The company made the announcement on Thursday, describing the new system as a big step forward from Gemini 3, which it introduced in November 2025. It is already rolling out the preview across consumer, developer and enterprise products.

In a statement, Google said: “Last week, we released a major update to Gemini 3 Deep Think to solve modern challenges across science, research and engineering. 

“Today, we’re releasing the upgraded core intelligence that makes those breakthroughs possible: Gemini 3.1 Pro. We are shipping 3.1 Pro across our consumer and developer products to bring this progress in intelligence to your everyday applications.”

Developers can now access Gemini 3.1 Pro in preview through the Gemini API in Google AI Studio, Gemini CLI, Google Antigravity and Android Studio.

Enterprise customers can use it in Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise. Consumers are getting it through the Gemini app and NotebookLM.

Google says the new model improves core reasoning. It reports that Gemini 3.1 Pro scored 77.1 per cent on ARC-AGI-2, a benchmark designed to test how well a system can solve entirely new logic patterns. According to the company, that score is more than double the reasoning performance of Gemini 3 Pro.

On another benchmark known as Humanity’s Last Exam, Google says Gemini 3.1 Pro outperformed Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.2. Independent testing platform APEX-Agents also ranked the model first for professional task performance.

Brendan Foody, chief executive of Mercor, which runs the APEX system, wrote on social media: “Gemini 3.1 Pro is now at the top of the APEX-Agents leaderboard,” adding that the model’s results show “how quickly agents are improving at real knowledge work.”

Google describes Gemini 3.1 Pro as a stronger base for complex problem-solving. It says the system can support tasks that require detailed reasoning, data synthesis and multi-step workflows.

The company appears to be focusing on tools that go beyond simple text generation and can handle layered instructions.

The update comes just three months after the release of Gemini 3. In that same period, competitors including OpenAI and Anthropic have also introduced new models, intensifying competition among large technology firms.

Google DeepMind has published a model card for Gemini 3.1 Pro outlining its intended uses, limits and safety measures.

The company says the model is natively multimodal, meaning it can process text, images and other forms of input. While that expands its use cases, it also leads to safety and content moderation questions.

For now, Google says the preview will allow it to test improvements further before a general release. Higher usage limits are being introduced for users on the Google AI Pro and Ultra plans, while NotebookLM access is limited to those subscribers.

The company ended its announcement with a brief note to users: “We can’t wait to see what you build and discover with it.”

Less visible are the strategists who determine how those breakthroughs become products that millions of people can actually use.

Taslim Okunola is one of those strategists.

At Google, where the competition to lead the next phase of artificial intelligence has intensified, Okunola works as a Global Strategy and Operations Manager, helping design the operational systems behind some of the company’s most ambitious AI offerings.

From the San Francisco Bay Area, he works on the frameworks that support subscription-based services connected to Google’s Gemini ecosystem, helping shape how advanced AI capabilities are packaged, priced and delivered to global users.

“The real challenge in technology isn’t only building powerful tools. It’s figuring out how those tools become sustainable products that people can rely on every day,” Okunola said.

His journey to Silicon Valley began at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, known widely as FUTA, where he studied Agricultural Technology.

The degree focused heavily on agricultural and resource economics, a field centred on efficiency, incentives and large-scale systems.

Those principles, he says, turned out to be unexpectedly relevant in the technology industry.

“Economics trains you to think about concepts like scale of preference and opportunity costs. When you’re working on global technology platforms, you’re constantly making trade-offs about resources, priorities and scale,” he said.

Okunola entered the technology sector through digital marketing, beginning his career as an intern in Nigeria during a period when Africa’s digital economy was expanding rapidly. Smartphones were spreading quickly, internet access was improving, and global technology companies were beginning to tailor their products to emerging markets.

When he joined Google, he found himself working on exactly that challenge.

As Product Marketing Manager for Consumer Apps in Sub-Saharan Africa, Okunola helped shape how millions of people across the region interacted with Google’s products.

His work included helping introduce Nigerian English voice recognition for Google Assistant and supporting localisation efforts across tools like Google Maps.

For Okunola, those projects were about more than technology.

“If a product doesn’t feel familiar, people don’t trust it,” he said. “Localisation is not just translation. It’s understanding how people actually live and making the technology they use in their everyday routines relatable.”

The experience gave him an unusual vantage point within the company, balancing global technology strategy with the realities of emerging markets.

It also sharpened his ability to operate in environments where uncertainty is common and systems must be built quickly.

Today, those skills are being applied to one of the most consequential shifts in the modern technology industry: the rise of artificial intelligence.

Across Silicon Valley, companies are racing to embed AI into everything from search engines and productivity software to mobile operating systems.

Yet building sophisticated models is only part of the challenge. Transforming those models into reliable businesses requires operational structure, including pricing strategies, marketing coordination, resource planning and global distribution.

That is where Okunola’s work comes in.

He helps design the operational architecture behind Google’s AI subscriptions, including bundled services such as Gemini and NotebookLM.

These frameworks guide how AI features are introduced to users, how marketing teams coordinate across regions and how resources are allocated across enormous global portfolios.

“In large organisations, innovation can slow down if the structure isn’t clear,” Okunola said. “Our job is to create systems that allow teams to move quickly without losing alignment,” he added.

Much of that work happens behind the scenes. Okunola helps coordinate business planning for portfolios tied to billions of dollars in spending and contributes to marketing structures involving hundreds of employees.

The role is essentially strategy execution at scale, making sure product ambition translates into real user growth and sustainable revenue.

Earlier in his career, Okunola demonstrated a similar focus on efficiency and structure. He has led annual planning processes for Google’s Platforms and Ecosystems Marketing group, which includes major products such as Android, Chrome, Google Photos and Google TV, helping determine where investments would have the greatest impact.

