Google extends AI Mode to 50 new markets - including Belgium: what changes

By Sabrina Bulteau, for PingPrime.ai

Following last week's launch in the Spanish-speaking world, Google is extending its AI Mode to 50 new territories, now including Belgium, and to 36 new languages such as French, Dutch, and German.

A New Era of Conversational Search

Google's AI Mode introduces a conversational search experience similar to what made ChatGPT so successful.

Users can now dive deeper into a topic by engaging in natural dialogue with the search engine, refining questions, exploring context, and uncovering more relevant insights step by step.

This mode will appear gradually as a dedicated tab in Google Search and in the Google app on Android and iOS. It is multimodal, meaning users can initiate and enrich their queries not just through text, but also through voice commands, images, or photos.

Part of Google's Broader Shift Toward AI Search

This rollout follows Google's earlier milestone in March with the introduction of AI Overviews in Belgium, a first step in its transition toward AI-driven search experiences.

With AI Mode now available in more than 200 countries, Google is leveraging its dominant market position to redefine how people find and process information.

What This Means for Businesses

For brands and marketers, this marks a fundamental shift: visibility will increasingly depend on how AI systems interpret and generate answers, rather than on traditional SEO ranking factors alone.

Understanding and adapting to this new search behavior, what we call Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), is becoming essential to remain visible, relevant, and trusted in an AI-driven web.

The Race Continues

Google's global rollout reinforces its dominant position in AI search, but the question remains: will it be enough to counter OpenAI's accelerated expansion into daily search habits? Either way, the era of AI search is no longer emerging, it's here.

About Sabrina Bulteau

After more than two decades shaping the digital world, including co-founding Be Connect, one of Belgium's first social media agencies, Sabrina Bulteau, now co-founder of PingPrime.ai, is diving headfirst into the AI Search Shift, the third wave after mobile and social. She arms brands and leaders with the mindset and strategy to win in a world where visibility is power. No jargon. Just impact.