Sign in with Google To truly understand the world’s most avid AI users, look no further than Southeast Asia (SEA).
The region, where user interest in AI is 3X the global average,1 is setting the pace of AI adoption for the rest of the world. It also offers an unmatched view of how people in some of the most diverse markets on earth are adopting AI not just as a global technology, but as a locally fluent intelligent assistant.
Now, we have the first-ever insights into how Southeast Asians stand out among the 1 billion monthly active Gemini app users worldwide — for their record pace of adopting Gemini as their multilingual, multimodal AI companion.
For new insights on how SEA’s diverse users are embracing Gemini:
The Gemini Southeast Asia Report 2026 shows that in SEA, active Gemini app users have more than doubled in a year.2 That’s giving rise to a regional force of “AI power users” who’re integrating Gemini as a personal assistant into their daily lives.
Concurrently, people in each SEA market are charting distinct user journeys. They’re flexing Gemini, which is ranked the overall best-performing large language model (LLM) for SEA languages, as their “local AI” of choice.
And as their natural language interactions with Gemini flourish, their conversations are marked by local characteristics: Indonesians, for example, chat with Gemini like a knowledgeable local friend, greeting it with “Halo, bro!” or “Halo, sis!”.3 Over in Singapore, the average user prompts Gemini nearly 10X daily,4 covering a wide range of topics, say, code debugging and halal Asian-fusion meal prep.
Understanding these AI user behaviours at both the regional and local levels is key, particularly for businesses and professionals looking to capture the $305 billion digital economy’s vibrant growth. Here’s how harnessing our on-the-ground insights about SEA’s Gemini users can give you an early-mover advantage.
Meet the region’s legion of AI power users
In SEA, AI users are adopting Gemini faster than any other Google app.5 And they’re redefining what it means to be an “AI power user” in two ways:
1. Mobile-first, multimodal AI usage
Across the region, almost 75% of Gemini requests come from mobile devices.6
That’s natural given that SEA’s digital users are largely mobile-first — particularly Gen Z, 61% of whom prefer using mobile apps instead of browsers. They’ve long conducted much of their gaming, short-form video consumption, and digital commerce on-the-go.
Now, many Southeast Asians are bypassing keyboards and using Gemini in multimodal ways to experience the world. They also use their voices, photos and videos as inputs 42% of the time when engaging with Gemini.7 And Gemini replies in kind — 23% of its answers included multimodal media, with images being the most popular.8
2. Deep, frequent, active engagement with AI
SEA’s Gemini users are coming back 50% more days than before,9 and doubling prompts per user.10
That reflects their growing use of Gemini as a daily personal assistant for a wider variety of tasks. And Gen Z is leading the way: They’re asking more requests, having longer conversations, and writing more detailed prompts than users from other age groups.11
Savour the local flavours of Gemini user journeys
As SEA’s users make Gemini a way of life, they’re infusing their multilingual user journeys with distinctly local flavours. Our report shows that nearly 70% of Gemini prompts are in native languages,12 led by Vietnam (89%), Thailand (87%) and Indonesia (84%).13 Those three markets are also where Gemini is the most searched-for AI assistant.14
That points to a key insight for businesses and professionals anticipating the next growth lap in SEA’s AI-powered economy: Here, the future of “killer apps” lies not just in smarter models, but those that are highly competent in local languages and cultures.
Local language support in AI-powered apps is no longer a “nice-to-have” feature, but the baseline for daily use. And that’s what the Gemini family of models, including the open model Gemma, are designed to excel in.
Gemma utilises a massive context window to efficiently process 140 languages, including non-Latin scripts like Thai, Tamil, Vietnamese and Burmese. Its large token size is “shown to be associated with better downstream performance for most languages, especially in multilingual settings,” noted a report by AI Singapore’s SEA-HELM, which ranks Gemma as the best multilingual LLM for SEA languages.
Additionally, Gemini models, which are trained on extensive datasets to advance the state of the art on many benchmarks including multilinguality, can understand local nuances and idioms.
That’s why SEA’s users can fully express themselves in multi-turn, natural language conversations with Gemini. Their behaviours, in turn, are shaping unique user journeys in each SEA market.
Indonesia: Leads the region in multimodal prompting
Indonesians unleash massive creative output via on-the-go AI usage, with 82% of Gemini prompts coming from mobile devices, higher than the regional average of 73%.15 They also set the regional record for generating 9 million images daily.16
Philippines: Embraces Gemini as a customer-centric teammate
Professionals in this key business process outsourcing hub are leveraging Gemini for customer-centric use cases, with prompts on customer support content almost 3X more popular than the regional average.17 Gemini prompts related to job seeking and writing assistance are also more prevalent here than the rest of SEA.18
Malaysia: Stands out for its unique multilingual and image generation usage
Most Malaysians prompt Gemini in English, especially for professional and coding tasks. They’re also comfortable conversing with Gemini in their local language, with prompts in Malay particularly popular for creative and academic user journeys. Here, more users ask Gemini to generate images, compared to the rest of SEA.19
Singapore: Tops the global rankings for per capita Gemini adoption rates20
Boasting the region’s highest daily engagement rates,21 Singapore is where Gemini usage never stops. Users rely on it to supercharge work productivity on weekdays, and plan travel, dining, personal finance, and more on weekends.
Thailand: Showcases how all age groups can actively engage with Gemini
Thais use their vernacular language for nearly 87% of their prompts, and they’re the most likely among SEA users to engage Gemini about lifestyle and everyday topics. Here, distinctive usage patterns are emerging for young and older Thais: Those under 25 have the longest conversations with Gemini,22 while those above age 54 use multimodal inputs more than their regional peers and younger Thais.23
Vietnam: Brims with AI-powered vernacular and academic journeys
Vietnamese are the region’s top users of Gemini’s translation tools,24 and conduct 89% of prompts in their local language.25 They also have the biggest share of prompts used in academic journeys, with over 160,000 students using Gemini Canvas for exam preparation every month.26
Pivot from chatbot to ‘AI for life’ partner
SEA’s diverse user journeys reflect the myriad ways Gemini can and open up a new world of AI-powered possibilities for you. To uncap creative limits at work, play and everything in between, shift from using Gemini as a chatbot to making it your proactive partner in these ways:
- Generative collaborator: 40% of prompts focus on creating something new, such as generating images, writing documents, and coding.27 Prompt Gemini’s Nano Banana, Lyria and Veo to create images, music and videos respectively, and unleash your creativity.
- Thought partner: 10% of prompts look for advice, opinions, and recommendations, like birthday gift ideas or travel destination options.28 Tap on Gemini to elevate the everyday.
- Research assistant: 20% of prompts seek to gather information, like researching facts and summarising topics.29 Lean on Gemini’s organisational prowess to help you supercharge your learning.
Speaking your native language and understanding your local context is just the tip of what Gemini has to offer. Let this intuitive AI-powered personal assistant be your helpful partner in navigating all that life in the AI era brings.
Get more insights on SEA’s diverse Gemini users from this report:
Contributors: JeeSoo Lee, Strategy & Insights Manager, Google Southeast Asia; Aditi Bhattacharya, Head of Strategy & Insights - Core Industries, Google Southeast Asia
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