Google I/O 2025: Critical AI Updates That Will Redefine SEO

“SEO is dead!”

“Google just killed SEO.”

I am sure you have read these phrases a lot more in the last few days. A quick search on Google’s AI Mode will tell you they are not true.

Clearly Google’s AI wants us SEO-dependent folks to believe that SEO still matters, but being the smart guy, I am, here’s what I figured from Google’s I/O 2025: there are plenty of reasons to panic.

For years, companies across the world have used SEO, a familiar compass to navigate the complexities of digital traffic. We created long-form content, optimized for keywords, chased quality backlinks, and tracked rankings, all hoping to capture the attention of the ever-eluding decision-makers. But if you believed that you had the search engine playbook figured out, Google I/O 2025 just tossed it into a shredder.

This year’s Google I/O wasn’t just another update; it was a seismic event for businesses. And it’s not minor tremors; it’s a complete overhaul of how information is searched, found, consumed, and acted upon online. The rules of the game are changing, and they are changing fast.

For the B2B tech industry, where complex queries and niche expertise are fundamental, understanding these changes isn't just optional – it's existential.

Let's dive into the core updates that will redefine digital marketing for B2B tech and how you can prepare for an AI-first search future.

1. The AI Mode and Overviews Domination

Remember the good old days, when Google was just "10 blue links"? Those days are quickly fading into the abyss. Google I/O 2025 unleashed AI Mode and expanded AI Overviews, making them central to users’ search experiences.

Imagine a super-human research assistant who can instantly gather information from dozens of sources, learn from them to answer complex, multi-part questions, and even keep the conversation interesting. That's Google's AI Mode for you.

Instead of showing a list of links, Google AI Overview will now understand the search query and generate a direct, comprehensive answer – often cited from various websites – right at the top of the search results. Essentially, killing the need to click and explore the links for most users. This is a huge SEO reality check for most businesses.

For the B2B tech industry, particularly those targeting "top of the funnel" informational queries – "What is quantum annealing?", "How does a 5nm processor work?", "Comparison of RISC-V architectures" – users might never go to your website. They'll get their answer directly from Google's AI.

Here’s how this will impact you:

The Click-Through Rate (CTR) Apocalypse is Real:
As we head for zero-click search results, the CTR will drop for many informational keywords. It will burn you on the insides, knowing that your content will power the AI Overview, but the direct traffic you once enjoyed will diminish.
Citation is the New Ranking:
Rank #1 won’t matter much now; The new goal is to be cited by Google's AI as a source within its generated answers. Remember, out of sight is out of the mind. This elevates the importance of your E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals. Listicles and regular informational content won’t make the cut anymore. Does your content showcase genuine topical expertise? Are your authors credible and experienced industry veterans? Are you publishing original research that Google deems worthy of quoting? Read more about Making your brand visible to AI.
AI-Readable Content:
To feature in AI citations, first, you want to make sure that AI uses your content to generate its answers. AI prefers clear, concise, and structured content. Think of it like studying just a day before the exams. You don't want to read rambling prose; you want structured bullet points, clearly defined glossaries, tables, and direct answers to specific questions. Your long PDFs, dense whitepapers, and unstructured blog posts might be okay for human eyes, but a frustrating puzzle for AI.

What is the Ideal B2B Content Strategy for Videos

Having a robust content strategy is the bedrock of successful B2B video marketing. It ensures that the right people see your videos, drive meaningful engagement, and contribute to business goals. Let's break down the content strategy into the 3:TOFU, MOFU and BOFU.

Top of Funnel (TOFU)- Aware and attract

Draw the attention of your target audience with short-form videos. You can share quick tips and insights, tease problem solutions, and discuss industry trends and news. The key is to catch your target user’s attention and initiate the customer journey. This stage involves providing videos that solve your audience’s pain points for free instead of selling. It begins the journey of fostering an emotional connection via engaging videos.

Middle of Funnel (MOFU): Demonstrating value and nurturing your audience

Engaging your audience with valuable content that does not overwhelm them is key here. Product demos highlighting benefits and features, getting started guides, use case demonstration videos, solving challenges, and providing valuable insights– such solution-oriented content establishes authority and builds trust.

Bottom of Funnel (BOFU): Deep dive and convert your audience

Giving your audience the right resources at the right time can be the key to driving conversion. Real-time presentation videos showcasing product benefits, boosting customers’ confidence by providing clarity, and addressing final queries can be persuasive. BOFU videos involve detailed technical tutorials and implementation guides, highlighting advanced features and showing detailed integration examples. Success stories and use cases also portray compelling scenarios on the product.

2. Deep Search: What AI on Steroids Looks Like

Building further on AI Mode, Google introduced Deep Search. This isn't just about answering simple questions; it's about generating expert-level, researched reports with citations in minutes. Deep Search can simultaneously issue hundreds of sub-searches and reason across different pieces of information to generate incredibly detailed answers, saving hours of research.

