Google unveils AI-powered search in UK amid online safety crackdown

Google has launched an AI-powered search feature in the UK aiming to revolutionize conventional online search.

The US tech giant is rolling out AI Mode in Google Search, touted as the most “powerful AI search to date”, allowing users to ask complicated questions and follow-ups.

The recently-released mode will not replace Google’s existing search platform. In fact, it will appear as a tab on the Google Search results page and in Google app for Apple smartphones and Android from Tuesday, July 29.

The rest of the UK’s users will experience this feature over the next few days.

A paradigm shift in search methods

Google’s vice president of product management for search, Hema Budaraju, said the introduction of AI-powered search feature “heralds a major shift” in the way people are using online searches with longer and more complex questions.

“AI Mode is a new, intuitive way to address your most complex, multi-part questions and follow-ups, and satisfy your curiosity in a richer way. It is particularly helpful for exploratory questions and for more complicated tasks like comparing products, understanding complex problems, and planning a trip,” Hema continued.

Query fan-out technique

Powered by Google’s latest Gemini 2.5 , this tool allows users to ask unwieldy questions that would have previously required multiple searches.

The model is also characterized with multimodal searchers, either by text, pictures, or voice. It answers the questions by breaking down lengthy questions into sub-topics while processing the hundreds of other related searches.

By using this approach, comprehensive responses can be generated from various web sources rather than ranking individual pages.

These multimodal capabilities make this AI model highly distinguished from traditional search interfaces.

According to Hema, it would allow people to “find information that was previously much harder to find.”

The launch came over the heels of expansion of AI Mode for India’s users in July 2025. 

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