Advertising is beginning to show its hoof in AI (but it still walks on eggshells)

AI is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in search results and the growing popularity of this formula inevitably puts on the table the question of how to monetize a format that reaches the eyes of millions of people around the world every day. However, The marriage of AI with advertising entails many difficulties because it is necessary to amalgamate quickly conflicting objectives.: responses that pride themselves on being as exhaustive as they are neutral and messages full of commercial interests.

While aware of the complexity of interweaving advertising in search results generated with AI, Google began displaying ads in its controversial AI Overviews in October last yearinitially only on mobile devices, and later, in May 2025, also on desktop devices. Soon this service will also debut in non-English speaking markets.

Besides, Last May Google launched “AI Mode”a new “search” experience that allows the user to undertake more complex queries, and advertising has also begun to show its hoof in this formatwhich has just made its debut in our country.

In “AI Mode” the ads make their way inside and below the answers provided to the questions raised by the user. Still, it seems that Advertisers are even more skeptical about advertising in “AI Mode” because they fear that their “brand safety” could eventually backfire by linking ads to potentially erroneous answers.

Google is being very cautious when it comes to integrating ads into AI

Maybe for this reason Google is being extremely cautious about integrating advertising into AI-generated search results. And for now, it is the company’s own algorithms that decide whether or not a particular ad fits thematically into an “AI Overview” (so advertisers do not yet have the possibility of placing targeted advertising there). This prevents ads from being inconsistent with the answers provided by the AI ​​(or contradicting them even in the worst case). In Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, on the other hand, the campaigns search for placement automatically.

For campaigns that find accommodation in its search engine, Google has had the AI ​​Max automation-focused functionality in beta since May of this year. This feature expands the range of keywords and automatically creates headlines and ad copy (to make them more accurate). AI Max doesn’t just link ads to particularly relevant search results, it also predicts what the user will need next after making a query (even when the query involves great complexity). According to Google, AI Max can increase conversions from campaigns that make their way into its search engine by 14%.

OpenAI is not averse to advertising, but it has not yet integrated it directly into any of its products

If we look at Google’s rivals in the AI ​​arena, OpenAI has not yet thrown itself into the arms of publicity (although it clearly has eyes on it). Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, said a couple of months ago in an interview with The Vergethat advertising could be a reality in this tool in the future. Turley wanted, however, to emphasize that The company would be very cautious when it comes to embracing advertising, since ChatGPT’s main strength is its ability to entertain the user with direct answers to their questions without intermediaries of any kind.. And that is mainly the reason why ChatGPT’s business model remains anchored in subscriptions today.

However, and beyond pure and simple advertising (in its most conventional format), ChatGPTwhich has more than 700 million weekly users worldwide, You could opt for an intermediate formula and charge a commission to advertisers if the famous chatbot recommends your products. OpenAI is already experimenting, in fact, with this formula with several retailers.

For its part, The AI-powered search engine Perplexity sank its teeth into advertising in November last year across the seas. The American startup’s search engine currently has 22 million monthly users on its side and the ads that make their way there find accommodation in the follow-up questions that appear below the answers to the questions initially posed by the user. And if Perplexity receives, for example, a query related to the best refrigerators on the market, a follow-up question (of a sponsored nature) could be generated in which the different refrigerator models of a particular brand are broken down. Advertisers who opt for this advertising format must take into consideration, however, that the responses made there will invariably carry the Perplexity signature (and will therefore not be able to impose specific texts).

Brands such as the Whole Foods supermarket chain and the Indeed job portal are already betting on advertising in Perplexity’s follow-up questions.. Beyond follow-up questions, Perplexity also includes product ads in queries directly related to purchases and such users redirect the user directly to the advertiser’s online store with a single click.

Despite Perplexity’s early commitment to advertising in the results provided by its search engine, it nevertheless appears that This is still rather irrelevant to the company’s turnover. and today it would represent just 0.1% of the global income of the startup based in the United States.