No. Google says AI Mode is not the default and blue links remain. What changed is scale and wiring: AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly users, AI Overviews now lead straight into AI Mode, and studies outside Google keep finding fewer clicks when an AI answer appears.
No. As of late August 2026, Google has not made AI Mode the default way to search: a normal text search still returns a results page with blue links, and Google has said so on the record. What did change is the scale and the wiring. By May, AI Mode had passed 1 billion monthly users, and an AI Overview now leads straight into an AI Mode conversation the moment someone asks a follow-up question.
In its Search announcement at Google I/O on 19 May 2026, the only thing Google called the new default was a model: Gemini 3.5 Flash became the default model inside AI Mode. Some marketing blogs still described AI Mode itself as the new default. AI Mode is not the default, but the worry behind those headlines is fair: Google says AI Mode queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch, and that changes which visits reach your website.
- monthly AI Mode users, announced at Google I/O in May 2026
- 1 billion+
- monthly AI Mode users, announced at Google I/O in May 2026
- monthly AI Overviews users, per Sundar Pichai in June 2026
- 2.5 billion+
- monthly AI Overviews users, per Sundar Pichai in June 2026
- visits with a click on a result, with and without an AI summary (Pew, US)
- 8% vs 15%
- visits with a click on a result, with and without an AI summary (Pew, US)
- lower average desktop click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview appears (Ahrefs)
- 58%
- lower average desktop click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview appears (Ahrefs)
01
So is AI Mode the default or not?
Not on Google Search, and not in Chrome. After the I/O coverage, Google gave Press Gazette a statement, published on 26 May 2026, saying that a standard text search or a Lens search still shows the search results page. From there, a searcher can choose to follow up in AI Mode from an AI Overview, or press the AI Mode button in the redesigned Search box.
In early June, Google responded to reports that an experimental flag in a Chrome test build sent address-bar searches straight into AI Mode. Rajan Patel, Google's Vice President of Search Engineering, called it an error and said Google was not planning to make AI Mode the default for Chrome searches. AI Mode is one tap away on Google, and Google keeps making that tap easier, but it is still a tap.
You'll continue to see blue web links in the results, in addition to AI responses, and AI Mode is not the default experience in Search.
02
What actually changed in 2026
The changes arrived as a series of steps rather than one switch. Indian users had the basics from 2025: AI Mode began rolling out to everyone in India in English in July 2025, added Hindi in September, and in October added Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Urdu.
27 Jan 2026
AI Overviews start leading into AI Mode
Gemini 3 becomes the default model for AI Overviews globally, and a follow-up question asked from an Overview now continues in AI Mode, starting on mobile.
19 May 2026
Google I/O
Google says AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly users and makes Gemini 3.5 Flash its default model. Google starts rolling out what it calls the biggest upgrade to its Search box in over 25 years, and says the Overview to AI Mode flow is now live on desktop and mobile worldwide.
26 May 2026
Google: AI Mode is not the default
Google tells Press Gazette that blue links remain and that moving into AI Mode is the searcher's choice.
3 Jun 2026
AI Overviews: over 2.5 billion monthly users
Sundar Pichai shares the figure at Alphabet's investor presentation.
5 Jun 2026
Chrome test called an error
Google says it is not planning to make AI Mode the default for Chrome searches.
22 Jul 2026
More searches overall
On Alphabet's earnings call, Pichai says AI Mode is adding to total Search queries and that AI features send billions of clicks to websites every week.
28 Aug 2026
Overviews that open themselves
Google confirms that for some queries, AI Overviews may now expand dynamically. In the examples Search Engine Roundtable reported, the expanded Overview loads with its follow-up box already open, pushing classic results further down the page.
03
What the click data says
Some of the clearest independent evidence still comes from Pew Research Center's analysis of real browsing by 900 US adults in March 2025. When a Google results page showed an AI summary, people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits, against 15% when there was no summary. Only 1% of visits included a click on a link inside the summary itself, and people were more likely to end their browsing session there.
Later data points the same way. Ahrefs, which sells SEO software, compared desktop Search Console data for 300,000 keywords and found that by December 2025 an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower average click-through rate for the top-ranking page. Chartbeat data in the Reuters Institute's 2026 trends report showed Google organic search traffic to more than 2,500 news sites falling by a third globally between November 2024 and November 2025, although the report says it is not clear how much of that is down to AI Overviews.
Google disputes the scale. In August 2025 it said total organic click volume from Search to websites had been relatively stable year on year, and its guidance for site owners says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, meaning people are more likely to spend more time on the site. Both can be true: the total holds up while particular kinds of pages lose a large share of their visits.
04
Which searches lose clicks, and which mostly do not
Pew's data also shows which searches are most likely to get an AI summary: the longer and more question-like the search, the likelier one is. The examples are ours; the percentages are Pew's.
| Query shape | Hypothetical example | Searches with an AI summary |
|---|---|---|
| One or two words | dentist kochi | 8% |
| A noun and a verb | fix leaking terrace roof | 36% |
| Ten words or more | best way to waterproof a terrace before the monsoon in Kerala | 53% |
| Starts with a question word | what does a root canal cost in Kochi | 60% |
| All searches in the study | 68,879 searches | 18% |
In practice, the searches most exposed are the ones people type when they want an explanation, a cost or a comparison. Short searches were far less likely to show a summary, and for many local businesses those short searches, a service plus a place, are where calls, directions and bookings come from. Pew's figures are from the US in March 2025, so read them as a direction, not your exact numbers.
Google's guidance for its AI features points businesses at familiar levers: pages that are indexed and eligible to show a snippet, important content available as text, and Business Profile and Merchant Center details kept current. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for appearing in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
05
What to do this quarter
None of this needs a new budget line. It needs a change in what you watch and which pages you improve first.
- Split your queries. In Search Console, separate question-style queries from short commercial ones and track click-through rate for each group. Falling CTR on questions is often the AI answer at work. Falling CTR on short commercial terms is the one to investigate first.
- Rebuild your best explainer pages so the answer sits in the first paragraph under a question heading, followed by what a summary cannot give: your prices, your process, real photos and a booking or WhatsApp link.
- Keep your Business Profile exact. Hours, services, categories and phone number should match your website. Google's guidance for AI features tells businesses to keep this information current.
- Check eligibility. Make sure key pages are indexed, not blocked by robots.txt or your CDN, and not limited by a forgotten nosnippet tag.
- Measure enquiries, not sessions. Calls, WhatsApp messages, form fills and direction requests tell you more than raw traffic now. Our zero-click survival guide covers the measurement side.
- Track answer share monthly across the questions your buyers ask, so you know whether you are named in the answers that replace the clicks. Here is the routine.
Want to know which of your pages are most exposed? Our free audit reviews your site and search visibility.
Sources
Facts checked against the sources below and current as of 28 August 2026.