A New Default Model for AI Mode
At Google I/O 2026, Google announced it is upgrading Search with Gemini 3.5 Flash, its newest Flash model, and making it the default model in AI Mode for everyone globally. Google describes the model as delivering frontier performance for agents and coding.
This was one of a string of Search announcements at I/O, alongside a redesigned search box and new agent features. Taken together, they mark Google’s clearest signal yet that AI Mode is central to the future of Search rather than a side experiment.
Why It Matters for Visibility
A stronger model changes how AI Mode retrieves and assembles answers. It can handle longer, more complex, multi-step questions, and it supports follow-up questions inside the same conversation. That means more of the user journey can happen without a single click through to a website.
It also widens a gap that has been growing for a while: ranking well in traditional results and being cited in AI answers are increasingly two different things. A page can hold a strong organic position and still be absent from the AI response for the same topic.
What You Should Do
Start tracking AI visibility separately from rankings. Check whether your brand is cited in AI Mode for your most important queries, not just whether you rank for them.
Then focus on the content qualities that AI systems draw on: clear, direct answers, specific facts and figures, and genuine expertise that sets your page apart from the dozens of others covering the same ground. Google has been clear that its AI features still rely on its core ranking and quality systems, so strong SEO remains the foundation. Our Google AI Overviews and AI optimization services are built for exactly this shift.
