If you opened Google’s AI Mode today and felt something was different, you were right. Ads have arrived.
Google $GOOGL ( ▲ 6.31% ) has officially added sponsored results to AI Mode, the company’s conversational search experience that acts as its answer to ChatGPT. AI Overviews started experimenting with ads about a year ago, but this is the full rollout. Roughly 75 million daily AI Mode users will now see sponsored results mixed alongside the model’s responses. According to Ad Age, the ads are generated from the actual conversation with the AI, not simple keyword triggers, which marks a real shift from traditional Google Search.
In quick testing, the ad load was light. Only one sponsored link appeared across a dozen queries, tucked quietly below the organic answer. Still, this is a delicate move for Google. Advertising pays the bills, but search results eventually became so packed with sponsored content and SEO fluff that many users turned to AI tools specifically to escape that experience. The company now has to monetize AI without repeating the same mistakes.
OpenAI is paying attention. ChatGPT head Nick Turley recently said the company would not rule out ads completely, although it prefers to lean on subscriptions for now. ChatGPT has passed 700 million total users and around 20 million paid subscribers, and OpenAI expects 12.7 billion dollars in revenue this year. The company is also exploring a commerce feature that would let ChatGPT earn a cut when users buy products through the chatbot.
For now, Google is the first to pull the trigger on ads inside an AI chat experience. The big unknown is whether AI Mode can stay clean and useful once the money starts flowing, or if it slowly turns into Search with a new coat of paint.