Search ads with AI, a garden of opportunities (and risks) for brands

Searches with AI are increasingly ubiquitous and are translating into notable changes in Internet users’ behavior when it comes to obtaining information on the Internet. For now, searches with AI are stripping traditional search engines of relevance and also putting advertisers and the media in severe trouble.

As long as the AI ​​responds directly to the queries posed by the user, the user often does not feel the need to click on any click (and this ultimately translates into a more than obvious decrease in web traffic for brands and the media). The rate of searches that end in zero clicks (when AI is involved) is between 45% and 70%. The good news is that when the user decides to click on the links associated with the AI ​​search results, they are probably very interested in the product they have previously taken the trouble to search for, and their click is therefore of high quality (which ultimately represents a great opportunity for brands that choose to make their way into this type of context).

AI searches are already the recipient of ads (although advertisers are rather cautious)

AI search advertising is in any case still in its infancy. In the United States, Perplexity is currently experimenting in the United States with advertising formats in its AI-powered search engine: ads that appear next to answers and ads that make their way into follow-up questions.

Across the seas, Google also began displaying ads in its AI Overviews in October of last year.initially only on mobile devices, and later, in May 2025, also on desktop devices. Soon this service will also debut in non-English speaking markets.

On the other hand, 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 rear its head in this format, which made its debut approximately a month ago in our country.

In “AI Mode” the ads make their way inside and below the answers provided to the questions raised by the user. Even so, it seems that advertisers are even more skeptical about advertising in “AI Mode” because they fear that their “brand safety” could eventually be undermined by linking ads to potentially erroneous answers (something that is perfectly possible).

ChatGPT, which is probably the most used AI tool across the globe, is free of advertising for now. Not so in Copilot, Microsoft’s AI tool, where the so-called “showroom ads” are currently opened in searches carried out within this channel.

What seems clear is that advertising seems destined to show its hoof sooner or later in AI tools.who are currently exploring alternative sources of income to subscriptions to put money into their coffers and thus pay for the very expensive AI party.

In searches with AI, brands have a lot to gain and also a lot to lose

From the advertisers’ point of view, search advertising with AI is a double-edged swordbecause even though this new wave channel seems extremely promising, it also brings many potential risks under its belt. For now, it is not very clear whether or not the user willingly accepts commercial messages in an environment of an eminently conversational nature such as AI. However, and if they let the AI ​​search advertising train pass (which is potentially very disruptive), Brands risk losing relevance in an environment where the consumer is often very close to making purchasing decisions and is, therefore, at the bottom of the funnel.

Still, In an environment as deeply contextual as AI, it is also very easy for the commercial messages shown to the consumer to eventually miss the mark. (and therefore put advertisers sheltered behind this type of messages in a difficult situation). If there are errors in the ads that make their way into searches with AI, in any case not only the image of the advertiser suffers but also the image of the tool that has been the recipient of such ads. And in a particularly dynamic context such as AI searches where the context is often difficult to predict, failures emerge more easily to the surface.

The overlapping risks of AI search advertising explain the caution with which most brands are approaching this format. However, brands that shake off possible risks and bet on this channel also potentially have a lot to gain by being pioneers in a format practically unexplored to date. Betting on a channel as new as AI searches brings, however, another risk (which is by no means trivial): the lack of data to eventually bring a campaign to fruition. In an environment where there are still few advertisers and there is also little data, the algorithms are eventually less diligent in anointing their campaigns with the desired effectiveness (and this can ultimately undermine the quality of the advertisers’ decisions).