How Google’s New AI Mode Is Reshaping B2B SaaS Marketing

By the time you read this, your ICP already asked a question on Google and it answered without showing a single blue link to your website. They didn’t get to see your homepage or clicked on your blog. They got a summary, built by an AI, that decided whether your brand was worth mentioning.

This is AI Mode. It’s live in the U.S. and rolling out fast. 

Google’s new AI Mode is a rewire of how decisions get made online. For B2B SaaS teams, this means attention is harder to earn and content has to be reference-worthy.

If you’re still relying on traditional SEO tactics like ranking for keywords, optimizing for clicks, and hoping for traffic, this shift will disrupt your playbook. But if you’ve been building content that teaches something unique and earns trust, this is your tailwind.

At Kalungi, we’ve spent years helping SaaS teams create clear content that helps our clients’ ICP. Now, Google’s new search experience is catching up to the standard we’ve already been practicing. We see this as both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge: you can’t rely on traditional SEO mechanics anymore. The opportunity: if your content genuinely helps, it’s more likely to surface.

Key Takeaways

• Visibility now belongs to the brands that teach best.
• Structure and clarity are non-negotiable. Clear headings and strong page architecture help AI Mode understand and trust your content.
• Don’t optimize for clicks, optimize for understanding. If your content is genuinely useful, it stands a chance of being quoted in the AI summary.
• Personalization creates uneven visibility. New or less-known brands face a steeper climb, as AI Mode favors sources already in the buyer’s digital orbit.
• Attribution is murky. Your content may influence decisions without driving measurable traffic.

What Is AI Mode And Why It Flips the Whole Funnel for SaaS Marketers?

AI Mode is Google’s new default experience for search, and it completely changes how information is displayed and consumed.

Right now AI Mode is in a separate tab. When users switch to this tab, they get a single, synthesized AI-generated response instead of a standard search results page. It responds with complete, conversational explanations instead of a list of 10 blue links, paid ads, or SERP features such as People Also Ask and snippets.

Here’s what makes AI Mode different than traditional search:

• Conversational by default: You ask a question, and AI Mode gives you an answer you can follow up on, like chatting with a smart researcher (much like ChatGPT’s or Gemini’s interface).
• Multi-step reasoning: Behind the scenes, AI Mode breaks down your question into sub-queries, runs dozens (sometimes hundreds) of searches in parallel, and assembles a synthesized response, much deeper than traditional keyword search.
• Multimodal capabilities: You can type, speak, and ask follow up questions and AI Mode will handle it all with contextual memory.
• Deep personalization (opt-in): For logged-in users, AI Mode can factor in your past searches, emails, calendar, and Docs (with permission), and tailor suggestions based on real behavior.
• Agentic features: Beyond summarizing content, AI Mode can take actions like booking, calculating, or surfacing comparisons without requiring a single click.

This shift in search reshapes how your potential buyers process information and make decisions. In this new model, visibility comes from being referenced in the answer, not from showing up at the top of the SERP.

You may be wondering “isn’t it too soon to worry?”

AI Mode is already live in the U.S., and Google is rolling it out quickly. From what we saw at I/O 2025, it’s on track to replace the standard search experience entirely.

We recommend you start checking if your messaging is clear and useful. If it isn't, it won’t make the cut and your buyers won’t know you’re an option.

But here’s the other side: if you’re the company that actually explains things well, you now have a shot at showing up in front of the right buyer, at the exact right time, before they ever visit your site.

AI Mode Is Also Changing How Content Gets Distributed

Think of AI Mode less like SEO and more like streaming.

You’re now competing for inclusion in a curated, AI-assembled experience. That means your blog, product page, or explainer video might now be displayed as part of a search journey without a click, attribution (to be fixed soon, per John Mueller), or even awareness that your brand was the source. 

This shift moves SEO closer to category marketing (under AI rules), where clarity, presence, and positioning carry more weight than keywords.

Your Buyers See a Different SERP Than You Do

In AI Mode, each user sees a different answer shaped by their behavior, history, and preferences. The results are influenced by everything from past searches and emails to what you watch on YouTube and where you go.

This means your product needs to be in your buyer’s digital orbit through past engagement, content consumption, or brand mentions, you may not appear at all.

What this changes:

• The SERP has become personalized. It’s shaped by the data Google has on each individual.
• New or under-the-radar brands face a steeper climb to visibility.
• It’s not enough to produce good content. You also need to show up where your buyers spend time and ask questions.

We know content alone doesn’t drive discovery. Visibility has always been a system anchored in how clearly and consistently a brand shows up across moments, channels, and conversations.

This shift toward personalized SERPs only reinforces the need for SaaS companies to build relevance before someone searches, not after.

Every page, mention, and citation helps the AI understand both your product and the type of buyer it applies to. The stronger your signal, the more likely you show up for the right person, at the right time, in the right context.

All of this also means the traditional SaaS buyer journey is fragmenting. Buyers are entering the funnel at unpredictable points, maybe even skipping steps entirely.

Here’s how we think AI Mode influences which brands buyers notice, how they compare solutions, and what they believe sets you apart.

Here’s How AI Mode Changes the SaaS Buyer Journey

Discovery: You Won’t Rank. You’ll Be Referenced

Instead of a list of 10 blue links, AI Mode returns a single answer pulled from content it deems most useful. If you’re not in it, you’re not part of the buyer’s journey.

