New Delhi: Google has launched its experimental ‘AI Mode’ for Search in India, offering users a new way to interact with its engine using natural language queries.
The feature, now available through Search Labs, allows users to submit longer and more complex “enquiries” in a Q&A-style format. Currently limited to English, the company has not indicated a timeline for support in local languages.
AI Mode is powered by a customised version of Gemini 2.5 and is designed to handle exploratory queries, combining multimodal inputs like voice and photos.
Indian users, who frequently use voice search, will now be able to ask questions or search using spoken queries or images, enhancing accessibility and convenience.
The rollout follows earlier testing in the US, where it was initially limited to premium users before expanding to the general public after the Google I/O conference. Since then, the feature has evolved to include shopping recommendations, ads and multimodal support.
Google noted that early testers tend to submit queries that are two to three times longer than typical searches, reflecting a shift in user behaviour towards more nuanced inquiries.
India, with over 870 million internet users, remains one of Google’s largest and most strategically important markets.
It also acts as a vital testing ground for the company, particularly in understanding how multilingual and mobile-first users engage with emerging technologies.
As AI-powered search grows in popularity, Google faces increasing competition from platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which offer similar conversational experiences.
In response, the company has also been promoting AI Overviews, automated summaries of search results, which it claims are now used by over 1.5 billion users globally each month.
Google said its AI initiatives are helping users tackle more intricate queries, with AI Mode strengthening the reasoning and multimodal abilities behind AI Overviews.
“We’re seeing a more than 10 per cent increase in engagement for queries where AI Overviews appear, especially in markets like India and the US,” the company stated, suggesting that adoption is likely to accelerate further in the coming months.
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