Google has announced a major expansion of its AI Overviews and AI Mode search tools, now supporting 13 African languages in addition to English. The update aims to give millions of users across the continent the ability to search, learn, and create online in their native languages.

The move builds on Google’s global rollout of AI Overviews, which provides concise AI-generated summaries of search results with reliable links for deeper exploration. AI Mode further allows users to interact with AI through text, voice, or images, offering more detailed and personalized responses.

Kabelo Makwane, Country Director for Google South Africa, said the expansion addresses the digital divide created when technology primarily operates in dominant international languages. “By adding African languages to AI Overviews and AI Mode, we’re helping people interact with AI naturally—in the languages that shape how they think and create,” Makwane said.

The initiative draws on insights from Google’s Waxal language project, a combination of machine learning, linguistic research, and community collaboration designed to improve AI understanding of African languages. The project’s name, Waxal, means “to speak” in Wolof.

The 13 supported languages include Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Afaan Oromoo, Somali, Sesotho, Kiswahili, Setswana, Wolof, Yorùbá, and isiZulu, chosen based on strong search usage across Sub-Saharan Africa. Countries benefiting include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Botswana, Senegal, and Somalia.

Makwane emphasized that the expansion ensures that “no one should be excluded from the AI economy because their first language isn’t English. AI can now become a driver of inclusive growth across Africa.”

Users can access the new AI tools by opening the Google app on Android or iOS, tapping AI Mode, and typing or speaking queries in any of the supported languages. Google encourages feedback to help refine the AI experience for African languages.