Google is pushing its AI Overviews, a feature delivering quick-hit summaries at the top of search results, to more than 100 countries, aiming to reach over 1 billion users monthly. After debuting in the U.S. in May, the tool has been gradually expanding, with users in regions from Asia to Latin America now gaining access.
The update also comes with expanded language support — English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish are now available, enabling a more localized experience for users globally. In countries like Japan, for example, people can toggle between languages for results, broadening access and usability.
AI Overviews lean on Google’s Gemini AI model to deliver concise answers, while also helping out with practical tasks like meal planning, trip organization, and brainstorming. For Google, this is part of a broader effort to make search more dynamic and keep users engaged on the platform, reinforcing the company’s ambitious AI-first focus.
Recent updates added in-line links to AI Overviews so users can click directly to source websites, an update aimed at driving more traffic to content creators. Yet some publishers remain wary, questioning whether traffic will continue to drop as Google moves more toward in-house generated summaries. To alleviate concerns, Google also announced that ads would appear in AI Overviews for mobile users in the U.S., creating an additional revenue opportunity for Google and publishers.
However, the feature hasn’t been without its missteps. Early on, AI Overviews drew criticism for offering some downright bizarre suggestions — like gluing toppings to pizza. Since then, Google’s implemented some protections to minimize strange or risky outputs.
Now, with this global expansion, the real question becomes how users will react to AI answers versus traditional search results and if this model shifts the search landscape permanently.
