Google AI Mode and Microsoft 365 Copilot Search now available

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Google, Microsoft unveil new AI search tools

Google has announced a new AI mode for its search engine in the UK that generates results using the Gemini LLM, rather than the familiar list of search results.

This will enable the use of more conversational natural language search prompts rather than the keyword-heavy searches typically used with a traditional search engine.

AI mode, already available in India and the US, has been launched in the UK this week. It allows users to search with text or voice, or with photos taken using a phone camera, for example. AI Mode is available as a tab on the search results page and as apps for Android and iOS.

The feature was announced in a blog post on 28th July, but it would appear coverage is not available in the UK at time of writing. In trying to test the feature using a Windows laptop, Computing was greeted by a message: “AI Mode is not currently available on your device or account”.

Google’s announcement comes as searching via LLMs is becoming more popular, both via dedicated search engines such as Perplexity, which list sources, and also using chatbots which may not.

Google is not replacing its traditional search with AI Mode, at least not yet, but it is clearly mindful of this trend.

However the move to AI-generated search results and summaries is already seeing a reduction of traffic to sites including retailers and media websites.

Figures from the Pew Research Centre found that users are only half as likely to click on a link when presented with an AI generated overview, and that 26% of pages that included a summary were closed immediately, compared to 16% that did not include a summary.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Search

Google was not the only tech giant to release a new AI search feature, with Microsoft last week unveiling Microsoft 365 Copilot Search. Unlike the consumer-facing Google AI Mode, Microsoft’s feature, integrated into the Copilot app, is intended for organisational use, designed to unearth information hidden in enterprise applications via a conversational interface.

“Because it’s integrated with Microsoft 365 Copilot, users can find the results they need with search, then seamlessly transition to chat for deeper exploration or follow-up task completion,” Microsoft says in a blog post.

Copilot search works across Microsoft’s applications and also third-party solutions using connectors. Microsoft claims hundreds of such connectors are already available.

Copilot Search is available to users with an eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot licence at no additional cost.