AI Mode goes global: Google launches next-gen search in 200+ countries

Yesterday, Google quietly turned a key corner in its AI strategy: it pushed its AI-driven search experience—which blends conversational reasoning, multimodal inputs, and 'agentic' features—into over 200 countries and territories worldwide. The move underscores Google’s ambition to evolve from a search engine to an AI-first information assistant.

Previously, AI Mode had seen phased release: first in the US, then the UK and India. As of now, it is available in more than 200 regions, with support for 35+ languages and many new markets in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

Google also recently expanded AI Mode to include five new languages in addition to English: Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese.

The expansion gives millions more users access to a search experience that blends traditional web links with AI-generated summaries, agentic tasks (e.g. restaurant bookings), and increasingly personalized results.

Google’s AI Mode is built on its Gemini model family, augmented by recent advances in reasoning, multimodal understanding, and query 'fan-out' techniques. In practice, when a user asks a complex question—say, “What are the best hiking trails near me, and can you find lodging and weather outlook?”—AI Mode decomposes it into subqueries, runs parallel searches, and synthesizes results into a conversational response.

Unlike 'AI Overviews,' which are summaries layered atop classic search results, AI Mode is a full-screen AI interface. It is designed for reasoning, context follow-up, and even executing simple tasks like restaurant bookings (for users in supported markets, especially U.S. AI Ultra subscribers).

Despite the global reach, there are trade-offs: the current rollout supports English language only (with additional language expansions underway) and agentic features like reservations are limited to certain geographies and user tiers.

For individuals, the promise is clear: faster answers, fewer clicks, and a more natural way to interrogate the web. The conversational interface lets users refine queries, ask follow-ups, and explore deeper without retyping new searches.

Here lies the tension. As AI-generated summaries become more prominent, fewer users may click traditional results. Publishers and content creators worry about traffic loss. In regions where AI Overviews previously launched, anecdotal reports have surfaced of diminished referral traffic to news sites and niche content.

On the flip side, being surfaced in AI Mode responses opens a new visibility channel—provided your content is structured, accurate, and linked appropriately. Google continues to embed citations and “jump-to” links within AI responses to direct traffic to source pages.

Some regions get AI Mode before others due to regulatory, language, or infrastructure constraints. For instance, Europe’s rollout had delays due to data regulation and content rules.

In many new countries, Google is still supporting only English queries, which means local language users may have to wait for fully localized AI capabilities.

The expansion upsets conventional SEO strategies. Instead of optimizing for blue-link ranking positions, brands now must vie to be cited or integrated into AI answers. Ads may soon be woven more deeply into AI-mode responses.

Advertisers should pay attention to how agentic tasks (like bookings, reservations) surface in AI Mode—and position infrastructure and feeds to be compatible.

While Google announces '200+ countries and territories,' much of the early wave includes expansion into Europe, MENA, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa.

Future phases will deepen language support (e.g. Hindi, Portuguese, Arabic) and unlock more agentic features, like local service bookings and transactional commerce tasks.

Regulation will be a battleground. Europe’s stricter laws and national data privacy rules may force Google to adapt AI Mode locally or open up competitive challenges.

For now, Google is positioning this as the future of search: “ask anything, do anything” with AI as the facilitator. Whether that future keeps the web open—or locks it further into Google’s realm—depends on how balance is handled between algorithmic power and openness.