As the end of 2025 approaches, Google’s “Year In Search” report has revealed a dramatic shift in trending searches throughout India. Whereas earlier reports had a heavy emphasis on sports (IPL), film, and other entertainment related events, searches during 2025 indicate that AI has become deeply embedded into the fabric of daily life within India.
The statistics provided by Google indicate that “Gemini” (Google’s latest artificial intelligence tool) was the second highest search term in all of India followed closely by “Indian Premier League” (IPL).
AI Takes the Lead with Google Gemini at #2
Within the AI-related category, Google Gemini was the number one searched word and included additional subsequent searches for the corresponding art, graphics and imagery created by “Gemini” respectively referred to as “Gemini Images”. In addition to “Gemini” and “Gemini Images”, other popular AI tools from this past year include Grok, Deep Seek, and Perplexity.
On the other hand, ChatGPT (known as the AI chatbot) did not place within the top 10 of all searches for 2025 in India.
What Drives the Surge: Image Trends, AI Creativity & Digital Culture
Gemini’s emergence is more than the advancement of traditional text-based AIs; it is creating a major interest in Creative digital art and Design (i.e., “Nano Banana”). Nano Banana describes how Gemini works in digital art creation and how it has generated enormous interest with the rise of 3D Edit and Art Transformation videos and images posted on social media.
Many individuals in India consider AI as a tool that helps them generate creative content and to experiment with artistic techniques and visual art.
The growing interest in Using AI tools (such as DeepSeek and Perplexity) for Research, Summarization, and Design, shows the increasing familiarity and acceptance of using multiple AIs for specific tasks.
From Buzz to Mainstream Integration
As search behaviour continues changing, people are starting to recognize that
Artificial Intelligence has gone from being just a little something that only techies played with, to becoming an incredible resource that will assist in all facets of life for students, creators, professionals, and regular people alike.
Over the past year, we’ve seen the explosion of image-based AI (Nano Banana, AI photo edits) as part of the overall blend of AI into social media, digital arts, and the Internet culture of India.
More users are using multiple tools (Gemini, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Grok, etc.), which is an entirely new trend that indicates that people have moved beyond relying solely on a single “default” AI, and now can select which tool they will utilize based upon the job or task they wish to complete.
The Road Ahead – India’s AI Journey
As a result of this increasing demand for AI systems that are creative, easy to use and able to support multiple languages in India, there is an increased opportunity to create models specifically designed for India or regions within India. An example of this developing trend is the growing popularity of independent research AI models developed around Indian languages (such as Krutrim LLM) and how these models are catering to the needs and wants of a geographically and linguistically diverse population.
In addition to regional and language options expanding AI hardware manufacturers, 2025 search trends will also likely have a significant influence on what generative AI capabilities that companies will release first. Companies will likely prioritise the creation of generative AIs that can generate both visual and text-based responses. Companies should be prepared for this changing trend that generates new ways of creating online content that are different from traditional SEO methods.
For content producers/marketers, AI tools designed to enhance search functionality will significantly impact how their use of search engines will evolve into the future. Also, using AI systems to create content will also create new possibilities for developing search strategies. Recent findings about generative AI-driven search methods indicate that content created with an AI system’s expectations will now be optimised for maximum visibility on search engines and thus allow new opportunities for companies operating with traditional SEO techniques.
