Google on Thursday announced a sweeping global expansion of AI Mode, its conversational search feature that allows users to ask complex questions and follow-ups to dig deeper on a topic directly within Search.
The company is also layering in agentic and personalized capabilities that push AI Mode closer toward becoming a proactive digital assistant, signaling Google’s attempt to fortify its dominance in the AI-powered search space.
As part of the expansion, AI Mode is now available in 180 new countries in English. Until now, the tool was limited to users in the U.S., U.K., and India. Google says it will roll out support for more languages and regions in the near future, reflecting its strategy to move fast and scale AI across its global user base.
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A centerpiece of this update is the introduction of agentic features, designed to perform actions on behalf of users. For example, AI Mode can now find restaurant reservations, with plans to extend to local service appointments and event tickets in the coming months. A user can specify dinner preferences — such as party size, date, time, location, and cuisine — and AI Mode will search across different reservation platforms, surfacing a curated list of real-time options.
This capability is currently rolling out for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. through the “Agentic capabilities in AI Mode” experiment in Labs, Google’s experimental testing ground. Ultra, Google’s top-tier subscription plan, costs $249.99 per month, underscoring the company’s strategy to monetize its most advanced AI features through premium tiers.
Beyond agentic capabilities, Google is also introducing personalized search results within AI Mode. The system will now adapt to individual preferences and interests, starting with dining-related topics. For instance, if a user searches, “I only have an hour, need a quick lunch spot, any suggestions?”, AI Mode will draw on past interactions, prior searches in Google and Maps, and inferred interests to suggest relevant dining options. If the system knows the user prefers Italian food and outdoor seating, those results will be prioritized. Users retain the ability to adjust personalization settings via their Google Account.
Another new addition is collaboration and sharing. A dedicated “Share” button allows users to send an AI Mode response to others, enabling friends, family, or colleagues to join in on the same conversation thread. Google says this could be particularly useful for trip planning or organizing group events, where multiple people need to coordinate within the same AI-driven workflow.
Financial and Competitive Context
This expansion comes as Google faces mounting pressure in the AI race, particularly from OpenAI, Microsoft, and emerging challengers like Anthropic. OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to dominate consumer mindshare, while Microsoft has aggressively embedded AI into Bing, Office, and Windows. Google is signaling that it intends to defend its core product — Search — from being disrupted by standalone AI assistants by expanding AI Mode to 180 countries.
There is also a financial dimension. Google’s pricing of Ultra at $249.99 per month reflects the enormous compute costs tied to deploying advanced AI models at scale. Training and running large language models requires thousands of high-end GPUs, often from Nvidia, making profitability a challenge across the AI industry. Google, like OpenAI, is walking a tightrope: it must sustain the enormous expense of AI infrastructure while ensuring its monetization model can keep up.
Analysts note that introducing agentic AI features could open up new monetization opportunities beyond subscriptions. For instance, booking restaurants, local services, or event tickets directly within AI Mode could allow Google to take a cut of transactions — something that might gradually transform AI Mode into a commerce and service hub rather than just a search interface.
Meanwhile, personalization and collaboration point toward Google’s longer-term vision of embedding AI deeper into daily life, creating user lock-in at a time when tech rivals are battling for attention and loyalty in the AI-driven future.