Google Expands Ads in AI Mode to Help Pay for Its AI Ambitions

The conversational search engine also has to sell

On October 29, 2026, Google announced that it would display advertising in AI Mode worldwide, following a test in the United States. Available in France since this summer, the mode is Google’s answer to conversational bots such as ChatGPT and Claude. You can access it from the Google Search homepage, and it can also appear through AI Overviews in standard results.

The pitch is a search engine that understands requests phrased as conversations. The less conversational problem is that this new journey still brings in too little money. Next reports that Philipp Schindler, Alphabet’s chief commercial officer, announced the expansion during the presentation of third-quarter results.

Ads arriving before the shopping basket

Google does not present AI Mode as merely another advertising slot. According to tests carried out in the United States, users consider the ads relevant, while click-through rates on sponsored product listings are comparable with those on non-sponsored listings.

The real commercial opportunity would come earlier in the buying journey. When you ask for a comparison, a recommendation or an explanation, you may not have chosen a product yet, but you have already revealed a useful intention. AI Mode therefore gives Google a fresh chance to sell that intention, before the search even starts looking like a conventional commercial query.

Philipp Schindler also estimates that most AI Mode queries are added to existing searches. For Google, each exchange does not necessarily replace a traditional search: it may simply create another box to tick in the advertising department’s spreadsheet. Even the assistant promising to save you clicks eventually has to manufacture a few.

The bill does not fit inside one result

The decision comes as search revenue is growing more slowly. In the third quarter, the activity generated 63.25 billion dollars, up 12%. Growth reached 17% in the second quarter and 19% in the first quarter. Google is still making an enormous amount of money, but the slowdown is becoming visible just as its AI spending moves into a different league.

In the third quarter, Alphabet invested 51.4 billion dollars in its AI infrastructure. The group posted revenue of 127.6 billion dollars, up 25%, but net income fell to 26.2 billion, compared with 35 billion a year earlier, when revenue stood at 102.35 billion dollars.

Planned capex for the fiscal year will reach 205 billion dollars, with an additional 73.1 billion dollars of investment in the fourth quarter, according to the reported figures. On top of that comes a payment of 5.2 billion euros linked to a European fine for abuse of a dominant position.

The assistant becomes a revenue line

Ads in AI Mode therefore mark the next logical step: after financing classic search with ads wrapped around links, Google is trying to monetise an interface where the answer takes up more space and clicks may become less frequent. The model still has to prove that it can turn conversation into revenue worthy of the infrastructure keeping it alive.

The market did not wait for the full proof. Google shares were down 11% when the source was published, while the group’s market capitalisation fell by around 500 billion dollars. AI Mode was supposed to make search more useful; now it also has to make the bill look slightly less terrifying.

Google is no longer selling only keywords clustered around an answer. It is trying to sell the answer itself, complete with a sponsored label stuck on the side—like discovering that your helpful assistant has been carrying an advertising department in its coat pocket all along.