For users researching complex topics, such as "implications of neuromorphic computing on edge AI performance" or "security vulnerabilities in embedded IoT chipsets", Deep Search is a game-changer. For companies, this will be a golden opportunity to get cited and build industry authority. Here’s what you need to know:

Niche Expertise: If your company has established authority in a highly specialized field, your in-depth articles, research papers, and technical specifications will be gold mines for Deep Search, and you will be prominently featured as a source. If not, your competitors who are investing in such insightful, verifiable content will be.
Original and Proprietary Data: AI can synthesize, but it cannot entirely create original research. If your company is into publishing unique data, case studies, or patented methodologies, this is your moment to shine. Google's Deep Search prioritizes content that adds novel insights or offers unique perspectives to its users.

3. Agentic Search: When AI Becomes a Personal Assistant

This is really interesting and frankly, a little unnerving for traditional funnels. Your target audience might convert into leads without ever landing on your website. Google is now pushing more for "agentic search," where AI Mode is not limited to just providing information but can also perform tasks on behalf of the user.

Imagine a future where an AI assistant could:

"Find a semiconductor manufacturer that can produce a custom 7nm ASIC with low power consumption." The AI then identifies potential vendors and initiates a demo request on behalf of the user, pre-filling forms with user-consented data.

Agentic Search and tasks won’t just be limited to form submissions, though; powered by Project Mariner, it has already shown capabilities to book appointments, make reservations, compare prices, and even add items to a cart on behalf of its users.

Here’s how it will impact SEO:

"Machine-Operable" is the New Mantra: Your website's user experience (UX), forms, and underlying data structures must be completely AI-ready. If a human can easily navigate, fill out a form, and complete a task on your website, an AI agent should be able to do it too.
From Discovery to Action: Your SEO focus shifts from merely driving traffic to enabling direct conversions within the Google search interface. You need to ensure that your conversion points (buttons, contact forms, APIs) are frictionless and AI-friendly.

4. Multimodal Search: See It, Speak It, and Search It

One of the major highlights of Google's I/O was advancements in multimodal search, notably with "Search Live" and Project Astra. Users can now search using their camera and voice in real-time, engaging in conversational interactions about what they see around them. Jarvis (the AI from the Iron Man Movie) is one step closer to reality.

While it sounds mostly consumer-focused, consider the business applications:

"Show me the datasheet for this component" (user points the camera at a chip).
"What's the energy efficiency of a server rack with these specifications?" (user points camera at a server configuration, AI reads specs).

High-quality visual content will be the new SEO gold - images, diagrams, product videos, and even 3D models become critical for AI to get context. As a business, it will be important to optimize your image alt text, add metadata to your content, provide detailed video transcripts, and ensure your visuals are descriptive enough for AI to understand their context and content.

SEO Metrics and What Actually Matters Now

The biggest emotional trigger for most SEO experts and businesses post the Google I/O event is the inevitable decline in traditional search-driven traffic. This isn't a minor algorithm update; it's a paradigm shift in user behavior driven by Google.

The SEO Reality Check for Businesses:

Rankings are Now a Vanity Metric (Well, Mostly): While ranking #1 still feels good, it no longer guarantees the clicks it once did. We urgently need to shift our focus to AI visibility – being cited in AI Overviews, appearing in Deep Search reports, and making our websites more "actionable" for AI agents.
Change in Funneled Approach: It's true that the traffic and clicks to your website will drop, but the ones that you do get are likely to be of higher quality and intent. If an AI has already filtered and answered the query, the user clicking through is probably further down the funnel, ready for deeper engagement or even conversion: less volume, but more value.
Diversify Your Channels: While search continues to remain critical, B2B companies need to double down on other demand-generation channels. For example, email marketing to nurture leads, thought leadership on LinkedIn, webinars to showcase your expertise and industry authority, and strong community engagement on X and Reddit. Don't put all your eggs in the Google basket, especially when the basket itself is undergoing a dramatic transformation.
Embrace E-E-A-T Like Never Before: If AI is going to act as a surrogate for human users, it will prioritize sources that demonstrate unparalleled expertise and trustworthiness. Invest in your technical experts, showcase their credentials, and ensure your content reflects deep, verifiable knowledge. No more fluffy, generic content – the AI will see right through it.

The Path Forward: Don't Panic, Adapt

The SEO landscape is quickly changing, but it's not a death knell. Rather it's a call to evolve.

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” - Mark Twain

Google I/O 2025 isn't just about SEO; it's about Google becoming a universal AI assistant. For B2B businesses, this means your traffic, engagement, and sales cycle, historically driven by human discovery, will now be heavily influenced by machine intelligence.

The question isn't whether SEO will change, but how quickly and strategically you adapt. The future of marketing is here, and it’s powered by AI. Are you ready to plug in?

We can help you with the right insights and make your brand visible in an AI-first world. Contact Anion Marketing today.

About Author

Sagar Chawla

- Digital Marketing Manager, Anion Marketing

Digital Marketing Manager at Anion Marketing. Engineer turned storyteller turned marketer. Apart from running campaigns and demystifying Martech, can talk for hours about science, tech, life, and movies—in that order.

Panic or Profit? Four Critical Google I/O 2025 AI Updates That Will Redefine SEO.