Google has released a report detailing how people are using AI Mode in the US, relying on internal search data and Google Trends to map search behavior a year after its launch.
THE reportreleased alongside Google I/O 2026 announcements, indicates that AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch.
How query behavior changes
The report states that the average AI search takes three times longer than a traditional search. Short and long queries increase in AI mode as users have conversations and ask longer questions.
AI tracking queries increased over 40% monthly in the US. More than one in six AI searches are multimodal, using voice, images or video. Image-based searches have increased over 40% month-over-month since launch.
Key keywords include “information,” “identify,” “find,” “explain,” and “summarize.” Common first words are “what”, “how”, “I”, “is” and “can”, with “I” being particularly notable, which may suggest that people are treating AI more like a conversation than a traditional search.
What people are looking for
Google has 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, technology, travel, productivity and development.
Brainstorming queries have grown 30% faster than overall AI Mode queries since launch, with searches for “where to,” “where should I” and “ideas for” also increasing, according to Google Trends.
Planning-related queries grew 80% faster in six months, with decision questions starting with “which” increasing 40%, especially “which of” and “which.”
Shopping and local behavior
Shoppers start with traditional search and then move to AI mode for deeper searches, especially in electronics, books, clothing, health and beauty, and automobiles.
In AI mode, store-related questions focus on “nearby”, parts, dealer searches related to financing, online options and inventory.
Key retail concerns include price, location, color, brand and availability. For restaurants, users look for kid-friendly options, views, bars, vegan or vegetarian choices, and outdoor seating.
Creative and educational use
AI Mode’s image creation requests have more than tripled since the start of 2026, with users primarily requesting photos, quizzes, logos, stories and code, as well as edits of photos, documents, videos, messages and code.
For education, primary subjects include Math, Spanish, History, English, and Biology, while professional development pursuits focus on Security+, Black Belt, Network+, Bar Exam, and Real Estate License.
Why it matters
Data shows that AI mode users search in a way that doesn’t clearly correspond to traditional keyword patterns. Queries are longer, conversational and increasingly multimodal. Follow-up conversations are increasing and planning and decision queries are among the strongest growth signals in the report.
If query lengths and follows continue to grow, that means thin content faces different competition than conversational answers to multi-part questions.
Looking to the future
Google released this report the same week announced Gemini 3.5 Flash as the new default model in AI moderedesigned the search area and previewed search agents for this summer.
Keyword and query data covers the period May 2025 to April 2026 and comes from a random, unbiased sample of Google searches. Trends data measures search interest in terms of share of AI searches, not total query volume. AI Mode Trends data is not publicly available on Trends.google.com.
