Google is turning its most familiar product into something more conversational: the search box is now AI-powered, the default Search model is Gemini 3.5 Flash worldwide, and AI Mode has passed one billion monthly users one year after launch. That is a lot of change for a box that barely changed for decades, and it signals where Google thinks the next search battle will be fought – not just in ranking links, but in understanding intent before you finish typing.
The new Google Search experience expands to give people more room to describe what they want, then uses AI-powered suggestions to help shape the query. It also accepts text, images, files, videos, and even Chrome tabs as inputs, which is a neat way of saying Google wants search to handle messy real-world questions instead of neat keyword strings. That is a direct answer to rivals like Microsoft and OpenAI, both of which have spent the last couple of years pushing users toward chat-style search experiences.
AI Mode now reaches desktop and mobile
The rollout covers all countries and languages where AI Mode is available, and the experience is now live across desktop and mobile. That matters because search habits are not split neatly by device anymore; people start on a phone, continue on a laptop, and expect the same answer to follow them. Google is clearly trying to make its own interface feel less like a starting point and more like a continuing conversation.
There is also a practical upside for users who already live inside Google’s ecosystem. You can move from an AI Overview into follow-up questions, then keep going in AI Mode without changing tools, which is exactly the sort of friction removal big platforms love to present as innovation. Sometimes it is innovation. Sometimes it is simply making the obvious thing finally less annoying.
Search agents and booking tools are coming next
Google says search agents for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers will arrive this summer, running in the background to keep searching and updating users on what matters. In the U.S. this summer, agentic booking features will also expand to more tasks, including local experiences and services, with Google able to call businesses on a user’s behalf in select categories such as home repair and beauty.
That pushes Google further into territory that used to belong to human assistants, concierge services, and a lot of tedious clicking. It also gives the company a cleaner subscription story: AI Pro and Ultra get the more advanced automation, while the basic AI Mode keeps spreading far beyond paid users.
Personal Intelligence expands to 200 countries
Google is also widening Personal Intelligence in AI Mode to more people in about 200 countries and territories in 98 languages, with no subscription required. Users can connect Gmail and Google Photos, which makes the assistant more personal in the most literal sense: it can work from your inbox and your camera roll, not just the public web.
The open question is how much of this feels like help and how much feels like Google gently steering people deeper into its own ecosystem. Search is still search, but the company is betting that the winning interface in the AI era is one that listens longer, guesses better, and does more of the clicking for you.