters more now, not less.
In an AI answer, the prize is being the business it mentions. If AI Mode says "a few well-reviewed options in Norwood are..." and you're on the list, that's the modern shop window. You might not get the click today, but you got the mention, and the mention is what people remember.
That's exactly what our WISE™ method is built around. It starts with your Web presence: everything Google and AI engines see when they look you up, from your site to your reviews. It's the work behind our AI search optimisation, and it sits on the same foundations as good old SEO for Adelaide businesses.
Key takeaway
Zero-click doesn't mean zero value. Stop judging search purely by clicks. Judge it by whether you're being found, named and chosen, and whether the people who do click turn into customers.
Ten things to check. Tick them off yourself, or forward this to whoever looks after your website and watch them go slightly pale.
Tick off seven or more and you're ahead of most businesses in your suburb. Fewer than four, and the crocodile is probably winning.
Google AI Mode is a chat-style search experience inside Google Search, powered by Google's Gemini models. Instead of a list of links, it writes an answer to your question, cites a handful of websites, and lets you ask follow-up questions. It launched in Australia on 8 October 2025 and sits as a separate AI Mode tab in Google Search.
A zero-click search is a search that ends without the person clicking through to any website, because the answer was shown on the results page. Weather, opening hours and quick facts have worked this way for years. AI Overviews and AI Mode now answer much more complex questions the same way, which is why many websites see more impressions but fewer clicks.
Not separately. Google includes AI Mode and AI Overview clicks and impressions in the normal Web figures in Search Console, and in Google Analytics 4 those visits usually look like regular Google traffic. You can separate visits from standalone AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini with a custom channel group, then watch branded searches and conversions for the rest.
Answer your customers' questions clearly on your website, add FAQ and business schema, keep your Google Business Profile complete and your details consistent, and earn reviews and mentions on trusted sites. AI Mode draws on Google's normal ranking systems, so solid SEO is still the foundation. If you want to know where you stand today, a free SEO audit is a sensible first step.
About the author
Founder, Digital Marketing Adelaide
Matt Williamson is the founder of Digital Marketing Adelaide and Adelaide's face of AI Search. He leads the agency's AI search optimisation and training, and is a keynote speaker on how businesses get found in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
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