LONDON: Google has rolled out its AI Mode feature in Google Search to 36 new languages, including Modern Standard Arabic, reaching over 200 countries and territories.

Powered by Google’s Gemini 2.5 model, AI Mode offers users advanced reasoning, multimodal search, and the ability to explore topics in depth using follow-up questions and contextual links.

The tool builds on Google’s AI Overviews — the company’s existing artificial intelligence feature at the top part of Google Search results — and allows users to submit questions via text, voice, or images.

“When people use AI Mode to search for a topic, our systems aim to surface relevant links, including news pages, and connect people with a breadth of content and perspectives from across the web, on a wide range of queries,” Najeeb Jarrar, Google’s regional product and marketing director for the Middle East and Africa, said in a statement to Arab News.

“We aim to show an AI-powered response as much as possible, but in cases where we don’t have high confidence, you will see a set of web search results.”

The update follows the feature’s launch in English in the MENA region this August.

Google reports that users in markets where AI Mode is live are now submitting queries two or three times as long as traditional search inputs, reflecting a shift in how people seek information online.

However, the rollout has also prompted debate among experts, many of whom caution that AI-driven search may significantly reduce website traffic by providing direct answers instead of routing users to external pages.

Some studies have found that Google’s AI Overviews have reduced traffic to original websites by as much as 30 to 70 percent, depending on the query.

However, Google, along with other major AI firms, argues the new model is driving “more queries and higher quality clicks.”

The company’s AI Mode uses a “query fan-out” technique, running multiple background searches and aggregating them into a single, cohesive response meant to offer greater breadth and depth than standard search results.

The company said it will continue to add features and capabilities to AI Mode and plans future integration into the main Search experience.

AI Mode appears as a tab on Google Search results, as well as on the Google app for Android and iOS.