Google redesigns Search for the AI agent era at I/O 2026

At Google I/O 2026, Google announced the most significant redesign of its search box in 25 years. The new intelligent search box dynamically expands to accommodate long, natural-language queries and supports multimodal inputs including text, images, files, video, and even open Chrome tabs.

AI Mode, powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash, now has more than 1 billion monthly active users. The experience blends AI Overviews and conversational AI into a single, seamless interface.

Google also introduced "information agents" — autonomous agents that run 24/7 in the background, monitoring blogs, news, social media, and real-time data sources such as finance, shopping, and sports. They summarize changes and notify users when relevant updates occur.

Additional features include Agentic Booking, which can make phone calls on behalf of users to book restaurants, beauty appointments, and pet services; and generative UI, which can create interactive charts, simulations, and mini-apps on the fly.