Google for India 2023: AI-Powered Search Becomes More Visual and Local, New Services on Google Pay

Google rolled out its search generative experience (SGE) in India in August, bringing AI-generated responses and summaries to queries on its popular search engine. Generative AI search promised to provide more effective and engaging results and in-depth overviews. Now, the tech giant is rolling out improvements to its AI search tool in India. Google is making search generative experience in India more visual and localised for better results. The company announced the updates coming to its AI search in the country at its Google for India 2023 event held Thursday.

In its blog detailing new product experiences announced at the event, Google said it was adding new capabilities to SGE in India that make its AI-generated information preview more useful and easier to understand. SGE, Google said, will now be richer and more visual, adding more images and videos to some of its overviews.

“For example, when you search for something like, “what are the various ways to drape a saree?” you'll be able to reference a more visual and easy-to-follow AI-powered overview with images and videos of multiple types of drapes,” Google explained in the blog.

Generative AI search is also becoming more localised, providing users location-specific responses. Users could find out what a city has to offer, explore things to do around them via SGE, which will now incorporate user reviews of places to provide better information.

Additionally, Google is also simplifying access to information on government schemes. In the coming weeks, SGE will help Indian users to easily navigate and find important information on over 100 government schemes in areas of healthcare, housing, employment, women's welfare, farming, and more. All of this and everything else on SGE will be available in both Hindi and English languages.

Google is also expanding the capabilities of Google Lens, now allowing people to search for skin conditions visually similar to what they observe on their skin. Users can take a picture of their skin condition via Google Lens and get visual matches for information on it.

The company also announced new Google Pay services for both merchants and consumers. Google's popular digital payments app is tying up with ePayLater to enable a credit line for merchants. It is also bringing sachet loans starting as low as start as low as Rs. 15,000 in partnership with DMI Finance. On the consumer side, Axis Bank is making its personal loans available on Google Pay, with more banks to follow. Users can now also avail credit lines from banks on UPI for payments via Google Pay, similar to a UPI payment.

Google is also bringing improvements to the shopping experience on its site, making it easier to find products and expanding discovery for small businesses. “Starting today, if you search for something like “Best phone under Rs. 15,000” on Google Search, you'll now see a more visual feed of products to explore, with filters to help shoppers quickly and easily find the products they are looking for,” Google said on its blog.

YouTube, too, is getting new updates. The site will roll out an immersive watch page for news, which will pull content from credible sources. This feature will arrive in 11 Indian languages, starting Q4 2023.