Google's Gemini artificial intelligence assistant has more than doubled its active user base across Southeast Asia over the past year, making the region the fastest-growing market for any Google application. The expansion reflects a strategic shift in how AI adoption happens in multilingual regions, where local language fluency and culturally relevant features matter more than raw computational power.

Why Is Southeast Asia Becoming Gemini's Fastest-Growing Market?

Southeast Asia's rapid Gemini adoption stems from three interconnected factors: a young, tech-savvy population with nearly 40 percent under age 25, strong performance in local languages, and seamless integration into daily mobile workflows. Malaysia alone saw Gemini users double in just a few months, making it one of the fastest-growing markets in the region.

The breakthrough came from Gemini's multilingual capabilities. Nearly 70 percent of prompts in Southeast Asia are submitted in native languages, led by Vietnam at 89 percent, Thailand at 87 percent, and Indonesia at 84 percent. According to the Southeast Asia Holistic Evaluation of Language Models (SEA-HELM) benchmark conducted by AI Singapore, Gemini is the overall best-performing large language model (LLM), a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data, for Southeast Asian languages.

"AI adoption happens when technology feels native, not translated. In a region as linguistically rich as Southeast Asia, models must understand local context deeply to be used effectively. Gemini's strong standing on our SEA-HELM evaluation framework demonstrates its ability to navigate the complex linguistic realities of the region," stated Dr. Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products at AI Singapore.

Dr. Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products, AI Singapore

How Are Southeast Asian Users Engaging With Gemini Differently?

The region's Gemini users are not simply asking text-based questions. Instead, they are leveraging multimodal features, meaning they interact through multiple input types simultaneously. Almost 3 in 4 Gemini requests come from mobile devices, and more than 40 percent of prompts use voice commands, photos, or video uploads rather than typing. Voice-only requests account for over 10 percent of all interactions.

This mobile-first, voice-heavy usage pattern reflects how younger users in the region prefer to interact with technology. Features like Gemini Live, which enables real-time conversation, allow users to translate street signs, troubleshoot home repairs, or analyze documents while on the move. The 32,000-token context window in Gemini Nano, Google's lightweight on-device AI model, enables the assistant to process roughly 100 screenshots or a month's worth of emails in a single pass.

What Creative and Practical Uses Are Driving Adoption?

Beyond productivity, Southeast Asian users are embracing Gemini for creative expression and research. About 40 percent of queries ask Gemini to generate entirely new outputs, including images, music, videos, and written documents. Users across the region have generated 5 billion images using Nano Banana, Google's image generation model, over the past year. They have also created almost 1 million songs since Lyria 3, Gemini's music generation model, launched in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia leads the region in AI image creation, with 1 in 5 Malaysians having asked Gemini to generate images, representing the highest proportion in Southeast Asia. This creative adoption reflects how Gemini fits into the region's multilingual culture. While English remains the preferred language for professional and productivity tasks, requests in Malay more than doubled in early 2026 compared to a year earlier, demonstrating how Malaysians naturally switch between English for work and Malay for creative expression.

Steps to Maximize Gemini's Capabilities in Southeast Asia

• Use Native Language Prompts: Gemini performs best when you submit requests in your local language, whether Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, or another Southeast Asian language, rather than defaulting to English.
• Leverage Multimodal Inputs: Instead of typing, use voice commands, upload photos, or record videos to interact with Gemini, which processes these inputs more naturally and requires less manual effort on mobile devices.
• Explore Creative Features: Take advantage of Nano Banana for image generation, Lyria 3 for music creation, and Canvas for collaborative document editing to extend Gemini beyond question-answering into creative and productive workflows.
• Try Gemini Spark for Automation: Access the new Gemini Spark agent, available to Google AI Ultra subscribers, which proactively manages tasks and completes real work on your behalf across Gmail, Docs, and Slides without requiring manual intervention.

What's Next for Gemini in Southeast Asia?

Google is rolling out Gemini Spark, a 24/7 personal AI agent designed to proactively manage tasks and help users navigate their digital lives. Spark is deeply integrated with Google Workspace tools like Gmail, Docs, and Slides and works in the background even when a laptop is closed or a phone is locked. The agent is currently available in English to Google AI Ultra subscribers and will roll out in all local Southeast Asian languages to Ultra subscribers starting this week.

Additionally, HOT 70 Series users can receive a three-month trial of Google AI Plus, which provides 2 terabytes of cloud storage and expanded access to tools including Gemini, Nano Banana 2, and NotebookLM to support writing, image creation, research, and study.

"We are so proud to see that Gemini has become the AI of choice for many users across Southeast Asia. What makes this region so remarkable is how naturally it has been woven into daily life. People aren't just adapting to Gemini, they are using it on their own terms, in modalities they prefer, in languages they speak, and in contexts unique to their lives," said Sapna Chadha, Vice President for Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier at Google.

Sapna Chadha, Vice President for Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier, Google

The expansion underscores a broader lesson about AI adoption in non-English-speaking regions: technology adoption accelerates when the product is built for local contexts, not retrofitted afterward. Gemini's success in Southeast Asia demonstrates that multilingual fluency, mobile-first design, and culturally relevant features are not nice-to-have additions but essential drivers of user growth in diverse markets.