Author: Fabien Galet, October 9, 2025
Google’s New “AI Mode” Lands in Australia, What It Might Mean for eCommerce SEO
AI Mode probably won’t “kill” SEO. But it will change how people find and interact with brands. And for eCommerce, that’s reason enough to start paying attention now.
So, Google’s done it again. This time rolling out AI Mode in Australia. It’s part of their push to make search feel more conversational, more contextual, more… human, we guess.
Instead of typing in a bunch of separate searches, you can now ask Google longer, layered questions and it’ll give you a more narrative-style response. You can even follow up naturally, like chatting to someone who’s done a hundred searches for you behind the scenes.
Sounds cool, right?
But for those of us working in eCommerce SEO, it also sounds like: “Oh great, time to rethink everything again.”
Let’s break down what’s actually going on and what it could mean.
What exactly is “AI Mode”?
According to Google’s announcement, AI Mode is a way to handle complex queries better. You can ask something like, “What are good weekend getaways near Sydney with hikes and vintage markets?” and instead of giving you ten blue links, Google tries to piece together a summary from multiple sources.
You can also talk to it or show it pictures. It’s multimodal, meaning it can mix words, voice, and images. And if it’s not confident in its answer, it’ll still show you the regular blue links.
So really, it’s not replacing search, it’s adding a smarter, layered version of it on top.
What could change for SEO (and eCommerce in particular)
We don’t know exactly how this will shake out yet. But we can already see a few areas where things might shift.
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Fewer clicks for simple answers
If Google’s AI starts summarising content more directly, users might not need to click through as often. That means “top-of-funnel” content like guides and how-tos could see less traffic. For example, instead of someone clicking your “how to style a linen shirt” article, Google might just explain it right there and your page is now a source, not a destination.
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Quality and authority will matter more
Because Google’s AI will have to decide which sources to trust when summarising, brand authority, freshness, and content depth could become key ranking signals. Thin content probably won’t make the cut. The brands that consistently publish detailed, trustworthy, and helpful info are more likely to be referenced.
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Keywords might sound more natural
People will start searching in full sentences and natural phrases. e.g. “What’s a good minimalist sofa under $1500 that doesn’t stain easily?” These kinds of searches are hard to optimise for in the old-school “keyword = page” way. It’s going to be more about topic coverage and intent clusters than exact keywords.
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Pages need to anticipate the next question
If AI Mode encourages people to keep chatting, Google might prioritise pages that feel like a journey. The ones that anticipate follow-up questions and link out sensibly.
Think less “single topic page” and more “connected web of content.”
So… What should eCommerce brands do?
Here’s what we at MindArc think makes sense right now (no hype, just practical stuff):
- Audit your content: find thin or outdated articles that don’t really answer questions deeply.
- Structure content for exploration: add sub-questions, related topics, internal links.
- Keep your product data clean: accurate schema, up-to-date prices, good review markup, FAQs.
- Use more visuals: helpful images, comparison tables, charts. Google’s multimodal now, so visuals could matter more.
- Track your data closely: monitor click-throughs, engagement, and search performance as AI Mode rolls out, we might see a dip in the data.
And to be perfectly honest? Please don’t panic. Google themselves say AI Mode is “early stage” and will keep changing. We’ll learn as we go.