Google to Remake Search with Agentic AI Powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash

Google is fundamentally transforming its search engine, moving from the familiar ten blue links toward an agentic AI-driven experience. Announced at I/O 2026, the changes are powered entirely by Gemini 3.5 Flash and represent the most significant shift in how Google Search works since its inception.

AI Mode becomes the default

Google's AI Mode—which provides AI-generated answers instead of traditional search results—is getting more prominent placement. A persistent "AI Mode" nudge now hovers at the bottom of the AI Overview, effectively pushing organic search results further down the page.

"Google has decided this is how search works, and the rest of us are just along for the ride," Ars Technica notes.

Generative UI and on-the-fly app creation

Two new capabilities define the new Search experience:

**Generative UI:** When you ask questions in Search or AI Mode, Google's AI may now create single-shot interactive simulations to help you understand concepts like the golden ratio or the behaviour of black holes. These interfaces include sliders, buttons, and other UI elements generated by the AI on demand.

**One-shot app creation:** If your query warrants it, Search will create a custom application to help solve your problem. Currently this requires asking specifically (e.g. "make X for me"), but the line between generative UI and full app creation is expected to blur over time.

Powering it all

Google says the greater efficiency of Gemini 3.5 Flash enables all these new AI experiences. The model's ability to generate high-quality output at low cost makes real-time generative UI economically feasible for the first time.

The agentic app generation capability is expected to benefit further from the pending Gemini 3.5 Pro upgrade, which Google says may be available before everyone receives the new search agent features.

What this means for self-hosted AI

Google's move toward agentic search has implications for the self-hosted community. If search becomes primarily AI-mediated, the data you feed those AI systems matters more than ever. Self-hosted AI offerings like Open WebUI combined with local models provide a fully private alternative where no search query ever leaves your network.

For those interested in building their own AI-powered search systems, our guide to Setting Up Local RAG covers the fundamentals of retrieval-augmented generation with private documents. And for a broader comparison of the privacy implications, see Private AI vs Cloud AI.

Source

**Ars Technica:** https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/05/buckle-up-google-is-set-to-remake-search-with-agentic-ai-in-2026/