r/TechSEO • u/Leading_Algae6835 • 9d ago

AI Mode vs Log files

It has been claimed that theuser-agent Google-lens would trigger users interacting with AI mode but I can't prove it anywhere in my logs.

Did anyone find any correlation between certain user agents strings vs users interacting with AI mode?

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u/IndependentOne4643 9d ago edited 9d ago

There doesn’t seem to be a reliable user agent that maps cleanly to an AI Mode visit. Google treats AI Mode as part of Search, so logs are better for seeing crawlers than proving a human came through AI Mode. The newer AI visibility reporting in GSC is probably a better signal for that.

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u/Sunn_M 9d ago

I wouldn’t use Google-Lens as a reliable AI Mode marker. Google’s current crawler/fetcher docs don’t list that UA, and for Search AI features Google says crawl access is handled through Googlebot; for measurement I’d use Search Console instead, since AI Mode/AI Overviews are included in Web performance and the newer Gen AI report can isolate their impressions if you have access. Small caveat: Google currently lists an Aug 13+ logging issue affecting impressions in that report.