Orchestrating growth in the age of AI Search

Search has fundamentally changed over the last 18 months, driven by two forces coming together. The first is human curiosity, which is boundless. Users increasingly expect that they can ask almost anything online and get a meaningful answer.

The second is rapid progress in AI, which now allows Search to better understand questions and return genuinely useful responses.

This can be seen in how Search is evolving, with features like AI Overviews and AI Mode designed to respond to those higher expectations.

I often think about this in terms of my daughter. When she asks me a question and I give a vague or unhelpful answer, she doesn’t stop asking. She simply asks again in a different way, becoming increasingly frustrated. But when I give her a good answer, she still keeps asking questions but they are richer and more developed; her curiosity is being fuelled rather than blocked.

That’s exactly what we’re seeing in Search today. Better answers don’t reduce searching, they encourage more of it. In our biggest markets like the U.S. and India, AI Overviews is driving over 10% increase* in usage of Google for the types of queries that show AI Overviews. When people get clarity, they go deeper.

One long-standing data point still holds true. Every day, around 15%** of searches on Google are new, meaning they have never been searched before. Given the scale of Search, that’s remarkable and speaks directly to human curiosity.

What’s changing is how people search. Queries are becoming longer, more complex and more natural. Searches containing five or more words are now growing one-and-a-half times faster than shorter queries***.

In conversations I have with advertisers, I’m increasingly hearing that these same behaviours are also showing up on their own websites. Many are noticing that on-site search is becoming more natural, conversational and exploratory, closely mirroring how people now search on Google. This is because users are learning that the barrier to searching is significantly lower. They feel able to describe what they want in full sentences, add context, upload images or even ask questions using video, and they’re bringing those habits with them across the wider web.

For example, a search used to be “party dress for Christmas”. Now it’s, “I’m attending my work Christmas party, the theme is 90s glam, I want something sparkly but not too sparkly, on-trend, and black, grey or green suits my skin tone.”

The intent hasn’t changed. They still want a party dress. But the context is everything. That context allows AI to surface more relevant products or ideas and move people further along their decision journey. If you sell dark green, sparkly party dresses, that’s your moment to show up.

One emerging example of richer intent in action comes from how people are searching for “vibe.” Beyond simple descriptions, users increasingly want to find not just what something is, but how it feels. One early example of this is a feature that has just launched in the US.

Describing a vibe is difficult with words alone, but AI can recognise these cues by connecting images, videos and behavioural signals. In Google Maps, users can now search for restaurants based on vibes, and the system surfaces places that match.

This reflects a broader cultural shift. People are no longer just searching for things. They’re searching for feelings, experiences and context. Search is adapting to meet that shift.

Consumers are moving from discovery to decision more efficiently, not because journeys are shorter, but because they’re easier.

People can ask more detailed questions and provide more context, helping Search deliver more relevant and useful answers. As a result, they arrive at websites more informed and more qualified. Advertisers consistently tell us they’re seeing improved conversion rates, even without major website changes.

That tells us something important. AI-powered Search is sending higher-quality users into the ecosystem. By the time someone decides, they’re more confident and more ready to act.

This is where AI Max comes in. AI Max brings together three previously separate capabilities into one AI-powered solution.

First, it moves beyond traditional keyword matching. With longer, more complex searches, AI must understand intent, not just the words typed.

Second, AI Max includes Automatically Created Assets. These are AI-powered ads trained on your website, content and brand signals to dynamically align messaging with what users are searching for.

Third, URL expansion ensures users land on the most relevant page, not just a homepage, so intent is carried through the entire experience.

Together, these elements drive significantly stronger performance. Advertisers that activate AI Max in Search campaigns will typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS. For campaigns that are still mostly using exact and phrase keywords, the typical uplist is even higher at 27%.****

I recently met with a senior executive of a travel company who shared a telling example. Their PPC team kept triggering searches like, “does the swimming pool have a slide?”, yet their website never mentioned slides.

When we dug deeper, we found the answer in an unexpected place. In a hotel flyover video on the site, three minutes in, you could clearly see a slide going into the pool. The AI recognised that visual signal and connected it to the user’s question.

What’s interesting is that the brand hadn’t set out to answer that specific question. But they already had the content on their website that answered it. AI was able to recognise the slide in the video, connect the dots, and help people decide with confidence and that’s exactly where the power of AI Max comes to life, when all of its capabilities are enabled together.

That’s the shift. You’re no longer manually controlling keywords and ads. You’re orchestrating the AI. You provide the data, assets and insights, then let it deliver the outcomes.

The organisations doing this well start with a shared language around true business goals. Rather than optimising to proxy metrics like CPC or clicks, marketing teams are aligned to revenue, growth and market share.

That alignment is reinforced by having the right people in the room. I’ve seen transformative impact simply by bringing marketing, finance, commercial teams and agencies together on a six-weekly cadence.

This also changes how agencies are perceived. Today, many bring deep AI expertise built over years. When they’re treated as strategic partners rather than external executors, performance improves dramatically.

Ultimately, the leaders who succeed are those who connect strategy and execution, and empower teams to work together toward shared outcomes.