"Google's 'AI mode' is the most advanced search tool introduced to date. With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI)-based search, our ability to understand all the information in the world has become significantly more powerful. Search is now evolving from simple information retrieval to intelligence."
Hema Budaraju, vice president of Google's search institutional sector, said at a press briefing on the launch of the Korean AI mode held on the 5th, "The AI mode can now understand and respond to complex and lengthy questions in Korean." Google announced that it has started supporting Korean for its cutting-edge search feature 'AI mode', which was unveiled at the annual developer conference (I/O) in May.
AI mode is an interactive search function that has advanced from Google's 'AI Overview' introduced last year. Based on the latest AI model 'Gemini 2.5', it possesses advanced reasoning capabilities and multimodal AI technology that integrates various forms of data (text, images, voice, video, etc.), enabling it to respond to questions that are 2 to 3 times longer and more complex than traditional Google searches in the form of an AI chatbot like ChatGPT. It also attaches links to external websites that are cited in the answers. Questions can be asked in various ways, including text, voice, and images.
Budaraju said, "AI mode will be the most powerful search feature ever created by Google and will serve as an important milestone opening a new era of search." Originally, Google first launched AI mode in the U.S., the U.K., and India, and expanded its services to 180 countries at the end of last month. Until now, AI mode was only available in English, but this month support for five languages, including Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Portuguese, and Indonesian, has begun.
The biggest advantage of 'AI mode' is accessibility and convenience. Users can enter queries in the Google search bar and immediately switch to the 'AI mode' tab for interactive searches. By pressing the microphone button and speaking long and complex questions, users can conduct searches even while on the move, and by taking a picture with Google Lens or posting an image directly, they can receive detailed answers through advanced reasoning capabilities, according to Google.
When asked about the distinguishing features of AI mode, Budaraju emphasized, "It combines all the strengths of search accumulated by Google over the past 25 years, real-time information, and high-quality data with the powerful Gemini model to provide a cutting-edge search experience." Additionally, he noted, "Users can access it for free simply by clicking the 'AI mode' tab in the Google search bar they use every day." While AI search services like perplexity require a paid subscription for more advanced features, Google offers this cutting-edge AI-based search function for free.
The fields where AI mode can be most effectively utilized in the Korean market include learning about unknown content, methods and solutions for specific tasks such as furniture assembly, and comparative analysis of the pros and cons of products or places. Budaraju stated, "AI mode can provide a good starting point for students who want to study in-depth topics of new scientific technology," and added that there have been practical examples where users in markets that first launched AI mode received substantial assistance for tasks like how to fix broken items or comparing the pros and cons of new smartwatch products.
That day, Google demonstrated a real-time display of the Korean AI mode. AI mode provided detailed answers to questions such as "Please recommend a place to hang out with friends in Euljiro this weekend. A good restaurant or live music place would be nice, but I also like hidden gems where friends can talk quietly" and "I have two energetic kids aged 4 and 7. Please suggest creative ways for them to actively move indoors today, a day with severe fine dust, without needing a spacious area or expensive toys." It recommended various places in Euljiro, categorizing them into lists of restaurants, live music, and hidden gems, and shared links to their locations.
Google explained that it can provide deeper and more reliable search results quickly by integrating its search ranking system, knowledge graph, and real-time information.
When asked whether AI mode can understand dialects or neologisms such as 'agennam' and 'tetonyo', Budaraju stated, "The latest Gemini is equipped with advanced reasoning capabilities and will likely be able to provide appropriate answers while continuously learning Korean." He further added, "Among the search functions, Google's unique query fanout executes multiple search processes in parallel by dividing them into detailed topics, allowing it to aggregate and provide a wider variety of deeper and more comprehensive answers."
AI mode was also selected as 'the AI model providing the most accurate answers when used as a search tool' by The Washington Post. The WP reported that, after conducting experiments measuring the search accuracy of nine AI models, including Google AI mode, AI overview, ChatGPT, Claude, Meta AI, Grok, perplexity, and Bing Copilot, AI mode provided the most accurate answers.
The WP gave 30 challenging questions to the nine models and asked three professional librarians to evaluate the accuracy of the answers on a scale of 1 to 10, with AI mode receiving the highest score of 60.2 out of 100. Notably, AI mode provided the most accurate answers in the quiz and recent events categories. In searching for professional sources, Bing Copilot received the highest score, while perplexity excelled in image recognition.
As AI transforms the landscape of the search market, Google is accelerating its shift to an AI search engine. With more users utilizing AI chatbots like ChatGPT and perplexity as alternatives to traditional search engines, concerns have grown that Google's monopoly in the search market, maintained for over 20 years, may be at risk, prompting the company to integrate AI into its search functions for market defense. Google's market share in search fell below 90% for the first time in May.
Following AI startups like OpenAI and perplexity, Apple has also announced plans to launch an 'AI browser' to seize the upcoming AI-based search market. For big tech corporations, an AI browser is a pathway to secure the massive data necessary for training their AI models and a tool for implementing AI agent (assistant) technology that assists users in their daily lives. This explains why there are forecasts that the next battleground for AI chatbots will be the AI browser market.
Budaraju stated that as AI-based search becomes more advanced, humanity has entered an era where "we can receive assistance through search by asking about anything.