Google has expanded its AI Overviews and AI Mode search tools to support 13 African languages in addition to English.
The newly supported languages are Afrikaans (South Africa), Akan (Ghana), Amharic (Ethiopia), Hausa (Nigeria), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Afaan Oromoo (Ethiopia), Somali (Somalia, Kenya), Sesotho (Lesotho, South Africa), Kiswahili (Kenya, Tanzania), Setswana (Botswana, South Africa), Wolof (Senegal), Yorùbá (Nigeria), and isiZulu (South Africa). The languages were chosen according to current user search activity.
The update builds on Google’s ongoing investment in responsible AI for Search, following last year’s global rollout of AI Overviews and the introduction of AI Mode – a new way for people to explore topics in depth directly within Search.
With AI Overviews, users get a concise, AI-generated summary of their search, paired with reliable links for deeper exploration. AI Mode expands on this by letting them continue the interaction – through text, voice, or image sharing, so they can receive more detailed, personalised responses.
“When technology only speaks a dominant international language like English, it marginalises millions of people whose first languages reflect a different culture, identity, and way of understanding information,” says Kabelo Makwane, country director for Google South Africa.
“Africans are building, creating, and innovating in every field, yet much of today’s technology doesn’t speak their language. By adding more 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.”
The expansion draws on insights from Google’s Waxal language project, an initiative that combines machine learning, linguistic research and community collaboration to improve how AI tools understand and generate African languages.
The project’s name, Waxal, means “to speak” in Wolof, reflecting its goal to make digital communication more inclusive and locally relevant.
Together, these updates reflect Google’s long-term commitment to building African-language AI capabilities that are both technically advanced and culturally grounded.
Expanding AI Overviews and AI Mode into additional languages widely spoken in sub-Saharan Africa marks the next phase of this work. It enables students, teachers, translators, entrepreneurs and everyday users to move beyond simply hearing about AI to actively applying it to address real challenges in their communities.
The 13 languages were selected based on strong and growing Search usage across the continent. This ensures that the first wave of local-language AI experiences reaches large, active communities in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Botswana, Senegal and Somalia.
“No one should be excluded from the AI economy because their first language isn’t English,” says Makwane. “When Africans can search, learn and build in their own languages, AI becomes a driver of inclusive growth.”