Does AI Mode have ads? Yes, and now they follow your follow-ups

In the US, yes, and they now go further. AI Mode first carried ads in May 2025. The new change, which Google calls multiturn ads, lets sponsored results show up in answers to your follow-up questions as you go back and forth with the AI, not just in its first response.

In Canada, AI Mode ads are rolling out now as part of a 10-country expansion that also covers Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore and several other markets. In the UK, Google plans to switch them on in the fourth quarter of 2026, alongside Brazil and Mexico. For now, these ads run in English.

Look for the word “Sponsored”. Google says every ad inside AI Mode and AI Overviews (the AI summaries at the top of regular results) sits in a clearly labeled section and is visually set apart from the AI’s own answer. Ads can appear in three places:

• Inside the AI answer, as a labeled block of text ads or product listings.
• Alongside the answer, next to the AI-generated response.
• In follow-ups, now that multiturn ads are live in the US.

One newer feature is easy to miss. Some ads carry an AI explainer, a short note written by Google’s Gemini models that tells you how the ad relates to your question. Advertisers can’t write, edit or switch these explainers off, so read them as Google’s description, not the brand’s.

This is the biggest difference from classic search. Google doesn’t only match ads to what you type; it can also match them to the AI’s answer. Its own example: ask why your pool water has turned green and how to clean it, and the AI explains testing the water, brushing and vacuuming, and Google can then show you sponsored pool vacuums or algae treatment kits, even though you never asked for a product.

That makes sense commercially, because AI Mode questions run about three times longer than regular searches and often reveal what you’re trying to do. It also means a how-to question can turn into a shopping trip without you noticing. Google says paid ads do not influence the organic answers its AI generates, and that ads stay separate and labeled.

Google’s search business is growing more slowly. Revenue from Google Search and other services rose 12% from a year earlier in the third quarter, to $63.35 billion, after growth of 19% in the first quarter and 17% in the second. Chief business officer Philipp Schindler named lower earnings from AI Mode as one of the reasons, alongside currency swings and a dip in retail ad spending.

AI Mode is popular: Google says it has passed one billion monthly active users worldwide. But a chat answer has less room for ads than a page of results, so each search makes less money. Schindler said ad tests in AI Mode had shown promising results and that Google will put more ads into both AI Mode and AI Overviews across more kinds of questions. Investors weren’t soothed: Alphabet shares fell about 10% after hours on the results.

For everyday searchers, expect more shopping suggestions inside answers that used to feel ad-free, especially for questions about fixing, buying or planning something. Google says click-through rates on sponsored and organic product listings in AI Mode are already similar, which suggests many people can’t easily tell, or don’t mind, the difference.

A few habits help:

• Check the label before you click any product card or link in an AI answer.
• Compare outside the chat. If the AI suggests a product, search for reviews of it separately before buying.
• Watch the follow-ups. A sponsored result can now appear in the third or fourth reply of a conversation, not only at the top.

Google hasn’t announced any setting that lets users hide these ads, and advertisers can’t opt out of AI Mode separately from regular search either. Google’s next step is shopping agents: it says it wants to leave room for brand choices and special offers even when AI does the legwork.