Google CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed that the company’s investments in AI are driving more searches and overall query growth. Speaking during Alphabet’s Q3 2026 earnings call, Pichai said the company recorded its highest year-on-year search query growth rate in five years. He credited AI features for increasing usage. Alphabet’s revenue grew 25 per cent year-on-year, reaching a $500 billion annual run rate. Google Cloud revenue also rose 103 per cent, supported by strong demand for AI infrastructure and services.
Pichai said Google is working to bring AI Overviews, AI Mode and traditional Search together into one seamless experience. Users are now asking longer and more detailed questions. They are also using voice, images and documents to find information.
According to Pichai, searches made through AI Mode are, on average, three times longer than traditional searches. One in five AI Mode searches worldwide involves voice, images or documents. Google has also crossed 50 billion visual searches per month.
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Google’s Gemini app has reached one billion users, making it the fastest-growing product in the company’s history.
Pichai also highlighted the growing use of Google’s latest AI models. The company’s Gemini 4 Argon model saw strong demand after its launch. On developer platforms, usage during its first week grew three-and-a-half times faster than Gemini 3, despite limited capacity.
Google has also introduced Gemini 4 Carbon, which Pichai described as its strongest frontier model. The company is initially making it available to selected cybersecurity experts before expanding access.
Pichai said AI is also helping Google’s own employees work faster. “At Google, just in the last few weeks, teams across Chrome, Ads, and Search have used Argon to write and optimise code much faster, shipping 35% more code with 30% fewer errors,” he said.
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Google Cloud revenue increased 103 per cent. This growth was led by the company’s AI infrastructure and solutions. Pichai said Google is working to increase capacity to meet demand.
Meanwhile, YouTube remains the leading streaming platform in the US based on television watch time. The company has also surpassed 150 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers worldwide, including trial users.
“We’re at the point where AI is helping us increase our training and launch velocity. I would expect the next 12 months to see continued acceleration because of RSI,” Pichai said.
He also said that Google will launch more models soon, including more efficient versions to help developers optimise for speed and cost.