Google introduces Gemini 3 as AI adoption accelerates in South Africa

The newly released Gemini 3 model will be integrated into Google products used across South Africa, bringing expanded reasoning and agent-based capabilities. The launch aligns with rising local demand for AI skills, tools and workplace applications. 

Google has released Gemini 3, the latest version of its foundation AI model, and confirmed its rollout across products used in South Africa. The company says the model was designed to support more advanced reasoning and agent-style task execution, enabling users to interact with Google services in new ways.

According to Kabelo Makwane, Google South Africa’s Country Director, the introduction of Gemini 3 reflects the company’s broader intention to make advanced AI accessible in the country and relevant to economic activity. He notes that local interest in AI education and employment has grown noticeably, with Google Search trends showing year-on-year increases in queries such as “AI jobs” and “AI course.”

Gemini 3 includes the Gemini 3 Pro model, which has demonstrated strong performance on academic and industry benchmarks across scientific reasoning, multimodal understanding and problem-solving. These capabilities will gradually appear in Google tools such as Search, where the company plans to introduce more interactive and task-oriented experiences.

One example is AI Mode in Search, which can build customised visual explanations, comparisons or calculators in response to user queries. The approach is intended to shift search from static information retrieval to adaptive problem-solving based on context.

Google says the introduction of Gemini 3 in South Africa will continue over the coming months, with additional updates expected as the company evaluates regional use cases across education, business and digital services.