Welcome to the Tasting Menu: AI Search Is Curated, Not Crawled
Back when we said “AI is eating search“, we weren’t trying to be dramatic—we were sounding the alarm. Traditional, keyword-first strategies? They’re relics. Consumers are no longer patiently waiting for moments of intent to arrive in a tidy funnel. They’re jumping in and out of platforms, pulling from generative search results, watching YouTube Shorts, discovering in Google Maps, and clicking on Gmail ads—all within seconds.
And now with Google Marketing Live (GML)2025, that shift has been fully productized. Google’s vision for search is no longer “type and respond”—it’s “anticipate and assist.”
Search Is a System, Not a Moment
As we said in March, “AI doesn’t just respond—it anticipates.” That prediction was validated with the rollout of AI Mode, a new conversational, multimodal experience that brings together Search, Shopping, Maps, YouTube, and more to solve user needs in real time—not just respond to queries.
For brands, this is a wake-up call. You don’t get to wait around at the bottom of the funnel anymore. You have to show up across moments that may signal intent, even if they don’t convert right away.
Takeaway: Start treating search as a behavioral signal, not just a media channel.
Power Pack = Full-Funnel AI Activation
Google introduced a refreshed Power Pack of offerings to drive performance across AI-enhanced surfaces. These include:
- AI Max for Search: A new optional setting in Search campaigns that leans into automation, real-time bidding, and broad match to unlock reach across Google’s full ecosystem.
- Performance Max – Channel Performance Transparency: This gives marketers a clearer view into how specific platforms (like YouTube, Discover, Gmail, etc.) contribute to results—finally answering one of the biggest calls from performance marketers.
- Demand Gen: Continuing to mature as the engine for visual, discovery-based, campaigns across YouTube and Gmail.
Together, this trio aims to cover the full user journey—from passive discovery to active consideration.
Yes, we heard the “rocking ROAS” comment too. We’ll leave the rock metaphors to the keynotes—but we do appreciate the shift toward performance clarity.
YouTube & Shorts = Performance, Not Just Awareness
The narrative that YouTube and Shorts are “upper funnel only” channels has been obliterated. Shorts now see 70 billion daily views, and Google is connecting the dots between creative formats and commerce with:
- Swipeable shopping ads and AI-powered product tags
- 3D try-ons and visual-first experiences
- Demand Gen tapping into affinity, not just search intent
We said it before: visual behavior is the new search behavior. People don’t always start with a question—they start with a scroll, a swipe, or a spark of interest. This is where your brand needs to earn its place.
First-Party Data = The Input That Powers Everything
GML reinforced what we already know: AI is only as good as the data it ingests. With updates to Google Ads Data Manager, it’s easier to unify first-party data, clean it, and push it into campaigns.
We stressed this in AI Is Eating Search: your CRM and owned channels are no longer sideshows—they’re center stage. Without clean, actionable first-party data, you’re either feeding the machine bad inputs or defaulting to the same audience signals as your competitors. Don’t rent relevance. Build it.
Funnels Are Fiction. Moments Are Reality.
Consumers don’t move through a funnel anymore—they hop between tabs, apps, voices, and screens. The challenge isn’t mapping their journey—it’s meeting them mid-jump with relevance and speed.
Google is building tools that acknowledge this chaos: AI Mode, multimodal search, and the entire Power Pack are built around moment-based activation, not linear paths.
We said it best in our last POV: “In this new search reality, your brand must be present where consumers are paying attention—not just where you hope they’ll land.”
Don’t Just Optimize for Google. Expand the Playing Field.
While GML 2025 doubled down on Google’s vision, one thing’s clear: Google isn’t the only search player anymore. From Amazon and Pinterest to TikTok, Reddit, and ChatGPT, search-like behaviors are evolving across platforms. Consumers are finding, evaluating, and purchasing in places that don’t even look like traditional search.
Marketer mandate: Diversify. Test new platforms. Show up where your consumers search—even if there’s no query box.
TL;DR — What Should Marketers Do Now?
- Test the full Power Pack with clear measurement frameworks
- Shift from keyword obsession to moment optimization
- Activate and scale first-party data immediately
- Lean into creative variety and modular storytelling
- Treat Shorts and YouTube like performance workhorses
- Diversify across emerging search experiences—don’t stay Google-only
Final POV: Stop Chasing the Algorithm. Start Following the Consumer.
As AI remakes how people discover, evaluate, and buy, marketers face a choice: keep reacting to platforms, or move with the people. At Rain the Growth Agency , we’re choosing the latter.
Because this isn’t about gaming Google; it’s about staying relevant to your audience wherever they show intent, however it looks, and whenever it happens. The goal isn’t to predict the path. It’s to show up powerfully at every point along it.
