Google has said it will be showing ads to users directly within AI Mode in Search, less than a week after expanding access to the new search experience to everyone in the US.
The tech giant also announced it is expanding ads to desktop users of AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries of search results that appears at the top of Google Search.
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While some users had previously spotted ads being shown in both AI Mode and AI Overviews, Google officially confirmed the rollout at its Marketing Live 2025 event, which was held a day after the opening keynote at the company’s annual I/O developer conference.
“Google internal data shows that people have been finding the ads within AI Overviews helpful because they can quickly connect with relevant businesses, products and services to take the next step at the exact moment they need them,” the company said in a search document.
At Google Marketing Live, the Alphabet-owned company showcased new AI-powered solutions for advertisers as well as the latest advertising features it was working on.
Search and advertising are Google’s core businesses. The company reported $66.89 billion in ad revenue in Q1 2025 alone. With AI Mode billed to be the future of Google Search, it is not surprising that the company is looking to monetise it with ads.
Google’s competitors in the AI race such as Perplexity, OpenAI, and Microsoft have either experimented or are looking to experiment with ads in their respective AI products. Meanwhile, publishers and content creators have argued that Google’s pivot towards AI-powered search results could eat into their traffic and threaten ad revenue.
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These developments come amid two prominent antitrust challenges in the US, where the company has been found guilty of illegally monopolising the online search and advertising markets. Following these landmark antitrust verdicts, Google now has to face the possibility of its search and advertising businesses getting broken up – outcomes that have been pursued by the US government.
Where will the ads appear?
In AI Mode, the ads are likely to appear “where relevant” below and “integrated into” the AI-generated responses. AI Mode lets users ask a question and receive an AI-generated response with the relevant information and links to websites. Users also have the ability to go deeper by asking follow-up questions.
AI Mode is different from AI Overviews, which is an existing feature in Google Search that shows users AI-generated summaries of search results. While AI Overviews is a block of text that sits on top of the traditional Google search web pages with blue links, clicking the AI Mode tab will take users to an entirely different section where the search experience is end-to-end.
In AI Overviews, ads are inserted into the AI-generated summaries “when relevant to both the query and the response provided.” They are likely to be labelled as sponsored, according to Google.
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Other announcements at Google Marketing Live 2025
Google said that its most advanced image and video generation models, Imagen 4 and Veo 3, will be available within Google Ads and Merchant Center “so that marketers can easily build campaigns and watch their creative vision come instantly to life.”
The company also announced it is upgrading AI Max for Search campaigns with Smart Bidding Exploration. This feature lets advertisers show their ads in potentially high-performing search results. Furthermore, Google said it is giving advertisers access to new agentic AI capabilities.
