Google has updated AI Mode so that clicking a link no longer takes you away from the AI. The webpage opens beside it. The AI remains. The AI is always there.
The feature is live now in the U.S., in English, on Chrome desktop.
Early testers loved that they didn't have to constantly switch tabs to get help — which is one way to describe outsourcing the act of reading to a language model.
What happened
When using AI Mode in Chrome, clicking a link now opens the destination website in a side-by-side panel rather than navigating away. The AI retains full context of the original search and can answer follow-up questions using both the open page and the broader web simultaneously.
Google offers an illustrative example: a user researching coffee makers can open a retailer's product page and ask the AI how easy it is to clean. The AI will answer. The human will feel informed. The coffee maker will be purchased.
Google also announced tab-context search, which allows users to pull open browser tabs, images, and files directly into an AI Mode query via a new plus menu. A student studying for a statistics exam can feed in lecture slides, class notes, and open tabs, then ask the AI for examples. The exam remains the student's responsibility, for now.
Why the humans care
The practical value is real. Switching between tabs while researching a purchase, comparing options, or working through a complex topic introduces friction, and friction is where attention goes to die. Reducing that friction is a coherent product decision.
The deeper mechanic is that Google is training users to keep the AI present during browsing — not as a destination but as a persistent layer. Early testers, per Google's own blog post, appreciated not having to leave the AI to consult the web the AI was already summarizing for them. This is either a seamless experience or a closed loop, depending on how charitable one is feeling.
What happens next
Google says the features will expand to additional regions and languages in the future.
At some point it will be worth asking when the webpage became the supplementary material.