AI Mode officially started rolling out as a labs experiment on March 5, 2025, and I received access late the following day. Needless to say, I’ve been testing AI Mode heavily since gaining access. I’ll provide some screenshots in this post, but you can always check my X thread where I’ve been providing videos of AI Mode in action across a number of query types. See the thread below.
As I’ve been sharing examples, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how AI Mode will be tracked in Google Search Console (GSC). As of now, Google is not tracking AI Mode since it’s in beta and not available to most people. They confirmed this last week. But like AI Overviews, I’m sure AI Mode will be tracked in GSC as the feature expands (and exits beta).
Tracking will be interesting, to say the least. AI Mode initially provides an AI Overview-like response, but with a twist. That’s because users can continue the conversation with follow-up questions. So you could potentially have a series of responses in AI mode, all with links and citations.
Below, I’ll cover how I think AI Mode will be tracked in GSC once Google starts populating the reporting with AI Mode data. Note, I’ll update this post once that starts happening to document how the tracking is actually working.
First, How AI Overviews are reported in GSC:
AI Overview data is currently in GSC, but good luck finding it. I already covered that in my post on Search Engine Roundtable titled, “The Maddening Adventure of Tracking AI Overviews in Search Console”. Unfortunately, Google does not provide specific reporting or filtering for AI Overviews. The data is being tracked, but it’s mixed in with standard search results data.
Here is how GSC tracking currently works for AIOs. All listings in the AI overview take on the rank of the AIO block, which is #1. But the listings must be scrolled into view before an impression technically occurs (like the way carousels and other SERP features are tracked and reported in GSC). It’s worth noting that featured snippets also do not have specific reporting or filtering but also take on position #1 in GSC (as long as they are ranking in the top position).
How AI Mode tracking and reporting *might* work in GSC:
The initial response via AI Mode provides citations and links. Those should gain impressions immediately as long as they are visible on-load. For the links or citations NOT visible initially, they will gain an impression when they are scrolled into view (or revealed via the “Show all” button and then scrolled into view.) The position for all of those links will be #1 since they take on the rank of the AI Mode block.
And more listings will gain an impression once the “Show all” button is clicked and thoes listings are scrolled into view:
And here are the various ways that links will gain impressions on mobile. Notice how the carousel shows up at the top, but only two listings will gain an impression on-load:
And then tapping a citation will launch a listing, which will then gain an impression:
And then the bottom “Show all” button will launch a mobile SERP where listings can gain impressions (once scrolled into view). There is also a trigger at the top of the mobile answer containing favicons of the sites being sources. That will trigger a SERP of listings, which will result in those listings gaining impressions.
And remember, ALL of these listings would be position #1 based on them taking the position of the AI Mode block — if Google chooses to use a similar tracking approach to AI Overviews:
If a user asks a follow-up question, this is where Google could go in a few directions. They could treat that follow-up question as a fresh query and just start over with tracking impressions and positions or they could treat the follow-up block as position two (since it’s the second set of results).
I believe Google will treat the follow-up question as a fresh search and the links will gain an impression and position just like the initial block. So that means the position of all links in the follow-up answer will also be position one, as long as they have been scrolled into view.
And then any additional follow-up questions would be treated as fresh searches. So again, the links will all rank #1 for the new query that was asked in AI Mode.
Needless to say, this can cause some serious confusion for site owners, since GSC will be reporting on the default search results, AI overviews, and AI Mode combined, yet the position of the content ranking might be much different across various modes of Search.
For example, a site might rank #8 in the default search rankings but then will be ranked #1 in AI Mode based on the AI response. Or it might rank #1 based on a follow-up question… Since Google will probably not be breaking out AI Mode data via a filter or specific report, this can lead to serious confusion as site owners try to analyze GSC data.
More complex AI Mode responses will yield more confusion tracking-wise:
As I explained earlier, I’ve been heavily testing AI Mode since late last week. Overall, I’ve been impressed with the responses from AI Mode, but I’ve also pointed out that I believe the results must be enhanced at some point with images, video, local listings, etc. Once that happens, tracking becomes even more complex (and could lead to even more confusion).
For example, you’ll have images ranking, videos ranking, local listings with website links ranking, and more. I do believe those will also rank #1 in GSC, since they will take on the position of the AI Mode block. And then if they show up via follow-up questions, those will rank #1 again, but for the fresh query. Yep, confusing.
AI Mode Filtering and Reporting Could Clear Up The Confusion:
I have covered this before with featured snippets and AI overviews, but specific filtering or reporting could really help sites owners clearly understand when their sites are ranking in certain SERP features. And that would yield GSC reporting that makes more sense… Combining featured snippets, AI Overviews, and soon AI Mode in the same reporting, without any filtering, is going to lead to a lot of confusion for site owners.
So whether it’s a simple search appearance filter, or a specific report like Discover or Google News have, I hope Google will roll out something that brings a little more clarity to Search Console reporting.
For example, it would be amazing to see something like this in the future. Then filtering by that search appearance would yield queries and landing pages appearing in AI Mode:
Again, I’ll update this post once AI Mode is officially tracked in GSC. Stay tuned.
GG