Google’s AI features are reshaping everything from search to advertising, and understanding them is crucial for staying competitive.
In this post, we’ll break down the most important AI features Google offers in 2025 and what they mean for marketers, brands, and small business owners.
1. AI Overviews in Search (SGE)
Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) (now being rolled out as AI Overviews) has caused a major shift in how people search online. Instead of showing a list of links, Google now provides AI-generated answers at the top of some search results.
Why it matters:
Your organic SEO strategy needs to adapt. If your content doesn’t get featured in AI Overviews, you risk losing visibility.
Google pulls info from multiple sources to create these summaries, so strong content that’s semantically rich and well-structured has a better chance of being included.
2. Google Gemini (AI Models)
Gemini is Google’s family of advanced AI models (successors to PaLM), powering everything from chat interfaces to coding assistants. Gemini is integrated into multiple products:
Google Workspace: AI features in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides (e.g., writing help, smart summarisation, automatic table generation).
Gemini App: a standalone assistant (like ChatGPT) that helps users with tasks, planning, coding, and search.
Gemini for Developers: APIs and tools via Google Cloud for businesses to build AI-powered apps.
Why it matters:
Productivity skyrockets. Whether you’re drafting emails or creating content, Gemini can automate repetitive work.
You can build your own AI features using Google’s Vertex AI platform, trained on your company’s data.
3. Google Ads & Performance Max (now with AI boost)
AI is heavily embedded in Google Ads, particularly in:
Performance Max Campaigns: AI allocates budget across channels (YouTube, Search, Display, Discover) to optimise for conversions.
Automatically Generated Assets (AGA): AI writes ad headlines, descriptions, and selects images.
Conversational campaign builder: just describe your business and goals, and AI builds the campaign structure.
Why it matters:
Real-time testing and iteration powered by machine learning means smarter decisions on where your money goes.
4. YouTube AI tools
Google is using AI to improve both content creation and ad placement on YouTube:
AI-powered dubbing: translates videos into other languages automatically.
Content recommendation: AI helps show the right video to the right viewer.
YouTube ads AI tools: optimise targeting and creative using audience signals and engagement metrics.
Why it matters:
YouTube videos could gain more global reach with AI dubbing and localisation. Video campaigns are also easier to scale thanks to auto-optimisation.
5. Google Lens & Multimodal Search
With Google Lens, users can search the web using images instead of text. Paired with AI, this has evolved into multimodal search: ask questions about a picture, get real-time context, or translate text in photos.
Why it matters:
Local businesses and ecommerce brands can capitalise on visual search. Ecommerce brands can optimise their product images and metadata to show up in image-based queries.
6. AI in Google Maps and Local Search
Google Maps now uses AI to:
- Predict traffic and suggest optimal routes.
- Offer immersive 3D views of locations using AI-generated imagery.
- Provide smart recommendations for restaurants, shops, and services based on user preferences.
Why it matters:
Hyper-local visibility is more important than ever. Keep your Google Business Profile up to date.
Reviews, photos, and user-generated content are now more influential in local discovery.
7. AI for shopping and ecommerce
Google’s shopping search has gotten an AI facelift, too:
Try-on models: users can see clothes on AI-generated models of different body types.
Virtual try-on for makeup: preview lipsticks, eyeshadows, etc. in real-time.
Product descriptions generated by AI: helps sellers auto-generate listings.
Why it matters:
Brands must invest in visual assets – quality images, videos, and 3D models will help products surface more in AI shopping results.
8. Google Cloud AI & Vertex AI
For enterprises and tech-savvy businesses, Google offers Vertex AI, a platform to build, train, and deploy custom AI models.
Why it matters:
You can create customer support bots, fraud detection tools, or product recommendation engines powered by your own data – without needing a full in-house ML team.
Wondering how Google’s AI features could impact your business? Our experts can help you make the most of these tools – fill out this form to get started.
