KUCHING: Malaysians are using Gemini for far more than simple searches, increasingly relying on the artificial intelligence assistant for work, creative projects and everyday learning.
The Gemini Report Southeast Asia 2026 found that Malaylanguage prompts in Malaysia more than doubled in March 2026 compared with a year earlier, although English remained the primary language overall.
Users generally turned to Malay for creative work and academic tasks, while English remained the preferred choice for professional work and coding.
The report said Malaysians were increasingly moving between both languages depending on the situation, reflecting the country’s bilingual working and learning environment.
One of the fastest-growing uses was image generation.
One in five Malaysian users asked Gemini to create images, the highest share recorded among Southeast Asian markets. According to the report, demand accelerated following the launch of Nano Banana in August 2025.
It cited a marketing coordinator in George Town who planned a “Modern-Peranakan” campaign by brainstorming cultural references in Malay before switching to English to generate visuals.
The report said Malaysia’s experience mirrored wider regional growth.
Across Southeast Asia, Gemini’s user base more than doubled over the past year, making it Google’s fastest-growing major application in the region.
Globally, monthly users exceeded 900 million in April 2026. People were also spending more time with the application.
By March 2026, users were returning on 50 per cent more days than in August 2025, while prompts per user more than doubled and conversations became 13 per cent longer.
Weekdays were dominated by productivity tasks, with professional prompts increasing 30 per cent.
Users commonly sought help refining resumes, planning campaigns, improving emails, organising meetings, conducting research, understanding technical concepts and debugging code.
Weekend activity shifted towards leisure, with casual and creative prompts rising 12 per cent for travel planning, recipes, home decoration and songwriting.
The report also featured a food delivery rider in Kuching who used Gemini to improve his English while preparing for a future career as a tour guide.
The study analysed aggregated prompts submitted through Gemini’s web and mobile applications during the first quarter of 2026.
It covered Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, excluding Gemini usage through Google Search and Workspace.
