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What is Google Gemini, and do customers use it to find businesses?

Ascent Vision · Published October 15, 2026

Gemini is Google's AI assistant, first launched as Bard in March 2023 and renamed Gemini in February 2024. Google describes it as an interface to a large language model that can draw on outside sources such as Google Search when it writes an answer. About a quarter of U.S. adults say they use it, according to Pew Research Center, so some customers may ask it who to hire.

What Google says Gemini is

Google's own overview of the Gemini app calls it "an interface to a multimodal LLM", meaning a large language model that handles text, audio, images and more. Google says it first launched it, then called Bard, as an experiment in March 2023.

In a post dated February 8, 2024, Google announced that "Bard will now simply be known as Gemini" and began rolling out a mobile app. Google's Gemini site also lists Gemini inside other Google products in some plans, such as Gmail, Docs and Chrome.

How it answers a question

According to Google's overview, when Gemini writes a response it "relies on external sources such as Google Search", along with its extensions. Google's help page on Connected Apps says Gemini automatically uses public information from certain Google services, including Google Search and Google Maps.

The Gemini app is separate from the AI Overviews and AI Mode that appear inside Google Search; the related answer on AI Overviews and AI Mode covers those.

Do customers use it to find businesses?

It can be used that way, but no survey cited here measures how many people do. In Pew Research Center's survey of 5,119 U.S. adults, conducted February 17 to 23, 2026, 24% said they use Gemini, making it the second most used chatbot Pew asked about, after ChatGPT at 44%. Pew did not report what people ask it, so the survey does not show how many use it to find a local business.

The simplest way to learn whether your own customers use it is to ask every new inquiry how they found you, and record "AI answer" as the source when an assistant was involved.

It can get details wrong

Google is open about this. Its overview says Gemini's responses "might be inaccurate, especially when it’s asked about complex or factual topics". Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub also notes that it can produce inaccurate information, including about people. The related answer on whether AI assistants get facts wrong explains why that is worth checking.

What it means for a business

Treat Gemini as one more place a customer may ask about you, alongside Google search, other assistants, referrals and reviews. Because it can draw on Google Search, a website that states plainly what you do, where and for whom is a sensible start.

To see what it says about you, include Gemini in the monthly check set out in the related answer on checking what assistants say about your business. No one can promise that Gemini, or any assistant, will recommend a particular business.

Sources

1. Google, "What is Gemini and how it works" (Gemini app overview)
2. Google, Sissie Hsiao, "Bard becomes Gemini: Try Ultra 1.0 and a new mobile app today" (February 8, 2024)
3. Google, "Gemini – Your AI assistant from Google" (Gemini site)
4. Google, "Use & manage Connected Apps in Gemini", Gemini Apps Help
5. Google, "Gemini Apps Privacy Hub", Gemini Apps Help
6. Pew Research Center, "Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact" (June 17, 2026)

Related answers

• How do you check what ChatGPT says about your business?
• What are Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode?
• Do AI assistants get facts about businesses wrong?