Google has announced a new wave of AI features, expanding the technology’s reach to online shopping, video conferences and even its ubiquitous search engine, which is getting a mode that relies entirely on chatbots rather than web links.

The new “AI mode” for Google search is currently live in the US only, and is designed to engage users in conversation to answer their queries. It appears on browsers and in the Google app, and will automatically perform multiple web searches to speak confidently on any topic. It can even be given follow-up questions, or be prompted with images, videos or screenshots.

Meanwhile, shopping in AI Mode will allow bots to go through checkout on your behalf and can apply products to your own photos for a preview of how new clothes will look.

Other features, the majority of which are only available to Google’s paying subscribers, include live language translations in Meet calls, personalised smart replies in Gmail, and a Deep Think mode for the Gemini chatbot that can reason to break down complex tasks. In the future, Google plans to roll out expanded AI powers to its Chrome web browser, so the chatbot could gain a holistic understanding of the projects you’re working on.

“More intelligence is available, for everyone, everywhere. And the world is responding, adopting AI faster than ever before,” said chief executive Sundar Pichai in announcing the updates overnight at the Google I/O developer conference.

“What all this progress means is that we’re in a new phase of the AI platform shift where decades of research are now becoming reality for people, businesses and communities all over the world.”

The new products come at a time when the search giant is under unprecedented threat from AI start-ups as well as old rivals including Microsoft and Apple.

US-based OpenAI and Perplexity are fast moving into Google’s turf off the back of rapidly improving generative AI. And Apple, which said last week it is seeing Google searches on iPhones drop for the first time, is expected to make some major AI announcements of its own at its development conference next month.