Google released a report detailing how people use AI Mode in the U.S., drawing on internal Search data and Google Trends to map search behavior one year after launch.
The report, published alongside Google I/O 2026 announcements, said that AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users globally. Queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch.
How Query Behavior Is Changing
The report states that the average AI Mode search is three times longer than a traditional search. Both short and long queries are increasing in AI Mode, with users having conversations and asking longer questions.
Follow-up queries in AI Mode rose over 40% monthly in the U.S. More than one in six AI Mode searches are multimodal, using voice, images, or video. Image-based searches are up over 40% month-over-month since launch.
Top keywords include “information,” “identify,” “find,” “explain,” and “summarize.” Common first words are “what,” “how,” “I,” “is,” and “can,” with “I” especially notable, which may suggest people treat AI Mode more like a conversation than a traditional search.
What People Search For
Google grouped AI Mode search topics into five categories: Explore, Decide, Learn, Create, and Do. The top 10 topics include creative content, media, education, fashion, food, health, tech, travel, productivity, and development.
Brainstorming queries increased 30% faster than overall AI Mode queries since launch, with searches for “where to,” “where should I,” and “ideas for” also rising, per Google Trends.
Planning-related queries grew 80% faster over six months, with decision questions starting with “which” increasing 40%, especially “which of” and “which one.”
Shopping And Local Behavior
Shoppers start with traditional search, then move to AI Mode for deeper inquiry, especially in electronics, books, apparel, health and beauty, and automotive.
In AI Mode, store-related questions focus on “near me,” replacement parts, financing-related dealership searches, online options, and stock.
Top retail concerns include price, location, color, brand, and availability. For restaurants, users seek kid-friendly options, views, bars, vegan or vegetarian choices, and outdoor seating.
Creative And Educational Use
AI Mode’s image creation queries have more than tripled since early 2026, with users mainly requesting photos, quizzes, logos, stories, and code, as well as editing photos, documents, videos, messages, and code.
For education, top subjects include math, Spanish, history, English, and biology, while professional development searches focus on Security+, black belt, Network+, bar exam, and real estate license.
Why This Matters
The data shows AI Mode users are searching in ways that don’t map cleanly to traditional keyword patterns. Queries are longer, conversational, and increasingly multimodal. Follow-up conversations are growing, and planning and decision queries are among the strongest growth signals in the report.
If query length and follow-ups keep growing, that means thin content faces a different competition than conversational answers to multi-part questions.
Looking Ahead
Google released this report the same week it announced Gemini 3.5 Flash as the new default model in AI Mode, redesigned the Search box, and previewed search agents for this summer.
The keyword and query data covers May 2025 to April 2026 and comes from a random, unbiased sample of Google searches. The Trends data measures search interest as a share of AI Mode searches, not total query volume. AI Mode Trends data is not publicly available on trends.google.com.
