Google is testing new card formats for related content inside AI Mode, its conversational search experience. The formats include a “product documentation” carousel and an “expert buying guide” section, each designed to keep users answering follow-up questions without leaving the AI Mode surface.
Search Engine Roundtable spotted the test in its July 8 daily forum recap, citing a post from the account SERP Alert on X that first documented the cards. The company has not detailed how broadly the test is running or which query categories trigger the new formats.
Google has expanded AI Mode’s related-content surfaces steadily since launch, each addition adding another reason for a user to stay inside the answer rather than tap through. A buying guide card that answers a comparison query, or a documentation carousel that answers a product-support query, replaces a click that would otherwise land on a retailer, review site, or manufacturer page.
Publishers and brands with buying-guide or documentation-heavy content should treat this test as an early signal: pages built to rank for those exact query types are the ones AI Mode is now built to keep users away from.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz first noted the AI Mode related-content card test in the site’s July 8, 2026 daily search forum recap.
