Ads inside AI Mode, the conversational version of Google Search, are spreading beyond the United States. Google is switching them on in ten countries, among them Canada, Kenya and the Philippines, and plans to add the United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico in the fourth quarter of 2026. In the United States, where AI Mode ads have run since 2025, a new format lets an ad appear again when the person asks a follow-up question.
Why the ads are going where the questions go
Google's Search revenue grew 12% in the third quarter, down from 19% in the first. That fits the product. Once an AI answer is the page, the old places for an ad, above and beside a list of links, matter less. The questions have not gone away; they are longer, and they are asked somewhere else. So the ad has to move into the answer.
Google's own tests suggest the new format works. In the United States, shoppers click the paid product boxes in AI Mode about as often as the unpaid ones. If that holds in other countries, expect the rollout to be quick, since three more countries are already planned within months.
What a shop owner can see
Take an outdoor shop in Canada. A walker asks AI Mode for waterproof boots for a five-day hike in October, and mentions wide feet. In the old way, the shop would bid on a phrase like "waterproof hiking boots" and compete with the biggest retailers for it. In AI Mode the question already carries the width, the season and the length of the trip. Ads there are matched to the question and to the answer the AI writes, so a paid product box for a wide-fit waterproof boot can appear beside an answer about exactly that.
That favours the shop whose listing says "wide fit, waterproof, used on multi-day hikes" over the one whose listing says "Boot 4521 Brown". The text a small shop already owns, its product titles and descriptions, does the work that a long keyword list used to do.
In the United States the follow-up matters as much. The walker asks which of those boots is lightest, and a paid box can appear again, at the moment they are comparing and close to buying.
What the shopper sees
For the person asking, the answer becomes a shop window with a label on it. Paid items are marked "Sponsored", and the rest is the AI's own summary. We reported that shopping assistants are now filtering out brand marketing. Google's AI Mode is built the other way, because Google earns money from the products it shows. Neither is wrong, but it is worth knowing which kind you are asking, and worth asking for alternatives from other sellers before you buy.
For a business, the first step is small. Write down the ten questions customers actually ask at the counter or on WhatsApp, and check that each product page answers them in plain words. That page copy is what an AI conversation is matched against.