For years, Google ads had a specific place: next to the results, above or beside the blue links. Now that place is moving inside the answer the AI writes for the person searching.
Google is bringing ads into AI Mode in ten new markets: Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. In the United States, meanwhile, multiturn ads have already started: ads that can also appear in follow-up questions, when the person keeps asking the AI.
The news is not only technical. It changes where advertising appears, and so it changes how we need to read the results.
What does not change
For advertisers, existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are already eligible. There is no need to create new ones, and no need to raise the budget.
There is no option to exclude AI Mode or AI Overviews. So switching off Performance Max to stay away from these surfaces is not a workable route: you would lose real traffic without any fine-grained control.
The usual tools still apply: negative keywords and brand exclusions. They are still needed, and they matter more now, because the space where ads can appear is widening.
What is changing
Performance Max and Search will be able to show ads inside AI answers, with no extra setup. The difference is context. An ad next to a list of links is read as one choice among alternatives. An ad inside a conversation arrives while the person is already asking for advice, and it is read as part of that answer.
This is why the multiturn format is interesting and at the same time delicate. If the follow-up question is "which one should I choose?", the ad can end up inside that choice. If the person is only exploring, the ad may feel out of place.
Google is also expanding Smart Bidding Exploration to Performance Max and Shopping. The system can then explore queries and placements beyond the exact matches of the keywords you chose. More freedom for the algorithm means more data to read, and more attention from us.
Finally, Google is testing a merging of sponsored and organic products inside AI Mode. The final format is not clear yet, but the direction is obvious: the line between ad and natural result is getting thinner.
The figure that explains the direction
Alphabet has explained that the lower monetisation of AI Mode is one of the reasons Search's growth has slowed. In the third quarter of 2026, the Search & Other line grew 12% year on year, to 63.35 billion dollars.
In plain terms: today Google earns less from AI answers than from traditional search. But that does not mean it will stop placing ads there. The challenge for them is to raise the value of those spaces, and the most direct way is to make ads more relevant and closer to the question.
For us, this means one simple thing: the pressure to understand the value of each click, and of each conversation, will not go down.
What I would do now
- Do not switch off campaigns out of fear of AI Mode. That surface cannot be excluded in a targeted way, and turning things off without a reason means losing results.
- Look after assets and feeds. Headlines, descriptions, images and Merchant Center matter more, because Google reuses them inside AI surfaces too. A messy feed or generic assets become one more problem.
- Look at queries, not only averages. Searches made with AI tend to be longer and more precise. Read the real search terms, campaign by campaign, and understand which questions bring real enquiries and which do not.
- Measure journeys, not only the click. A person can discover a business inside a conversation and come back to search for it a few days later. If you only look at the last click, you risk underestimating the work done.
- Prepare content that can be quoted. Clear pages, verifiable information and direct answers to customers' questions remain the starting point, both for SEO and for answers generated by AI.
For a local business
For a practice, a tradesperson or a small shop, the change is not dramatic. The underlying work is the same as always: understand who is searching for what, answer clearly, and be found at the right moment.
What changes is where it happens. Before, the choice happened in a list of links. Now it can happen inside a conversation, in a few messages. That is why the basic information (services, area, opening hours, how to get in touch) must be precise and easy to find, because that is what the AI will use to answer.
There is no need to chase every new feature. You need a solid base and to check the data regularly. The rest comes later.
If you want to understand how your campaign works in this scenario, get in touch.