His career also reflects a broader trend shaping the global technology workforce. Increasingly, professionals from emerging markets are influencing how the world’s largest digital platforms operate.

Over the past decade, Okunola’s work has spanned Africa, North America and Europe, giving him insight into how technology products evolve across different economic environments and cultural contexts.

That perspective may become even more important as artificial intelligence becomes embedded in everyday digital life.

AI may be developed in specialised research labs, but its success ultimately depends on how effectively it reaches people across languages, cultures and markets.

From the lecture halls of FUTA to strategy meetings in Silicon Valley, Taslim Okunola has built a career around that challenge by designing the operational blueprints that turn powerful technologies into tools used by millions.

The company is making advanced AI tools more accessible in markets where high subscription costs have limited adoption.

The Plus plan, priced at roughly $5 per month in most regions, offers a six-month, 50% discount in selected countries like Nepal and Mexico. It grants users access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, a multimodal AI capable of generating images and videos, alongside integrated productivity features in Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. 

Subscribers also get 200GB of cloud storage and enhanced capabilities within Google’s AI research assistant, NotebookLM, which now supports long-context document analysis, a feature particularly useful for students, researchers, and journalists.

Tools like Flow, Whisk, and Veo 3 Fast are also included. They allow fast creation of animations, visual content, and video assets, directly appealing to the creator economy in regions where mobile-first usage dominates.

The launch comes a day after OpenAI expanded its ChatGPT Go plan to Indonesia, a sub-$5 subscription tier that grants access to GPT-4-turbo but lacks the integrated productivity tools and cloud storage of Google’s Plus tier. 

Analysts see these pricing strategies as a transition from competing on raw AI model power to offering complete ecosystems that integrate seamlessly into daily workflows.

Usage of AI tools in Africa has surged by 240% since 2023, with Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt leading growth, according to Statista and GSMA. Southeast Asia is witnessing similar trends, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, where freelancers and small businesses increasingly adopt AI-powered productivity tools.

India, despite being a top AI market where OpenAI debuted ChatGPT Go, is missing from Google’s rollout. Experts say this may relate to ongoing adjustments in pricing and compliance strategies to address data localisation and regulatory challenges.

Google is making AI affordable without sacrificing utility, especially in emerging markets where a $20 subscription is usually prohibitive. For users in Nigeria and similar economies, the new Google AI Plus plan could be a game-changer.

• NotebookLM now supports Google Slides and web URLs as sources, along with Google Docs, PDFs and text files. 
• Inline citations now take you directly to supporting passages in your sources, so you can easily fact-check the AI response or dive deeper in the original text. 
• Notebook Guide gives you a high-level understanding of your sources by converting them into useful formats like FAQs, Briefing Docs, or Study Guides. 

Last summer, Google introduced NotebookLM, an AI-powered research and writing assistant.

Today, the global tech giant has released an upgraded version of NotebookLM — now using Gemini 1.5 Pro — to over 200 countries and territories around the world.

The Next Chapter of Our Gemini Era | by Sundar Pichai

Commenting, Steven Johnson, editorial director, Google Labs & Raiza Martin, Product Manager, Google Labs, said that the goal from the beginning with NotebookLM has been to create a tool to help you understand and explore complex material, make new connections from information, and get to your first draft faster.

“You can upload sources — your research notes, interview transcripts, corporate documents — and instantly NotebookLM becomes an expert in the material that matters most to you”.

“Thanks to Gemini 1.5 Pro’s native multimodal capabilities, you can now ask questions about images, charts and diagrams in your Slides or Docs. NotebookLM will even include citations to images as supporting evidence when relevant”, Johnson said.

Case studies from real users

Johnson said the team has been amazed by the range of uses that people are finding for NotebookLM.

“Because NotebookLM was developed in close partnership with authors, students, and educators, we’ve seen many early adopters integrate the product into research and writing workflows. Best-selling author Walter Isaacson has been working with NotebookLM to analyze Marie Curie’s journals for research on his next book. We’ve seen similar enthusiasm from documentary and podcast researchers who need to sift through complex archives to generate scripts or story ideas”.

But the combination of Gemini 1.5 Pro’s advanced reasoning abilities and NotebookLM’s source-grounding architecture has unlocked many other potential applications:

• In local governance, Thomas Gaume created a hyperlocal newsletter, aggregating city ordinances, land use data, zoning codes, and council meeting minutes. NotebookLM empowered him to be a “one-person newsroom and publisher.”
• NotebookLM’s ability to summarize and adapt interview transcripts is helping users identify patterns and themes in raw transcripts, saving hours of manual analysis. For example, consultant Victor Adefuye uses NotebookLM to analyze sales call transcripts for targeted training and coaching.
• Nonprofits have deployed NotebookLM to help them identify needs in underserved communities and organize information for grant proposals.

“We’ve also noticed some less than expected and playful use cases with the help of our 14,000 member Discord community, including:

• Role-playing game enthusiasts use NotebookLM to manage detailed descriptions of fantasy worlds in games like Dungeons and Dragons”, Martin said.

Getting started

If you’re new to NotebookLM, getting started is easy:

When you first access NotebookLM, you’ll create a notebook and upload documents for a specific project or deliverable.

At that point you can read, take notes, ask questions, organize your ideas, or ask NotebookLM to create automatic overviews of all your sources—a study guide, for example, or a table of contents.

Whether it’s being used to build imaginary worlds, write bestselling biographies, or help salespeople find new customers, NotebookLM has given Nigerian users powerful tools for making connections and generating insights out of large collections of documents.