Why it matters
In AI Mode, a question like "compare R-410A and R-454B retrofit requirements" fans out into many sub-queries and comes back as one synthesized answer. An HVAC/R distributor with crawlable retrofit guides can surface inside that answer. The query is broad and comparative, the kind that used to mean a buyer reads five tabs. Now Google reads them and writes the summary. If your spec pages, MSDS notes, and cross-reference tables are indexable and structured, you can be one of the sources it pulls from. If they sit behind a JavaScript catalog that crawlers can't read, you are invisible at the exact moment the comparison is being made.
AI Mode vs AI Overviews
AI Overviews is the generated summary box that appears above normal Google results for some queries. AI Mode is a separate, dedicated experience you enter on purpose, built for longer back-and-forth questions and deeper fan-out. Both run on the same query fan-out machinery. AI Overviews is a feature inside the results page; AI Mode is the whole page.
In practice
A maintenance buyer opens AI Mode and asks for a hydraulic pump that cross-references to a discontinued OEM part, then follows up with flow-rate and port-size constraints. Google fans the thread out across catalogs and spec sheets and names a few suppliers in the answer. To be one of them, publish the cross-reference and the spec table as readable HTML on a crawlable URL, not locked inside a PDF or a search-only widget.