Google is going hard on the future of ads. A good analysis from Matthias Ott:
Vidhya Srinivasan, VP of Google Ads, put it plainly: “The best ads must be answers.” Ads are already running inside AI Mode. They’re not banners next to the output. They’re generated by Gemini to read as part of the conversation. And advertisers who want to appear in the new AI search? They must hand over creative and targeting control to Google’s system. “You can’t choose keywords anymore,” Srinivasan said. [...] When you search for a product, Gemini writes a custom explainer for the advertiser, framed as objective advice about why this product “may be the right choice for you.”
# May 22, 2026