Google has launched its AI experiment for users in India, enabling them to search differently with a new search method. The feature is available to all users in Search Lab and can be toggled on or off. Once activated, users can ask multi-part questions and receive detailed answers.
The tool also encourages follow-up questions, allowing users to edit responses in a chat-like manner. Google currently does not support regional Indian languages or indicate when they will be available. The feature was initially tested as a trial on premium users in the U.S. earlier this year, but it began rolling out to all U.S. users after Google I/O.
Gradually, Google added support for voice and image search, purchasing features, and advertisements to the AI mode. Voice and picture capabilities are available in the Indian rollout, where the country prefers voice input.
Google stated that its AI mode utilizes an optimized version of its advanced language model, Gemini 2.5. The company noted that early users tend to enter more than twice the number of standard search queries as their behavior shifts toward more conversational interaction.
The country has over 870 million internet users, making it a key location for testing and gathering feedback. Google is using India to evaluate how multilingual users interact with new features. This is now being rolled out as part of its effort to understand user behavior and interest among one of its largest and most diverse populations. Voice and image-based queries are becoming increasingly popular in India, enabling Google to collect diverse user interaction data and improve its future offerings. The company monitors performance closely during this experimental phase.
The emergence of artificial intelligence technologies, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, has also influenced the behavior of online searchers. Consumers are increasingly turning to services that provide conversational responses rather than traditional search results.
Google's AI mode aims to help address this change by keeping users in control. The company also offers AI overviews, which automatically summarise the search results. In April 2025, more than 1.5 billion users worldwide utilized this feature. Nevertheless, publishers have expressed concerns over traffic losses because AI tools have reduced the need for clicking on external links.
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