Google Spent ₹270 Crore on IPL to Kill Traditional Search, What SaaS Brands Need to Do Before the Season Ends

• By Devraj

• 12th May 2026

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What Google Just Did , And Why It’s a Bigger Deal Than It Looks

On the surface, it looks like a sponsorship. But the Google AI Mode IPL 2026 deal is far more strategic than a branding deal. Google signed on as a prominent partner for IPL 2026, with its AI Mode and Google Gemini IPL India branding appearing across broadcasts, digital touchpoints, and JioCinema streams. But this isn’t just marketing spend. This is Google using cricket, the one thing 515 million Indians pause their lives for, to train an entire population to interact with search differently.

Traditional search is: type a keyword → scan ten blue links → click → read → decide.

AI Mode is a conversational shift that requires a specialized approach known as Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Google isn’t just updating its algorithm; it’s rewriting the user behavior contract. At Deftsoft, we are helping brands navigate this transition through advanced AI SEO strategies that ensure your SaaS product is the answer that Gemini provides
Google isn’t just updating its algorithm. It’s rewriting the user behaviour contract. And it chose IPL to accelerate that shift because no other platform in India reaches as many people, across as many demographics, with as much emotional engagement.

The numbers tell the story clearly:

How AI Search Is Changing the Way Users Find SaaS Products

Here’s the shift that most SaaS founders haven’t fully reckoned with yet. AI search SaaS visibility is no longer a future concern; it is a present-tense competitive problem.

When a startup founder in Pune searches “best project management tool for a 10-person SaaS team,” they used to get a listicle from G2, a roundup from Capterra, and maybe your blog post at position seven. They’d click around, compare and visit your site. You had a shot.

In AI Mode, Gemini reads all of those sources and gives the user a single synthesised recommendation. If Gemini likes you, you’re mentioned. If Gemini doesn’t know you exist, or doesn’t trust your site’s authority signals, you don’t appear. The user never sees you. They don’t know how to look for you.

This is fundamentally different from ranking on page two of Google. Page two was bad, but visible. AI invisibility is complete.

The kinds of queries that now trigger AI Mode answers, and bypass traditional results, are exactly the high-intent SaaS queries you’ve been optimising for:

• “What’s the best CRM for B2B SaaS startups?”
• “Which HR software works well for remote Indian teams?”
• “Is [your competitor] better than [you] for enterprise clients?”

These used to be your money keywords. They still are, but the game has changed.

5 Things SaaS Companies Must Do Right Now to Appear in AI Search Results

This is where SaaS AI SEO strategies meet real action. These are not theoretical; these are the signals Google’s AI is actively reading to decide what to recommend. If you’ve been wondering how to rank in Google AI Mode, this section is your answer.

1. Build Topical Authority, Not Just Rankings

AI Mode doesn’t pick the page with the most backlinks. It picks the source that answers the question most comprehensively and consistently. That means your SaaS blog needs to cover an entire topic cluster, not just the high-volume head keyword. If you sell HR software, you should have authoritative content on onboarding, payroll compliance, employee retention metrics, and remote team management, not just “best HR software India.” Depth signals expertise. Expertise gets cited.

2. Rewrite Your Content for Conversational Queries

AI Mode is trained on how people actually talk, not how they typed into a search bar in 2015. Update your existing content, especially product pages and comparison pages, to answer questions in plain, direct language. Start sections with the question. Answer it in the first sentence. Then expand. This structure makes it easy for Gemini to extract and cite your answer.

3. Implement Schema Markup Properly

Structured data is how you communicate directly with AI crawlers in a language they trust. FAQ Page, HowTo, Product, and SoftwareApplication schemas are all actively used by Google’s AI to understand what your SaaS does, who it’s for, and whether it’s credible. If your site has no schema or a broken schema, you’re handing citation opportunities to your competitors.

4. Strengthen Your E-E-A-T Signals

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. This is the framework Google uses to evaluate whether a source deserves to be cited in an AI answer. For SaaS companies, this means: named authors with bios and credentials on every blog post; a robust “About” and “Team” page; customer testimonials with specifics (not just star ratings); case studies with real numbers; and third-party coverage or mentions in credible publications. Gemini is more likely to recommend a SaaS brand that has a visible, verifiable identity than one that feels anonymous.

5. Run an AI Visibility Audit

This is the step most SaaS teams skip, because they don’t know it’s possible. Understanding how to rank in Google AI Mode starts with knowing where you currently stand. An AI visibility audit checks which of your key queries already have AI Mode answers. Are you cited in any of them? What sources is Google currently pulling from instead? What content gaps are costing you AI citations? Without this data, you’re optimising blind.

The SaaS Brands Already Winning in AI Search, And What They’re Doing Differently

The SaaS companies appearing in AI Mode answers share a few common traits that go beyond traditional SEO best practices.

