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Ask a Techspert: How does AI understand my visual searches?
Mar 05, 2026
Visual search has improved leaps and bounds — look no further than recent updates to Google Search. Here, a Google expert explains this progress and what technique we’ve used to make it happen.
General summary
Google Search can now understand your visual searches better than before. The updated Circle to Search and Lens let you search multiple objects within a single image. Use this feature to identify every component of an outfit or items in a room.
Basic explainer
Google made visual search way better with AI. Now, when you search a picture, AI can find all the different things in it at once. It's like the AI is doing a bunch of searches for you super fast. This helps you find exactly what you want and learn more about the world around you.
General summary
Basic explainer
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We’ve all been there: You see a photo of a perfectly styled living room or a well-curated street-style outfit, and you want to know where everything came from. Until recently, visual search was a one-item-at-a-time process. But a major update to Circle to Search and Lens now allows Google to break down and search for multiple objects within a single image simultaneously. This means if you use Circle to Search on Android to search for an entire outfit, you’ll see results for every component of a look, not just one piece at a time. In recent months, we’ve also launched several updates that enhance both visual search and image results in AI Mode, so you can better find inspiration as you search.
To better understand these breakthroughs, we talked to Search Senior Engineering Director Dounia Berrada.
What part of Search do you work on?
I focus on multimodal search, aka Google Lens — essentially, enabling Google to help with your most complex questions about images, PDFs and anything you see. Visual search is redefining how we interact with information; Lens should be intelligent enough to understand the "why" behind your search, making it effortless to get help with what you see on your screen, or in the world around you. That means building a tool that can just as easily explain a complex math problem as it can identify a rare succulent or help you track down a pair of shoes you love.
How does it do that?
Imagine you’re redesigning a room so you upload a photo of a mid-century modern space for inspiration. You probably aren’t just looking for the side table; you want to recreate the entire vibe. Previously, you’d have to search for the lamp, then the rug, then the chair individually. Now, AI Mode can break down that complex image, identify each individual piece and issue multiple visual searches simultaneously. You can see this in action right now using Circle to Search.