Google AI Mode Expands Ads to More Countries Worldwide

Google is bringing advertising to AI Mode in many more countries. The company has announced that ads and sponsored content in the conversational version of its search engine are expanding beyond the United States, where they have been available for some time.

The rollout has already started in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. According to Google, even more markets will follow in the final quarter of the year, including the United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico. Until now, users outside the US could use AI Mode without seeing sponsored links or other promotional content.

Google says users are "comfortable" with ads in AI Mode, and it promises to mark all such content with a "Sponsored" label to avoid confusion.

Why Google is moving now

Ads remain the company's main source of revenue, so the move is hardly a surprise. Google also says the conversational format makes searches last three times longer than with conventional web search, which means more time in front of users and more opportunities to monetize.

The company is also preparing "multi-turn" ads for AI Mode, initially only in the United States. Under this system, new ads appear when a user asks a follow-up question within the same conversation. People who return to an earlier query saved in their conversation history will also be served different ads.

What it means for users

AI Mode has become one of Google's most successful products. In May, the company said it had 1 billion monthly active users, a figure that has probably grown since. With that scale, the arrival of advertising in more regions will affect a large number of people, and the clean, ad-free experience many enjoyed outside the US is about to end.