How Google AI Mode Changes Product Search

At Google I/O on May 20, Google started rolling out AI Mode to everyone in the US and showed a new shopping experience built on its Shopping Graph. More and more, stores show up in Google's AI answers through their product data, as well as their ads and web pages.

A smiling woman on her phone, sitting on a sofa beside colourful shopping bags

Published Jun 4, 2025. Author: Ecomm Guys. 4 min read.

Key Points

AI Mode is rolling out in the US as a new tab in Search, with no Labs sign-up needed.
AI Mode uses a query fan-out technique that runs many related searches at once.
The Shopping Graph has more than 50 billion product listings, and more than 2 billion are refreshed every hour.
Google announced agentic checkout with price tracking and a virtual try-on feature using your own photo.
Accurate product data and feeds will decide how often a store's products appear.

What Google Launched

Google says AI Overviews, launched a year earlier, has been one of its most successful Search launches in a decade. It says AI Overviews drove over a 10% increase in usage for the types of queries that show them in its biggest markets.

AI Mode goes further. It's a full AI search experience with more advanced reasoning, follow-up questions, and links to the web. Google began rolling it out across the US on May 20, with a new AI Mode tab appearing in Search and in the Google app over the following weeks.

Under the hood, AI Mode uses what Google calls query fan-out. It breaks a question into subtopics and runs many searches at the same time, then assembles an answer. Google is bringing a custom version of Gemini 2.5 into both AI Mode and AI Overviews in the US.

Shopping in AI Mode

Google also announced a new shopping experience in AI Mode that combines Gemini with its Shopping Graph. The Shopping Graph now holds more than 50 billion product listings, each with details such as reviews, prices, colour options, and availability. Google says more than 2 billion listings are refreshed every hour.

In Google's example, a shopper asks for a travel bag suited to a rainy May trip to Portland. AI Mode runs several searches to work out what makes a bag good for wet weather and long journeys. It then suggests waterproof options with easy pocket access, in a panel of products and images that updates as the conversation continues. Google says these shopping features are coming to AI Mode in the US in the coming months.

Agentic Checkout and Virtual Try-On

Two more features point to where this is going. With agentic checkout, a shopper can track a product's price, set their preferred size and colour and a target price, and then tap Buy for Me when the price drops. Google adds the item to the cart on the merchant's site and completes checkout with Google Pay. That's rolling out to US product listings in the coming months.

Google is also testing a try-on feature in Search Labs in the US, where shoppers upload a full-length photo to see how shirts, pants, skirts, and dresses from the Shopping Graph would look on them.

What This Means for Shopify Stores

When AI Mode chooses which products to show, it draws on product listings and their details. That makes your product data a ranking input in a way it wasn't when search was mostly ten blue links. Titles, descriptions, variants, prices, availability, images, and reviews all feed what Google can say about a product.

It also means a single clear answer matters. If your product page and your product feed say different things about price or stock, you risk being left out or shown with wrong information.

Get Your Product Data in Shape

Most of the work here is good product data hygiene, and it pays off in regular search and Shopping ads as well.

Connect your store to Google through Shopify's Google channel if you have not, and review any product warnings or disapprovals.
Write product titles that say what the item is, with brand, type, and key attribute, rather than internal names.
Fill in colour, size, material, and other attributes for every variant. Make sure GTINs are correct where your products have them.
Use clear, well-lit images, including on-body or in-use shots for apparel.
Collect reviews and make sure review markup matches what shows on the page.
If you'd like help getting your product data ready for AI search, book a call with our team.

Sources

AI in Search: Going beyond information to intelligence Google, May 2025
Shop with AI Mode, use AI to buy and try clothes on yourself virtually Google, May 2025