Google I/O 2026: What it means for B2B SEO
A new era of search?
Nearly a year after the release of AI mode, Google’s I/O 2026 has announced changes that bring about what they call “a new era of search”.
With AI mode now adopted by 1 billion users worldwide, the tool is being equipped with a whole set of new capabilities, including agentic AI and coding features within search – As we prepare for a full rollout, here are a few considerations and predictions from our Digital Expert, Gracia Novoa, of how this can affect B2B tech organisations and their organic search performance.
AI capabilities embedded in your search bar
The search bar is being reimagined, now autocompleting queries based on past behaviour, and including the ability to ask follow-up questions from an AI overview – starting conversations within search.
From a search perspective this brings about new challenges, especially as we still lack tools to properly track queries or prompts originating from AI mode. Erosion of clicks is expected as so much of users’ interactions will remain within the platform and follow-up questions will create even more specific prompts within the conversation.
Marketers need to be prepared for even further changes to organic search behaviour, bringing about the conversation around tracking metrics that reflect the multiple interactions that happen before conversion across multiple platforms. If you haven’t already, now is the time to define KPIs, reporting and tech stack needed to account for AI deployment.
Agentic capabilities making search more dynamic
Another addition in this update is the deployment of agents within AI mode, essentially creating personalised updates for users interested in specific requests. They present the following example:
“It will send you an intelligent, synthesized update, with the ability to take action. So if you’re apartment hunting, you can brain dump all of the exact requirements you’re looking for, and your agent will continuously scan for you, notifying you when listings meet your needs. Or if you want to know the instant any of your favourite pro athletes announce a sneaker collab, your agent will let you know when a new drop lands so you don’t miss out.”
Translate it to a B2B environment, this essentially means if you identify those trends in the market users might be looking for, you can surface in one of those updates for your ICP – think the development of new facial recognition technology from a security software company highlighted in corporate updates and press releases. It gives responsiveness and trend-hopping a whole new meaning and potentially opens doors for stronger PR x SEO collaboration.
This feature can also complete actions for you, such as booking karaoke rooms for you and your team. In a B2B environment, this means that conversion needs to be dead easy for AI to sign up to relevant demos or requesting quotes for users. It’s time for teams to re-think overcomplicated conversion paths.
Agentic coding
This includes the ability to create mini apps, dashboards or visualisations with the help of AI mode. It’s difficult to think of search benefitting from this, but potentially in a B2B environment, proprietary reports and data could be surfaced in the build of dashboards for users across different industries.
Attribution is something that’s not been particularly good with the usage of AI, so protecting data might be the best course of action here. Sit down with your teams and evaluate what content you’re happy with being repurposed by LLMs and which should be gated.
AI mode expanding to more locations and getting more personal data from users
Google urges users to connect Gmail, Google Photos, and soon Google Calendar to their AI mode experience to make it better. This again highlights the blurred lines between professional and personal behaviour online where we could potentially leverage intent data used across ABM platforms to gain a better understanding of our audience and their wider interests.
B2B SEO/GEO – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
AI mode is forcing SEOs to think outside the box, and it’s not about writing for AI, using llm.txt or chunking your text (which Google has now myth busted!). We’ve been talking about the need to think about our strategies as more than isolated web activity, but integrated campaigns with social, PPC and PR teams to generate real impact, and these announcements bring a new layer of complexity to it, highlighting further needs for personalisation, better tracking and more reactive responses to trends.