Browse the Web or Chat With Alice AI? Yandex Search Now Lets You Do Both at Once
Users of Yandex Search now have access to a conversational mode with Alice AI directly in the search bar. Within a single interface, they can talk to a neural network while simultaneously searching the web for links, products, images, and more.
The update is designed to make everyday tasks easier. In practice, users can handle a wide range of queries in one place – from checking facts, addresses, and dates to discussing complex ideas, including philosophical concepts, with an AI system.
A Shift Toward Context-Aware AI
A full conversational mode with Alice AI allows users to switch seamlessly between traditional search results and an ongoing dialogue. A user can ask follow-up questions, generate content, or upload a file and then return to the same conversation without losing context. To start interacting with the AI, users simply click the “Alice AI” tab below the search bar. The assistant runs on the company’s most advanced language model, Alice AI LLM, built with hundreds of billions of parameters. It generates detailed responses while taking into account local context and Russian cultural nuances.
User-Friendly Design Drives Adoption
Users can refine prompts, upload files or images, and interact with the system in multiple ways. The interface is intentionally simple and accessible, while conversation history is saved, allowing users to revisit past exchanges at any time. According to Yandex, the share of queries receiving fast, meaningful responses has increased by 1.5 times with the new assistant. In blind comparisons, the updated version outperforms the previous one in 67% of cases, indicating higher response quality. Another practical feature is source transparency – answers include links to original materials, making it easy to verify information.
A full conversational mode with Alice AI provides a direct path to fast, relevant answers, deeper discussion, and quick clarification. The service is expected to see strong adoption in education, everyday problem-solving, shopping decisions, and travel planning.
Fast Answers With Built-In Verification
A key advantage of Yandex’s approach is the ability to verify responses by following links to primary sources. This is more than a UI update. Yandex is combining two distinct user flows – traditional search and generative AI dialogue – into a single experience. Similar approaches are emerging globally, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search and Google’s AI Mode, placing Yandex within a broader industry trend. For Russia’s IT sector, this marks a shift: generative AI is moving from a standalone product into the core of a wide-sweeping internet service.
The company is betting on local context, the Russian language, and cultural alignment as competitive advantages. The update signals that search is becoming a primary platform for monetizing large language models in Russia. These capabilities strengthen Yandex’s position in the mass AI segment and help Russian developers build their own technology stack, reducing reliance on foreign software.
Developing and deploying projects like this also has broader national implications. They support the growth of the IT sector and encourage the creation of digital use cases in the Russian language.