• They publish content that directly answers decision-stage questions, not just awareness-stage explainers. Instead of “What is project management software?” they publish “How to choose a project management tool when your team is scaling from 10 to 50 people.” The specificity makes it useful. The usefulness makes it citable
• They have consistent brand mentions across the web, review sites, forums, newsletters, LinkedIn articles and YouTube mentions. AI models build trust through signal volume, not just link authority. A brand that appears in G2 reviews, a Substack newsletter, three YouTube explainer videos, and two SaaS-focused Reddit threads is, in Gemini’s view, a real brand worth recommending.
• They treat their FAQ pages as strategic assets. Every FAQ answer is a potential AI citation. Brands that invest in detailed, accurate, regularly updated FAQs are effectively pre-writing the answers that Gemini will pull from.

One Deftsoft client, a B2B SaaS platform in the HR tech space, saw their AI Mode citation rate increase significantly after a focused 60-day E-E-A-T and schema overhaul. The change wasn’t in their rankings; it was in how often their content appeared inside AI answers for high-intent queries. That’s the new metric that matters.

Is Your SaaS Product Invisible to AI Search? Here’s How to Find Out

Run this quick self-audit. Open a private/incognito browser. Search five of your most important buyer queries, the questions your best customers ask before buying. Check whether it ranks on the Google AI overview. If it does, read it carefully. Is your brand mentioned? Is a competitor mentioned instead? What source is Google citing?

If you’re not in the answer and a competitor is, that’s not a ranking problem. That’s an authority-and-content-structure problem. And it’s fixable, but only if you know it exists.

The Google IPL 2026 partnership is Google’s clearest signal yet: Google AI Mode search isn’t coming. It’s here. The 515 million people watching cricket this season are being trained to ask Google questions and trust the single answer they get back. The SaaS brands that invest in SaaS AI search optimization now will own that answer space. Those who wait will spend 2027 figuring out why their traffic dropped.

Not sure where you stand? The Deftsoft SaaS SEO team runs a free AI visibility audit. We’ll show you exactly which queries you’re missing, which competitors are being cited instead, and what to fix first.

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FAQs

What is Google AI Mode?

Google AI Mode search is a search experience in which, instead of showing a list of 10 blue links, Google’s Gemini AI synthesises information from across the web and delivers a single, conversational answer at the top of the results page. It launched in the US in 2025 and is being aggressively promoted in India through its partnership with Google AI Mode for IPL 2026.

Why did Google partner with IPL 2026 specifically?

The Google IPL 2026 partnership goes beyond branding. IPL is India’s highest-reach media event, with over 515 million viewers. Google’s ₹270 crore investment was designed to introduce Google Gemini IPL India to the mainstream population at scale, using cricket as the cultural vehicle to drive behavioural change in how people search.

Will traditional SEO become irrelevant?

Not entirely, but its role is shrinking for high-intent queries. Traditional SEO still matters for navigational searches, long-tail queries, and content that AI can’t easily synthesise. However, for decision-stage queries, the ones that drive SaaS conversions, AI Mode is increasingly the entry point, and being cited there matters more than ranking position seven.

How does AI search affect SaaS SEO differently from e-commerce or local businesses?

SaaS buyers ask complex, comparative, decision-stage questions, exactly the type of query that triggers AI Mode answers. Unlike an e-commerce product with a clear price and image, SaaS requires evaluation. AI Mode becomes the evaluator. If your brand isn’t part of that AI-generated evaluation, you lose the consideration stage entirely.

How do I know if my SaaS is appearing in Google AI Mode answers?

The simplest way is to manually test your top buyer queries in an incognito browser and check whether an AI overview appears and whether your brand is cited. A more thorough approach, covering hundreds of queries across your topic cluster, requires an AI visibility audit that maps your current citation footprint and identifies gaps.

What is an AI visibility audit?

An AI visibility audit analyzes which queries in your niche trigger AI Mode responses, which sources Google is currently citing for those queries, where your brand appears (or doesn’t), and what content, schema, or authority signals are missing. It’s the starting point for any SaaS AI search optimization strategy and the foundation for understanding how to rank in Google AI Mode for your specific niche.

How long does it take to start appearing in AI Mode results?

There’s no fixed timeline, but SaaS brands that implement structured content, proper schema, and E-E-A-T improvements typically start seeing citation improvements within 60–90 days. The key is prioritising the changes that AI crawlers weigh most heavily, which is exactly what a proper AI overview SaaS SEO plan maps out.

How can Deftsoft help with AI search optimisation?

Deftsoft’s SaaS SEO team specialises in AI search SaaS visibility, from building topical authority and implementing schema to conducting E-E-A-T audits and tracking AI citations. We help SaaS companies move from invisible to cited in the AI answers their buyers are reading. Start with a free AI visibility audit to see exactly where you stand.