AI search is global. User intent is not.

When people search now, they ask questions directly to AI systems and get instant answers. AI search engines and LLM-powered answer tools and summaries are the gateways to your brand. That is happening worldwide.

Google’s AI Overviews are available in more than 200 countries and 40 languages. China’s Baidu has Smart Answers,  The South Korean Naver has AI Briefings. When someone searches for your company, brand or product in any language they no longer rely on traditional, legacy, ten blue links results.

Here’s the clincher. Languages are structured differently, people think, search, and make decisions differently depending on their linguistic and cultural patterns. The queries and conversations people are having with AI systems in a different country are not a translation of the one you are having with the AI system in your country.

How Languages Shape Search Behaviour

Languages and different cultural communication styles can be implicit vs explicit, or direct vs contextual. They are packed with cultural nuances and values; on prestige, practicality, trust, originality, and authority.

In searching for a luxury watch. a British person may look for the value and compare for investments using searches like “Best luxury watches for investment 2025” or “Where can I buy a Nautilus in Milan without a waitlist”? An Italian may search based on quality, heritage, aesthetics, or prestige. They may tend to use a search like “What’s the best elegant men’s watch for an important gift” or “where to find an authentic luxury handmade watch.” Someone in China considers trust, status so they search for “Where is the most trustworthy place to buy Patek”? Japanese are polite, nuanced, and want details. Their search might be “Recommendations for luxury watches built to last.”

How People in Different Countries Search and How AI Changes How Queries are Interpreted

People generally search in their native language. They prefer to buy in their native language.

AI results are mostly extracted from the language you query in, unless you specifically ask to query in another language. So, in short, it’s a good idea and makes good business sense to create content for your overseas clients in their native

language and adapt it to their culture and search intents.  AI doesn’t just translate queries; it interprets our intent, which differs by language.

For example:

• In Britain, search intent is compare, decide, act, so AI’s interpretation is to give options, pros, and cons.
• In Italy, search intent is understand, beauty, value so AI gives more of narrative and emotional cues.
• In China, search intent is avoid risk, trust, verification so AI provides authenticity and rankings.
• In Japan, the search intent is to learn and get the details so AI’s interpretation gives spec-heavy reliable info.
• In France, it may interpret the critical evaluation intent as a need for expert commentary.

Even follow-up questions differ. “Is it a good investment”? (UK.) “Is it good for an important occasion”? (Italy), “How can i verify it’s authentic”? (China.) “What are the long-term maintenance costs”? (Japan.)

So two conversations or queries, looking for the same luxury watch, may have similar meanings, but they may end up taking two very different conversational directions. So, therefore provide different search results and AI summaries, references, and citations.

AI answers differently because the conversation patterns are different.

Multilingual content for global companies, therefore, cannot be linear translation to optimize for Generative Search and AI Interactions.

What Should Companies Do to Improve Their AI Summary Results and GSO

Content creators, copywriters, and marketers need to be aware that cultural differences and diverse user intent clusters exist in different countries. Website content should be localized structurally and not just linguistically. Multilingual content strategies need to follow cultural search logic. You need to optimize contents to reflect the cognitive patterns, cultural values, and communication styles of the country or area you advertise or sell your products for AI brand visibility. They need to have local human validators that speak their language and the local culture.

Multimarket Content Checklist

For new content or to re-optimize existing content across countries & languages:

1. Understand the Culture of each Market (direct, indirect, high-context, low-context)
2. Define the search intent for each Market (informational, transactional, trust-based, comparative)
3. Check the Cultural Content Drivers (value, storytelling, trust, status, risk, reliability, price, quality)
4. Adapt the structure to local reading habits (sentence structure, style, length, headings)
5. Research Search Behavior (local queries, patterns, real questions)
6. Localize Trust Signals (reviews, heritage, guarantee)
7. Localize CTAs (direct, social-proof, soft)
8. Optimize the Metadata for each Market (adapt, don’t translate, match style, search intent)
9. Check for quality and Consistency (terminology, brand message, feel native, feel local)

As AI takes over the front door to global search and flattens a lot of the world’s content, it’s time to go past legacy SEO thinking. It’s time to go past translation and go for a genuine, culturally aware conversation with your international customers and potential customers.

Cross-cultural understanding mixed with a multimarket content strategy and a bit of AI search preparation and know-how can help you speak to people the way they think. It’s a great opportunity to cut through the noise for better search visibility and build deeper trust with your international customers for sustainable global growth.