Google announced the biggest change to Search in more than 25 years at its I/O developer conference on 19 May 2026. AI Mode, the conversational search experience that lets users ask follow-up questions and refine queries in plain language, will gain Information Agents this summer. The new feature turns AI Mode from a Q&A tool into a 24/7 monitoring service that tracks the web on a person's behalf and sends proactive alerts. Google also disclosed that AI Mode reached 1 billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since its August 2025 debut.
What are Information Agents?
Information Agents are autonomous monitors that watch the web for changes relevant to a user's interests and notify the user when something happens. According to TechCrunch, users access the feature through AI Mode by describing what they want tracked. Google's Liz Reid, VP of Search, described the system in the announcement: "The agent will map out a monitoring plan for you, including the tools and the data it needs to access." The agents then run continuously in the background, checking for updates and synthesising results from multiple sources.
Google positions Information Agents as the evolution of Google Alerts, the 2003 email notification service that sends a digest when a keyword appears in new search results. The new system goes further: it monitors stock prices, flight deals, sports scores, housing listings, job postings and breaking news, and it understands context rather than matching keywords. A request to "track housing prices in Bristol under £400,000" will parse property sites, check new listings against the criteria, and alert when a match appears. A query for "tell me if this flight gets cheaper" will watch fare changes across multiple booking platforms.
When and how to use it
Information Agents will launch in summer 2026 in the United States only. Initial access is restricted to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. The feature is accessed through AI Mode, which itself remains available through Google Search Labs. Users describe what they want monitored in plain language. The agent then builds a plan, identifies the data sources, and begins tracking. Alerts appear as notifications, and users can refine or cancel agents at any time.
The system is designed for scenarios where a person wants to know when something changes but does not want to check manually: price drops, event tickets becoming available, regulatory filings, competitor announcements, or shipping delays. Google's examples in the TechCrunch coverage included flight price tracking, breaking news, and market movements.
AI Mode adoption and the Search transformation
Google disclosed at I/O 2026 that AI Mode reached 1 billion monthly users. VP Elizabeth Reid also stated that queries "more than doubled every quarter" since AI Mode's August 2025 rollout. The feature moved from a Search Labs experiment to a core part of the search experience. At launch, AI Mode was a separate toggle. By May 2026, Google integrated AI Overviews and AI Mode more tightly, with the search box transforming into a conversational interface for longer queries. TechCrunch reported that AI Overviews now answer questions directly at the top of results, and follow-up questions flow seamlessly into AI Mode.
The integration prompted backlash from users who preferred traditional search. In the week following I/O 2026, DuckDuckGo browser installs rose 30 per cent as users rejected what TechCrunch characterised as being "force-fed" Google's AI Search. The headline from the 19 May announcement, "Google Search as you know it is over", reflected the scale of the shift.
Generative UI and the Antigravity platform
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Alongside Information Agents, Google announced Generative UI, a feature that creates custom widgets and interactive visualisations on the fly. The system is powered by Gemini Flash 3.5 and the new Antigravity development platform. According to the TechCrunch report, Generative UI can build mini-apps within AI Mode, such as interactive comparison tables or embedded calculators, tailored to the user's query. Like Information Agents, Generative UI launches in summer 2026 for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.
What this means for brands and SEO
AI Mode's growth to 1 billion users and the addition of proactive agents shifts how brands need to think about visibility. Traditional SEO optimises for a user typing a query into a search box. Information Agents invert that: the agent monitors on the user's behalf and decides what is relevant. Brands now need to ensure their content is structured so agents can parse it, that updates are timestamped and machine-readable, and that key information appears in formats the agent can synthesise.
The 30 per cent rise in DuckDuckGo installs suggests that not all users want AI-driven search, but the 1 billion monthly AI Mode users and the doubling query growth indicate that a substantial share of search traffic is moving to conversational, agent-mediated interactions. For brands, that means ranking alone is not enough. The question becomes: does your content surface in the AI Overview, does the agent include your brand in its monitoring results, and do you structure information so an agent can extract and cite it?
Google's integration of AI Overviews and AI Mode also means that even users who do not explicitly toggle AI Mode will see AI-generated summaries at the top of many searches. Those summaries pull from multiple sources and synthesise an answer. Brands that provide clear, structured, citable information stand a better chance of being included. Those that do not risk being summarised out of the journey entirely.
What brands should do now
First, audit how your brand appears in AI Overviews and AI Mode today. Run queries that your customers would ask and see whether your brand is mentioned, how it is framed, and which competitors appear alongside you. Tools like Honeyb track brand visibility across AI engines and show which queries surface your brand and which do not.
Second, structure your content for agents. Use schema markup for key data: prices, availability, product specifications, event dates, and contact information. Ensure that updates are timestamped and that your site's RSS feed or API is accessible. If you publish news, release notes, or price changes, make them machine-readable so Information Agents can detect and surface them.
Third, monitor how your competitors are showing up. If they appear in AI Overviews when you do not, reverse-engineer why: do they have better structured data, more authoritative backlinks, or clearer answers to common questions? The shift to agent-mediated search rewards clarity and structure, not just keyword density.
Finally, track the impact on your traffic. If a substantial share of your organic search comes from informational queries, and those queries now terminate in an AI Overview, you will see a drop in click-throughs. Measure whether branded searches hold steady and whether you need to shift budget to channels that still drive direct traffic.
