Google AI Mode tracking

What Google AI Mode is

Google AI Mode is a conversational search mode inside Google. You type a question, and instead of a list of links you get a written answer that pulls from across the web. It is a different feature from the AI Overview that sits above normal search results.

That difference matters because the two features do not always behave the same way. An AI Overview is a summary bolted onto a results page. AI Mode is a back and forth conversation, so a customer can ask follow up questions and get a more specific answer.

For a small business, the practical question is simple. When someone asks an AI assistant for a recommendation in your category, does your business get named? If not, who does? That is what tracking is for.

For example, a dentist in Leeds might ask an assistant: "Who is a good emergency dentist in Leeds?" The answer may name three practices. If yours is not one of them, you have just learned something useful.

Why track it separately

AI Mode and AI Overviews can name different businesses for the same question. If you only check one, you are seeing part of the picture. A competitor might appear in AI Mode while you appear in the Overview, or the other way around.

The two features also cite different websites. AI Mode may lean on a directory, a review site or a local news page. AI Overviews may lean on your own site or a different set of sources. Knowing which pages get cited tells you where to put your effort.

There is also a language and location angle. An assistant answering from one country may give a different answer than the same assistant answering from another. If you serve customers in more than one place, a single check from your own desk will not tell you the full story.

For example, a tour operator in Kochi might find that AI Mode names them when the question is asked in English, but names a different operator when the same question is asked in Hindi or Tamil. That is worth knowing.

Tracking by hand

You can track AI Mode yourself. It costs nothing but time, and it is a reasonable starting point if you only have a handful of questions.

The method is straightforward. Use a clean browser, meaning one where you are not signed in to a personal Google account and where your search history is not shaping results. Set your location to the country you care about. Then ask the questions your customers would ask.

Write down what you see. For each question, record the date, the exact wording you used, whether your business was named, which businesses were named instead, and which websites the answer cited.

Here is a simple routine you can follow:

1. List ten to twenty questions your customers actually ask, in their words.
2. Open a clean browser and set the location to your target country.
3. Ask each question in AI Mode and read the full answer.
4. Record who is named, who is named instead of you, and which sites are cited.
5. Repeat on the same day each week so the results are comparable.

The catch is that this is slow and hard to repeat. Answers shift, browsers remember things, and after a few weeks the spreadsheet gets messy. It also only covers one assistant at a time.

Tracking with a tool

A tracker does the same job on a schedule. You pick the questions, the assistants and how often to check, and the tool records the answers for you.

Vasukai checks 9 assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Meta AI, Sarvam) in 24 languages from the customer's country. It shows where a business is named, who is named instead and which websites the answers cite, and it writes the fixes. There is a free AI check at /sign-in?scan=1 that needs no card.

Every answer is shown in full, so you can read exactly what each assistant said rather than trusting a summary. Questions can be asked in your customer's language and up to two more, which matters if you serve more than one language community.

The tool also gives a ranked list of actions, and a "Write it for me" button drafts the text for each fix, such as page copy, FAQs or a business description. Every plan includes Google SEO tools as well: keyword research with Keyword Planner bids, weekly rank tracking, website lookups, competitors' Google ads and a monthly technical site check.

If you want to understand how this differs from traditional search work, see GEO vs SEO.

What to do with the results

The point of tracking is not the tracking. It is the changes you make afterwards. Start with the answers that name a competitor and the sites they cite.

Look at those cited sites. Are they directories you are not listed on? Review pages where you have few reviews? A local news article? A comparison post? Each one is a place you could realistically appear.

Then look at your own pages. If assistants keep citing a competitor's FAQ page, write a better FAQ. If they cite a page that describes services clearly and yours is vague, rewrite yours in plain language that answers the question directly.

A practical order of work looks like this:

• Fix the questions where you are missing but a competitor is named.
• Get listed or updated on the sites the answers cite most often.
• Rewrite the pages that should be answering those questions.
• Re check the same questions after a few weeks to see what changed.
• Keep the questions that already name you, and protect them.

For example, a plumber in Manchester might find that AI Mode names three competitors and cites a trade directory plus two review sites. The first fix is not a website rewrite. It is making sure the directory listing is complete and the review profiles are current.

Keep a simple log. Date, question, who was named, what you changed. Over a few months that log becomes the most useful marketing document you have, because it shows what actually moves the answers.