Eric Hal@techradar.com
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Google I/O 2025 saw the unveiling of 'AI Mode' for Google Search, signaling a significant shift in how the company approaches information retrieval and user experience. The new AI Mode, powered by the Gemini 2.5 model, is designed to offer more detailed results, personal context, and intelligent assistance. This upgrade aims to compete directly with the capabilities of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, providing users with a more conversational and comprehensive search experience. The rollout has commenced in the U.S. for both the browser version of Search and the Google app, although availability in other countries remains unconfirmed.
AI Mode brings several key features to the forefront, including Deep Search, Live Visual Search, and AI-powered agents. Deep Search allows users to delve into topics with unprecedented depth, running hundreds of searches simultaneously to generate expert-level, fully-cited reports in minutes. With Search Live, users can leverage their phone's camera to interact with Search in real-time, receiving context-aware responses from Gemini. Google is also bringing agentic capabilities to Search, allowing users to perform tasks like booking tickets and making reservations directly through the AI interface. Google’s revamp of its AI search service appears to be a response to the growing popularity of AI-driven search experiences offered by companies like OpenAI and Perplexity. According to Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate, evidence suggests a greater reliance on search and AI-infused search experiences. As AI Mode rolls out, Google is encouraging website owners to optimize their content for AI-powered search by creating unique, non-commodity content and ensuring that their sites meet technical requirements and provide a good user experience. References :
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@www.microsoft.com
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Microsoft Research is delving into the transformative potential of AI as "Tools for Thought," aiming to redefine AI's role in supporting human cognition. At the upcoming CHI 2025 conference, researchers will present four new research papers and co-host a workshop exploring this intersection of AI and human thinking. The research includes a study on how AI is changing the way we think and work along with three prototype systems designed to support different cognitive tasks. The goal is to explore how AI systems can be used as Tools for Thought and reimagine AI’s role in human thinking.
As AI tools become increasingly capable, Microsoft has unveiled new AI agents designed to enhance productivity in various domains. The "Researcher" agent can tackle complex research tasks by analyzing work data, emails, meetings, files, chats, and web information to deliver expertise on demand. Meanwhile, the "Analyst" agent functions as a virtual data scientist, capable of processing raw data from multiple spreadsheets to forecast demand or visualize customer purchasing patterns. The new AI agents unveiled over the past few weeks can help people every day with things like research, cybersecurity and more. Johnson & Johnson has reportedly found that only a small percentage, between 10% and 15%, of AI use cases deliver the vast majority (80%) of the value. After encouraging employees to experiment with AI and tracking the results of nearly 900 use cases over about three years, the company is now focusing resources on the highest-value projects. These high-value applications include a generative AI copilot for sales representatives and an internal chatbot answering employee questions. Other AI tools being developed include one for drug discovery and another for identifying and mitigating supply chain risks. References :
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