Google I/O is Google’s annual conference, where developers, product leaders, and enthusiasts gather to learn about the latest advancements in tech.

At Google I/O 2025, AI wasn’t just part of the story — it dominated the main stage. More than 30% of sessions had AI in the title or topic, showing just how deeply AI is now woven across Google’s products and platforms. In just one year, Google has embedded AI across search, performance tooling, developer workflows, and user interfaces.

Whether through smarter searches, faster diagnostics, or more seamless user experiences, AI is no longer a future vision to prepare for. It’s here, live in the browser, shaping how people interact with the web daily.

This recap focuses on the announcements that matter most for teams who care about experience. It highlights how AI tools and performance insights are reshaping how users engage, convert, and move across the web.

AI-Powered search and smarter journeys

Google shared several updates showcasing how AI is improving how people search, explore, and act on the web. From AI Overviews to new agentic features and personalized results, these developments have all been designed to reduce friction, surface more relevant answers, and turn intent into outcomes faster. It’s clear that improved user experience through AI was a huge focus for Google this year.

Let’s see some of the key UX features Google highlighted at Google I/O 2025: 

1. AI Overviews improving engagement

Since launching last year, AI Overviews have led to a noticeable shift in user behavior. In Google’s largest markets, searches that include an Overview now see more than 10% higher usage. This behavior proves that when users get answers faster, they are more likely to continue their journey and return to Search again. 

Source: Google

2. AI mode for Search

Google introduced AI Mode as the next evolution of AI in Search. It’s designed to handle more complex queries by breaking them down behind the scenes and running multiple searches at once. This reduces the need for follow-up details and makes the experience feel more relevant to users.

The interface adapts as users explore, surfacing results in a single view and helping them find what they need without backtracking or rephrasing.

3. Quality of life task completion

With new agentic capabilities, powered by Project Mariner, AI Mode can now help users complete tasks by going beyond providing a simple result to their search. The mode can complete tasks, like finding and booking affordable tickets that match the specific needs of the user. It gathers real-time availability and pricing, filters results based on preferences, and fills out steps on the user’s behalf. This reduces clicks and shortens the time required to complete high-intent actions, massively improving satisfaction. 

4. Search results personalized with context

Google Search is also adding AI-driven support for personal context. Users who opt-in can receive results based on past searches, calendar events, and Gmail data. For example, Search can recommend activities near your hotel or suggest restaurants based on previous dining preferences. This avoids users having to repeat searches due to additional context being required to find what they’re looking for. 

Performance-related Updates: Smarter, Faster Foundations

Google shared several updates focused on performance tooling and infrastructure. These changes show how AI, speed, and interactivity are working together to improve web experiences.

Let’s dive into some of the most significant updates: 

1. Core Web Vitals Improvements

Google proudly explained that Core Web Vitals are more important than ever. These metrics measure real user experience on websites and are also used as a ranking factor in search.

Across the web, sites with well-performing Core Web Vitals (CWV) performance saw measurable gains:

• +7.7% improvement in LCP (loading speeds)

• +12.5% improvement in INP (interactivity)

• These improvements collectively saved users an estimated 30,000 years in 2024.

These results highlight the trend of businesses not settling for "good enough," but continuing to optimize in order to save every second for their users.

Google also detailed the Interop 2025 initiative, which will support LCP and INP across all major browsers, making web performance truly cross-platform. Interop 2025 is expected to launch later in the year.

Note: Uxify already provides CWV data for Safari, offering visibility into metrics that are not traditionally available in that browser. Visit Uxify to learn more.

Source: Google I/O

2. Deeper LCP Diagnosis

Google is now breaking Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) into four specific sub-parts:

• Time to First Byte (TTFB)

• Resource Load Delay

• Resource Load Duration

• Element Render Delay

This breakdown helps developers identify where performance issues are happening to focus their optimization efforts where it matters most.

3. Prefetching with Speculation Rules

Google highlighted the growing impact of the Speculation Rules API, now improving performance across 10% of all page loads. This API allows developers to define rules in JSON that enable faster page transitions by loading content in advance.

However, setting up speculative loading manually requires detailed analysis, rule management, and continuous testing. Uxify's Navigation AI handles this process automatically. It uses AI to predict user behavior and preload pages before a user clicks, saving time without the manual setup.

See how Ray-Ban increased conversions by 156% by implementing speculative loading.

4. Compression dictionary transport

Google announced support for compression dictionary transport in Chrome. This new standard lets you only send what's changed in a file, rather than the entire file again. By using a previously downloaded version of a file as a reference, it can compress updates more efficiently and reduce the amount of data transferred.

In Google Search, this technique reduced HTML payload size by 23% and improved LCP by 2%. While that may seem small, it is a significant gain for a platform already optimized for speed.

Compression dictionaries were part of Uxify's 2025 web performance trends. See our full list of predicted trends here.

5. Smarter Interfaces with autofill for Forms

Chrome’s autofill improvements help streamline form interactions and provide data for teams to better understand and optimize the user journey.

Google shared that Shopify rolled out the autofill on forms functionality across its platform and saw a 45% increase in checkout completion rates when autofill was enabled. Reducing friction in key moments led to a better user experience and strong business impact.

Source: Google I/O

Developer Experience: Smarter Interfaces for Debugging

Google also introduced new updates to Chrome DevTools aimed at improving the debugging experience for developers.

Their updated Performance panel now includes a simplified landing view with live local Core Web Vitals metrics and actionable next steps. These include connecting field data from the Chrome UX Report, tuning test conditions such as CPU or network throttling, or recording a performance profile for deeper analysis.

These improvements help teams transition more quickly from identifying a performance issue to diagnosing and resolving it, making performance optimization more efficient across environments.

For the full list of DevTools updates shared at Google I/O 2025, see the technical session here.

Uxify at Google I/O

For the third consecutive year, our team was honored to attend Google I/O, joining some of the world’s most innovative tech companies.

At this year’s Google I/O, Uxify co-founder Georgi Petrov showcased closed beta features to fellow performance community members, demonstrating new tools for analyzing real user data, identifying performance bottlenecks, and leveraging AI to optimize UX and site speed in real time. It was an incredible opportunity to exchange ideas and gain valuable feedback from leaders shaping the future of the web.

For teams interested in previewing Uxify’s experience and performance hub, you can apply here.

Final Thoughts

Google I/O 2025 made one thing clear: AI is no longer experimental. It’s foundational to how the web is built, searched, and experienced. From search that anticipates intent to forms that auto-complete and interfaces that respond in real time, AI is now driving the user journey across every touchpoint.

The focus has shifted from just speed to meaningful performance—removing barriers, streamlining decisions, and helping users act faster. AI is powering these outcomes, and tools like Uxify are making it easier for teams to understand what matters and improve it.

Whether you’re building, optimizing, or debugging, the future of user experience is intelligent, adaptive, and here now.

Google I/O 2025 showed what’s possible. Uxify is here to help teams turn that vision into reality.