Google revealed Gemini Intelligence at its Android Show on 12 May, introducing what it describes as the new era of intelligence that works behind the scenes across Android devices. Gemini Intelligence is designed to work at the centre of the operating system, powering phones, smartwatches and even a new AI-first laptop, the Googlebook. Google Intelligence can understand what’s on a user’s screen and complete tasks without requiring them to visit multiple websites or apps. Hover over a date and the AI agent can create a calendar event. Photograph a travel brochure, and it can find matching holidays. Give it a shopping list, and it can build a grocery cart ready for delivery.
For search and commerce, this is a significant moment. Traditionally, users with a question typed their query into a search engine, were presented with a list of links, compared options and completed purchases themselves. SEO has always been about securing a spot in that list. Gemini Intelligence moves much of that decision-making to an AI agent. The search journey still exists, but the user may never manually visit many of the websites involved.
What Is Gemini Intelligence?
Google introduced Gemini Intelligence with the announcement that “As Android transitions from an operating system into an intelligence system, your devices are becoming even more helpful with upgrades that will save you time.”
Gemini Intelligence assists users in completing tasks across multiple apps and services. It’s a combination of hardware and innovative software that automates everyday activities while leaving the final decision to the user. For example, Gemini can reserve a bike at a user’s preferred spin class or find an academic reading list in Gmail and add the required books to an online cart. Importantly, Gemini performs actions only after receiving the user’s permission. It also works in the background, allowing users to monitor its progress through notifications before manually confirming the final action.
Google also introduced Gemini in Chrome, which acts as a browsing assistant capable of researching, summarising and comparing information across multiple web pages.
What Gemini Intelligence Means for Search and Commerce
For commerce, this changes what it means to be discoverable online. Success won’t depend on whether a customer chooses your website from search results anymore. An AI agent may evaluate products, compare retailers and complete much of the buying journey before a customer visits your site. This change means it’s even more important to have clean product data and accurate information that AI systems can easily understand. If an agent can’t quickly identify pricing, availability, delivery information or product specifications, it becomes much harder for your products or services to be recommended during these automated journeys.
It also raises the importance of technical SEO and structured data. The better your website communicates information to machines, the more likely it is that AI systems can confidently use it when completing tasks on behalf of users. This doesn’t mean traditional SEO becomes less important. People will continue to research products and visit websites directly. However, businesses should prepare for a world where some purchasing decisions are influenced by AI assistants acting on a user’s behalf. Optimising for visibility means making your website useful for both people and artificial intelligence.
The Final Word
Google is building technology that can act on information provided by users and complete tasks across multiple services. This is another reminder that search visibility is changing and rankings aren’t the only factor to prioritise. It’s also about ensuring your products and content are easy for AI systems to understand and evaluate during automated customer journeys.
If you’re interested in how AI is changing search and commerce, or you’d like help preparing your website for the next generation of search experiences, we’d love to help. Feel free to get in touch with our team.