Google announced four new ad formats at Google Marketing Live 2026 on 20 May. All four are Gemini-powered. All four depart from the static text-and-headline structure that has defined Search advertising since its launch. And all four reflect the same underlying shift: Google is no longer placing ads beside search results. It is embedding them inside AI-generated responses.
The context for why this is happening now is the scale of AI Mode. AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. AI Mode searches are on average three times as long as traditional searches, and 1 in 6 queries are non-text, using voice or images. The user behaviour inside AI Mode is structurally different from keyword search, and Google’s ad formats are being rebuilt to match it.
What follows is a format-by-format breakdown of what was announced, how each one works, and what is confirmed about availability.
Numbers to watch:
- 1B+ Monthly AI Mode users, queries doubling every quarter
- 3× Longer than traditional Search queries on average in AI Mode
- 1 in 6 AI Mode queries are non-text, voice or image
The Four Formats
Format 01: Conversational Discovery Ads
Conversational Discovery ads are designed to answer a person's specific question directly inside AI Mode. Rather than relying on keyword targeting, Gemini analyses the intent behind the user's query and dynamically generates ad creative tailored to that specific conversation. Google’s example showed someone asking how to make their home smell like “fancy spas or a rainy forest” using low-maintenance solutions.
The format includes an independent Gemini-written explainer, context about the product or service that Google’s model synthesises separately from the advertiser’s supplied creative. Ads carry a “Sponsored” label. The format moves the ad closer to the recommendation itself, rather than placing it alongside traditional search results, creating visibility earlier in the research process before the user narrows down to a final decision.
These ads are designed for exploratory, multi-turn queries, the kind of search behaviour AI Mode is generating, rather than high-intent single-query searches where the user already knows what they want.
Available: AI Mode only
Status: Testing (US mobile and desktop)
Format 02: Highlighted Answers
Highlighted Answers places relevant ads inside AI Mode recommendation lists. Where Conversational Discovery ads respond to open-ended exploratory queries, Highlighted Answers are positioned inside the recommendation lists AI Mode generates when a user is narrowing down options further along the decision journey.
In a demonstration, Duolingo was recommended in response to an inquiry about learning Italian, including detailed product information and use-case recommendations. The format features explanations styled consistently across both organic and paid results, along with direct paths to conversion.
Like Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers carry a “Sponsored” label and include a Gemini-written explainer. The independent AI context layer, which Google positions as a trust mechanism, is consistent across both AI Mode formats.
Available: AI Mode only
Status: Testing (US mobile and desktop)
Format 03: AI-Powered Shopping Ads with Gemini Feature Summaries
AI-powered Shopping ads extend the AI-generated context layer into standard Search rather than AI Mode specifically. Shopping ads now include Gemini-written product feature summaries that respond to the specific query context. A user asking about a particular use case sees a product summary written for that query rather than generic product copy pulled from the feed.
According to Google, the Gemini model evaluates and synthesises information about the product or service independently of the advertiser's supplied creative, and displays that context alongside the ad. The product feed remains the underlying data source, but the presentation layer is generated per query rather than static.
Available: Standard Search
Status: Rolling out later in 2026 (US first)
Format 04: Business Agent for Leads
Business Agent for Leads places a conversational layer inside the ad unit itself. A prospective customer can ask a question directly inside the ad and receive an answer drawn from the advertiser’s website, without clicking through to the site first. The interaction is handled by a Gemini-powered agent that reads the advertiser’s web content and responds to the user’s specific question in context.
The format is aimed at categories with longer, more complex consideration journeys where a user's intent is real but their question is specific. They want an answer before they commit to clicking. Currently being tested in education, automotive, and real estate in the United States.
Available: Standard Search
Status: Open beta (US English accounts)
What Connects All Four Formats
The structural change across all four is the same: Google is inserting an AI-generated context layer between the advertiser’s creative and the user’s query. In keyword search, the advertiser writes the headline, the description, and the extensions and those appear when the bid wins. In all four of these formats, Gemini generates or augments that copy dynamically, per query and per conversation.
The advertiser sets the brief. Gemini writes the ad. That is the structural shift these four formats represent, and it is now across both AI Mode and standard Search.
The access requirement is consistent across the new formats. To appear in the new AI Search ad experiences, advertisers must be running AI Max for Search or Performance Max with text customisation. Advertisers on standard keyword campaigns with manual bidding are not eligible for these placements.
The AI Brief connection
AI Brief, announced at the same GML session, is the control mechanism advertisers use to steer how Gemini generates copy for these formats. Advertisers describe their brand voice, target audiences, and messaging guardrails in plain language. Gemini interprets that input when generating copy for Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers, and AI-powered Shopping ads.
Without an AI Brief, the system generates copy based on landing page content and product feed data alone, with no brand-level guardrails applied.
The Competitive Context
Google is not the only platform moving in this direction. Microsoft has tested in-conversation ad formats inside Copilot since late 2025. OpenAI expanded ChatGPT shopping ads earlier in May 2026. All three are building commercial formats into conversational AI interfaces simultaneously.
Google’s distinguishing pitch is the independent AI explainer. The Gemini-written context layer that sits alongside each ad is meant to make the reasoning visible to the user, which Google positions as a trust mechanism. Whether users receive it that way or read it as a more sophisticated form of sponsored content is a question that testing data will answer over time.
What is clear is that the format of Search advertising is changing in a way that removes several layers of advertiser control (keyword selection, headline writing, description writing) and replaces them with a system where the advertiser defines the brief and the algorithm executes the creative. That is the direction of travel across all four formats announced at GML 2026.
What This Means Practically
The four formats are at different stages — two in testing, one in open beta, one rolling out later in 2026. None of them require immediate action today for most advertisers. What they do require is a decision about account structure: AI Max for Search or Performance Max with text customisation is the access requirement for all four. If your account is not on one of those, you are not eligible for any of the new AI Search ad surfaces. That is the practical implication worth addressing now, before the formats roll out more broadly.
Four formats. Two in AI Mode, two in standard Search. All four Gemini-powered. All four require AI Max or Performance Max with text customisation for access. The common thread is an AI-generated context layer that sits between the advertiser’s creative and the user, dynamically adapting to the specific conversation rather than serving static copy against a keyword match.
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