Last week, I shared the largest usability study of AI Mode, and it revealed how users interact with the new search surface:
They focus on the AI Mode text first 88% of the time, ignore link icons, and rarely click out.
This week, for Part 2, I’m covering what’s measurable, what’s guesswork, and what’s possibly next for visibility, trust, and monetization in AI Mode.
If you have questions about the study methodology or initial findings, make sure to check out What Our AI Mode User Behavior Study Reveals about the Future of Search to get up to speed.
Because this week, we’re jumping right in.
Which AI Mode Elements Can You “Optimize” For?
Before we dive into additional findings that I didn’t have room to cover last week, first, we need to get on the same page about your brand’s visibility opportunities in AI Mode.
There are a few distinct visibility opportunities, each with different functions:
- Inline text links or inline links: A hyperlink directly in the AI Mode output copy that opens a feature in the right side panel for user exploration; extremely rarely, an AI Mode inline text link may open an external page in a new tab.
- Link icons: Grey link icon that displays citations in the right sidebar.
- Citation listings side panel/sidebar: List of external links (with an image thumbnail) the AI Mode is sourcing from; appears in the right column. The link icon “shuffles” this list when clicked.
- Shopping packs: These appear similar to shopping carousels within classic organic search, and they occur in the left panel within the AI Mode text output.
- Local packs: These are similar to the local packs paired with the embedded map within classic organic search, and they occur in the left panel within the AI Mode text output (very similar to the Shopping packs above).
- Merchant card: Once a selection is made in the shopping pack, it opens a merchant card for further inspection.
- Google Business Profile (GBP) Card: This appears on the right when a merchant card from a local pack is clicked. Once clicked, the GBP Card opens for further inspection.
- Map embed: Embedded local map displaying solutions to the prompt/search need in the area.
Our AI Mode usability study collected data from 37 participants across seven specific search tasks, resulting in 250 unique tasks that provided robust insight into how people navigate the different elements within AI Mode.
The data showed that some of these visibility opportunities are more valuable than others, and it might not be the ones you think.
Let me level with you: I will not pretend I have the answers to exactly how you can earn appearance in each of the above AI Mode visibility opportunities (yet – I’m studying this intently as AI Mode rolls out globally across my clients and user adoption increases).
I would argue that none of us have enough data – at least, as of right now – to give exact plays and tactics to earn reliable, recurring visibility in new AI-chat-based search…
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