Google Executive Signals Ads Could Reach Gemini

Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, said on the April earnings call that the company's "focus right now is on AI Mode, but it's fair to say that we really believe a format that works well in AI mode would transfer successfully to Gemini app," and added "If done well, ads can be really valuable," (Business Insider). Nick Fox, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, told WIRED he is "not ruling them out" when asked about ads in Gemini. Reporting by Adweek states that Google has briefed advertisers and indicated ad placements in Gemini are targeted for a 2026 rollout, according to agency buyers who spoke to Adweek under anonymity. Google's blog post on The Keyword summarized a three-part AI advertising framework attributed to Fox and said learnings from ads in AI Mode would "likely carry over" to Gemini; the post also stated Gemini has reached 750 million monthly active users, per The Keyword.

DiscoveredLabs published a traffic analysis finding that multiple advertising SDKs load when the Gemini app starts but currently receive null responses, and that the product contains commerce integrations and feature flags that would support ad or commerce experiments, according to DiscoveredLabs' January 2026 network capture. Industry reporting and vendor analysis describe ads appearing in Google's conversational Search experience, AI Mode, with early performance metrics reported by Digital Applied showing ads in 25.5% of AI Mode results and early engagement lifts versus traditional search placements (Digital Applied). Digital Applied also describes new ad mechanics such as conversation-level eligibility, Performance Max/AI Max for Search integration, and a Direct Offers pilot for deal surfacing inside conversational responses.

Observed patterns in comparable rollouts show companies often stage monetization: they test ad formats inside search-adjacent experiences where ad targeting and measurement reuse existing infrastructure, then adapt those formats for standalone chat experiences. This approach reduces technical risk for advertisers because it reuses bidding, creative, and measurement systems already integrated with search. For practitioners, conversation-level ad eligibility and Direct Offers shift the optimization signal from single-query keywords to session- or intent-level features, which requires different asset strategies and evaluation metrics.

major AI chatbots reaching hundreds of millions of users change the addressable market for advertisers; The Keyword's 750 million MAU figure places Gemini among the largest consumer AI products. Advertisers get earlier signals from Google: Adweek's reporting of direct advertiser briefings and Digital Applied's early performance metrics indicate that Google is already offering pathways for existing campaigns to compete for AI placements. Privacy and product experience remain central questions; The Keyword quoted Fox discussing Personal Intelligence and labeled the interaction between private data and ad targeting as "TBD."

For practitioners: monitor these indicators reported across sources:

• •Ad format prototypes and placement examples shared with advertisers (Adweek)
• •Conversion and engagement lift benchmarks for AI Mode placements vs classic search (Digital Applied)
• •Product telemetry on opt-ins to features such as Personal Intelligence and any published guidance on data usage (The Keyword)
• •Network and client-side evidence of ad SDK behavior or feature flags in Gemini (DiscoveredLabs)

Editorial analysis: if Google follows the staged path documented by reporting, advertisers and platform engineers should anticipate incremental rollouts where ad formats, measurement, and bidding integrate first with search-adjacent products, then expand into standalone chat experiences. This pattern tends to favor advertisers who can adapt creative and feeds quickly and who can measure session-level outcomes rather than single-query clicks.