We’ve been watching this shift for a while. The decline of traffic from longtail keywords and the rise of zero-click searches. AI Mode is just turning it into the default.

This means that:

• What matters now is whether your content delivers value in the moment a decision is being made.
• Visibility depends on utility. If your content doesn’t help, it won’t be shown.
• Structure matters more than ever. Schema, semantic HTML, proper and engaging headings, and clarity signal to the AI that your content is reliable.

And this is true for content beyond blog posts. AI Mode pulls from product pages, FAQ content, help docs, and comparison tables. If your site architecture is thin, your positioning unclear, or your page structure sloppy, you’re hurting SEO and removing yourself from the conversation entirely.

The best thing we can do right now is treat this switch like a reset. Let’s double down on what already works: content that teaches clearly, reflects confidence, and earns inclusion.

Forget traffic for a moment. Your focus should be on building content that teaches clearly, specifically, and with structure that helps the reader and the algorithm. 

Don’t optimize just for clicks either. You should optimize for understanding. AI Mode now rewards that. If your content is genuinely useful, it has a shot at being pulled into the conversation. That’s the new bar. And we’re glad it’s finally being enforced.

Evaluation: The Summary Is the Decision Point

Buyers aren’t bouncing between 10 open tabs anymore. With AI Mode, they’re seeing the market, the options, and the differences, instantly, in one generated summarized response.

That summary is now doing your positioning for you, and it may look different to every buyer based on what Google knows about them. The question is: does it get your message right? Or leave you out?

Imagine a buyer searches for “best onboarding software for growing teams.” The result is a conclusion built from what the AI thinks is credible. If your name isn’t in the summary, they’ll never even know to evaluate you.

The AI summary is sort of your new homepage. Make sure your differentiators are stated clearly and without industry jargon, and that your value proposition is easy for AI to find; concise, direct, and placed on your owned web pages.

Engagement: Your Content Needs to Keep the Conversation Going

AI Mode turns every question into the start of a longer conversation. Your buyer’s search is now a thread of related questions unfolding in real time, and your content needs to follow along.

That means scattered, standalone, TOFU blog posts may not cut it anymore. AI Mode is simply coming to expose what’s already been holding teams back: scattered assets, weak structure, and disconnected messaging.

This mirrors what good marketing should’ve always done: meet the buyer where they are and guide them forward. AI Mode just enforces it algorithmically.

Conversion: CTAs Live in Summaries Now, Not on Landing Pages

In AI Mode, your CTA shows up only if it’s relevant enough to be pulled into the summary.

That means your CTA has to belong there. If the CTA doesn’t feel like the next logical step, it won’t show up, and it won’t convert.

This shift reinforces something we’ve known for years: you can’t earn a next step without first solving something. If your CTA feels like a pitch, it won’t survive in AI Mode.

Your Pipeline Is Now a Product of Your Online Presence

Here’s our take:

AI Mode will expose gaps in content that used to go unnoticed, especially around clarity, structure, and differentiation.

With AI Mode:

• Generic content will get filtered out.
• Legacy SEO strategies will fail unless updated for semantic search.
• Teams that adapt will capture pipeline earlier, influence buyer criteria, and close faster.

We’ve always believed your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Now, it’s what AI says about you when your buyers search.

What to Prioritize Right Now

If you're leading marketing or growth at a B2B SaaS company, this shift is a way to test whether your GTM strategy holds up when buyers move faster and click less.

Here's what we’d focus on first:

1. Pressure-Test Your Positioning Page

If your “Why us” page can’t explain your category, use case, and differentiators in plain English, AI Mode won’t get it right either. 

Rewrite it like you’re briefing a new investor or an SDR on day one.

2. Build a Mini Knowledge Base Around Real ICP Questions

Forget blog sprawl. 

Identify your top 5–10 buyer questions (from sales calls, support tickets, LinkedIn DMs) and create structured, interlinked answers with clear headings, visuals, and clean metadata. 

Teach first. Rank second.

3. Fix the CTAs You Forgot About

Most SaaS CTAs are either generic (“Visit our website”) or buried. AI Mode won’t rescue them. 

Make sure every meaningful piece of content has an in-line next step tied to an actual buyer pain, not a marketing goal.

4. Strengthen Your Off-Page Footprint

Google pulls signals from far beyond your website, including Reddit, podcasts, press coverage, software review platforms like Capterra and G2, LinkedIn, and social conversations. Start tracking where and how your brand is cited outside your domain. If you’re invisible there, you’ll be invisible in summaries too.

5. Rewire Your Internal Content Culture

Align your team around this rule: if the content doesn’t help someone think or decide, it doesn’t belong. Teams that publish with clarity and intent, rooted in real customer insight, will stand out in this new search model.

Build a system that’s about solving real problems with clarity.

Visibility Now Belongs to the SaaS Brands That Teach Best

AI Mode is about to become the default path for how buyers discover and compare tech solutions.

No one, including Google, knows exactly how it’ll evolve. But that doesn’t mean wait-and-see. It means write better, structure smarter, and stay closer to the questions your buyers are actually asking and how they’re asking them starting today.

You used to fight for rank. Now you fight to be worth quoting.

At Kalungi, we’re already working through this with our clients. If you are too, let’s connect.