Since the beginning of this year in the United States and since October in Spain, Google has deployed AI Mode, its new search system with artificial intelligence. And, although it is still taking its first steps, it is already experimenting with changes that may not please everyone: it has begun to show advertising within generative responses.
Advertising in AI Mode. The novelty has been detected by Brodie Clark, SEO consultant, who has shared a screenshot showing cards with sponsored results labeled “Sponsored”. They appear integrated directly at the end of the conversation, within the generative interface, which represents a relevant change compared to the classic search.
In the screenshot shared by Clark, two cards with information and their corresponding organic links can be seen at the top. Then a map appears and, to the right, other informative results, also organic. No advertising here.
The interesting thing is precisely at the bottom of the interaction, where the results are no longer organic and two cards appear with the label “Sponsored”. That is, advertising integrated into generative search, embedded within the conversational interface and not just in the margins. It should be noted that the generative text appears to have been omitted from the capture.
For now, just tests. Google has confirmed to 9to5Google that these are intermittent experiments and that, at the moment, there are no plans to deploy them generally. This means that some users could start seeing ads in AI Mode, although it is not yet clear if these trials are limited to the United States or also affect markets such as Spain, where the service is already available.
And in other AI services? Google is not the only company exploring advertising avenues for artificial intelligence tools. OpenAI’s CFO has acknowledged that ads could reach free ChatGPT users. Microsoft, for its part, is already showing advertising on Copilot in certain markets.
The strategy makes sense (for Google). Alphabet, Google’s parent company, bases much of its business on digital advertising. This is reflected in a Statista report, which recalls that a significant part of its income comes precisely from that model. Integrating ads into AI Mode would therefore be a natural extension of your strategy.
AI Mode is powered by artificial intelligence models that generate responses from multiple sources. He does not limit himself to showing them: he interprets them and presents them in the form of a conversation. The system tries to understand what the user wants to know, allows cross-questioning, and maintains context. But it is not infallible. Like any generative model, it can make mistakes, omit data, or even make it up.
Images | Google | Brodie Clark
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