Google Search AI Agents Hit 1B Users

Google's AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly active users roughly a year after launch, and the company released its first full year of query data alongside the milestone. The findings matter less for the user count and more for what people are actually typing (or saying, or showing) into the tool.

The Questions Are Longer and the Intent Is Sharper

The average AI Mode query runs three times longer than a traditional search, and follow-up questions within a single AI Mode session have grown more than 40% month over month in the U.S. The most common opening words are "what," "how," "I," "is," and "can," according to Google's report, first covered by CMSWire. That's conversational phrasing, not the clipped keyword strings SEO teams have optimized for over the past decade.

The more consequential shift is in the "which" queries. Searches beginning with "which" have grown 40% faster than AI Mode queries overall over the past six months, and "which of" and "which one" are among the fastest-growing phrases in that window. That's comparison-shopping language — people using AI Mode not just to gather information but to decide between named options.

Planning and Multimodal Queries Are Growing Even Faster

Planning-related queries — itineraries, fitness routines, dinner parties, budgets — have grown 80% faster than AI Mode queries overall in the same six-month period, and brainstorming queries have grown 30% faster than overall usage since launch. For retail and hospitality brands specifically, the report notes that price, location, color, brand, and availability are the top attributes people specify when shopping through AI Mode, and dining recommendations lean on attributes like outdoor seating and private party rooms.

Multimodal search adds another layer: more than one in six AI Mode searches in the U.S. now involve voice, image, or video rather than typed text, and image-based searches have grown more than 40% month over month since launch.

What This Means for Marketing Teams

None of this changes the fundamentals of good content — it raises the bar on how directly that content answers a real question. Product pages, help center articles, and comparison content need to speak in the same terms customers are already using: "which," "explain," "identify," "find." Alt text and structured product imagery move from nice-to-have to functionally required, since a meaningful share of queries now arrive as pictures rather than words.

Teams building out their approach to AI-informed content strategy should treat comparison and decision-stage content as a priority, not an afterthought — that's where the fastest query growth is concentrated. And for teams still mapping how these shifts fit into a broader growth plan, the planning and brainstorming query growth is a signal worth building around, particularly for categories where customers research before they buy.

Google has been clear that ranking well in traditional search still matters for AI Mode visibility. What's changed is the shape of the question your content now has to answer.