I tested Google AI mode against Google search. There is a clear winner

If you are a regular user of Google search (which you almost certainly are), you probably noticed Google’s consistent push for multiple AI features on the search engine.

At last year’s Google I/O launched Google AI overviews For everyone in the United States, adding AI-driven summaries at the top of the search results. At last week I/O 2025 Keynote went Google a step further and announced that AI mode is now widely available on search. Where AI overviews are an addition to the “normal” Google search experience, AI mode is a whole new interface that shows exclusively AI-powered results.

So is AI mode something good? And more importantly, is it better than the regular Google search experience?

The way I performed this test was quite simple. I took a keyword, let it through AI mode and Google search, and compared the results of each one. No matter what search result I think is the best/most useful thing is what I consider “the winner.”

In order to get inspiration for what to search for, I asked Google’s very own Gemini to give me some of the most popular Google search words/sentences. The searches you see below clearly do not cover cover allBut I think they do a good job of showing what each search mode is capable of – and more importantly, the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

Finally I performed all these searches via the Google app on Pixel 9 Pro.

Let’s start with one of the most common search questions: the weather. Even with many weather records available, sometimes the easiest way to look up the Google forecast. And right away, there is an immediate difference between AI mode and standard search experience.

Searching “Weather New York”, AI mode, shows the current forecast, the current chance of rain, wind conditions and current humidity in the first paragraph. As you continue to scroll, it is a section dedicated to the weekend forecast. There is also a section on the forecast for Memorial Day, which considering how many people have outdoor collections that day, is useful!

All the information you want is here and it is organized nicely. However, the all-text layout is not particularly easy to analyze, nor is it visually pleasant.

The same keyword in regular Google searches is relatively a night-and-day difference. It is a dedicated weather user interface with different tabs to dig into specific parts of the weather. As you continue to browse, you get weather results from Weather Channel and Accuweather, plus a ReiseWidget showing expected weather conditions in New York for the next couple of months. In addition, everyone’s favorite weather frog is here. This one is not even a competition.

As much as I don’t like to look at the news these days, Google is an important tool to find it. How does AI mode appear here? As of a simple “news heading” search, AI mode does a really good job. It distributes the available news in a handful of categories (such as politics and politics and world news) and then includes the biggest stories for each one.

Each story is nicely summarized to a single sentence, and related URLs for all stories are included at the top and bottom of the page. To quickly capture the biggest headlines, I actually like this.

Going to regular Google Search, a “Top Stories” carousel on top shows some of the most popular news items, which is useful, but the giant “people asks” too “is not. Further down the page are links to CNN and Google News, plus a widget that rounds off the biggest local news.

While the Standard Google search got a simple victory with the weather test, it is not so useful in this scenario. Google Search’s results may be more visually interesting, but the nicely summarized and organized ball points in AI mode are far easier to digest. As long as you double check the sources to confirm that the AI ​​summaries are accurate, AI mode is a much better experience.

There is only so many news I can take in a sitting these days, so let’s move to something more fun: finding a good pizza -steded to eat on. The results that seek “pizza near me” in AI mode look like the others we have already seen: a balllist with recommendations.

It’s a bit real, even though the content is solid. The description for Jac’s is on points (their thin-crust pizza is fantastic) and I wasn’t even aware of Kalako, so now I’ve got a new pizza joint to check out. At the bottom of the list are small widgets for the aforementioned restaurants, plus a map showing their places.

Interestingly, when I performed the exact search in AI mode just a minute later, the widgets and map were missing, and the recommendations were completely different – including a very questionable selection of List Jet’s Pizza as the second best result.

Back in regular Google search, we are once again treated on a much richer results. The top has a map of pizzerias, followed by a list of recommendations. I don’t love the sponsored Domino’s inclusion on top, but the other results are spot-on. There are more specific categories as you continue to roll, followed by a pair of useful Reddit threads.

AI mode did not appear terribly here, but between the inconsistent information and the lack of useful visuals, the standard Google search experience takes the cake (or in this case pizza).

When we keep you some food, let’s go from watching up restaurants to looking up recipes. I’m in the mood for some good old -fashioned chocolate cakes, so let’s see what we get with a “chocolate chip cookie recipe” search.

Instead of bombarding us with several results, AI mode instead shows a recipe in front and center, including ingredients, step-for-step instructions and extra tips on how to make your cookies taste even better.

Google seeker results for this test still show the forces of the normal search experience. It starts with a couple of the best organic search results, accompanied by a list of several recipes interconnected with images, reviews and the estimated time each recipe takes.

AI mode The result is undoubtedly the cleanest and easiest to read, especially considering how many recipe sites are bombarded with ads and unnecessary fluff. But I also appreciate how the standard search results present the different recipe options. In addition, it is unclear which website AI mode draws its generated recipe from, from which I do not love.

If you just want to use the first recipe you see, AI mode has you covered. But if you like to look at a few different options and choose the recipe that sounds the best to you, I think regular Google -search still has the takeover.

Let’s do one last test to close ourselves out. Everyone has used Google at some time to look up how to do something, and when you do, you will have a clear, easy to find answers.

When we seek “how to tie a tie” in AI mode, we get exactly what to expect now: A balllist with conversation points with many paragraphs. AI mode that offers steps for a few different tie styles is fine, and so are extra tips at the end. But as a visual student, I do not think any of this is particularly useful.

Fortunately, traditional Google search has its back. The first result is a youtube video that is time-stamped to start exactly when the instructions begin, giving me an instant visual to see what to do. There are several YouTube videos as you continue to roll, followed by some useful “people also ask” questions and more short-shaped videos.

Utilizing YouTube for this type of search is one of Google’s best strengths, so it’s bizarre that AI mode ignores it completely. I would much rather see an instructional video on how to do something instead of reading five sections about it. If you do too, Google Search is the best option.

Does all this mean that AI mode is a completely wrong? I wouldn’t go that far at all. Depending on how to use Google -Search, AI mode can actually be very useful. My colleague Ryan Haines used it for more research -heavy questions a few months ago, and he got away quite impressed. If you have long, complex questions you want to answer, AI mode can work better for you.

But for more ordinary everyday search, it is quite clear to me that regular Google searches are still the best. The results are richer, more glossable and finally more useful.

AI mode is only bound to get better as time goes on, and it can be a day when it is the superior way to interact with Google. But at least for right now, the standard Google search experience is what I’m going to stick to.