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Google’s search engine is getting an AI upgrade that will deliver personalized ads alongside search results, the company announced Thursday.
The new features promise to make the search experience simpler and more customized with updates to AI Overview and Google Lens, the company said in announcing the changes.
For advertisers, the company said, it provides more opportunities ”to meet consumer needs and forge stronger connections, while remaining firmly in the driver’s seat.”
Ads that are relevant to the question asked and the search results will begin appearing in the US within AI Overview, the company said. For example, if you’re looking for a way to get grass stains out of pants, Google will show tips for getting the stains out as well as ads for stain removers.
On Lens, Google’s image search, shopping will take a more central role. Google says 20% of the 20 billion monthly Lens searches are shopping-related.
When uploading a photo of a product to Lens, Google will try to find the exact item or a similar one using its shopping graph, which the company says includes over 45 billion products. Now, the search will also include reviews, price comparisons, and where you can buy the item, as well as relevant shopping ads, so shoppers can compare options and prices for US users.
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Google is launching other features, too. Users will now be able to take videos and ask voice questions about the objects featured in the recording using Google Lens, or identify the songs they’re listening to without leaving the app they’re using, for example.
Ever since Google first introduced AI Overview in 2023, there’s been speculation that the company’s dominance of the search market was doomed, as startups focused on search were attracting the interest of venture capitalists and rising into prominence.
When it comes to revenue generation, Google is starting to direct users toward a single search answer powered by AI versus multiple search results, which makes it “hard to see how they can maintain their revenue per search,” veteran search ad industry executive David Rodnitzky, founder of 3Q Digital, told Semafor last year.