How AI Search Results Are Created (Spoiler: It’s Not Magic)

A simple explanation of query fan-out and how it's used to create AI results.

Here’s what’s actually happening when you search Google and get those fancy AI-generated responses: the system breaks down your question into multiple related queries, searches for the best answers, and then consolidates everything into what appears to be a single, comprehensive response.

Technically, we call this process of taking a single question and exploring many related queries to create a comprehensive answer, query fan-out.

If you’d like a real-world example of how query fan-out works, consider this.

When you tell yourself, “I need to pack for vacation,” your brain doesn’t just think about one thing. It automatically explodes into a checklist:

• What’s the weather like there?

• How many days am I going?

• Will I need workout clothes?

• What about phone chargers?

• Do I have enough toiletries?

• Should I bring fancy shoes or just sneakers?

You’re mentally checking your closet, the weather app, your itinerary, and past travel experiences all at once - then you synthesize everything into one packed suitcase.

Google’s AI Mode works the same way.

You ask one question, and Google’s AI system automatically breaks it into dozens of sub-questions, then actually searches multiple sources in Google’s index simultaneously (web pages, maps, shopping, videos), and packages everything into one answer.

The key difference?

You pack one suitcase in over 30 minutes. Google’s AI “packs” one answer from hundreds of sources in a few milliseconds to seconds.

The best part is that now that you understand this, I have great news!

This is how all AI search works right now, except they usually check their own databases before providing a comprehensive answer.

Moving Forward

Now that you understand how AI search actually works, hopefully you don’t see it as magic and you can see it for what it is: another evolution in how people find information online. And like every evolution before it, the businesses that understand the mechanics are the ones that figure out how to make it work for them.

Thanks for grokking with me - Ross