The future of search
is arriving in pieces

ChatGPT Ads began as a US test in February 2026, and on September 23, 2026, OpenAI said they were available in more than 60 countries. A week earlier it started testing ads that open a conversation with a business with select US advertisers. As of September 2026, Google still describes ads in AI Mode as a test, and shows ads inside AI Overviews in English in the US and 11 other countries.

Each change has arrived separately, with its own rules about who can buy, what gets measured and which businesses are left out.

Across these places, an answer increasingly comes before the visit. In the US, ads that open a conversation with a business’s own agent are in a limited test or only announced. Software working for ad platforms and buyers now reads a business’s website too.

Where people look for a business now

At I/O on May 19, 2026, Google said AI Overviews had more than 2.5 billion monthly users and AI Mode had passed 1 billion. It said AI Mode queries had more than doubled every quarter since launch, and that overall Search queries had reached an all-time high. Those are Google’s own figures and cannot be checked independently. Alphabet’s earnings are a separate measure. It reported $63.3 billion in Google Search and other revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up from $54.2 billion a year earlier.

Assistant use has grown too. OpenAI said in August 2026 that ChatGPT has more than 1 billion weekly active users. In a February 2026 survey, Pew Research Center found that 49 percent of US adults use AI chatbots, up from 33 percent in 2024, and 42 percent use them to search for information.

What changed between the question and the click

In Pew’s study of how 900 US adults searched in March 2025, people clicked a traditional result on 8 percent of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15 percent when none did, and clicked a link inside the summary on 1 percent. Summaries appeared on 60 percent of searches that began with a question word and on 8 percent of one or two word searches.

The study predates AI Mode at scale and shows an association, not a measured cause. Digital Traction’s reading is that the longer and more question-like the search, the more of the explaining happens before anyone reaches a website.

Google has since joined its two AI surfaces. A follow-up asked from an AI Overview now continues in AI Mode, which Google said in May 2026 was live worldwide. Google’s Search and Ads leader says people now write “two, three, or four-sentence queries.”

Google has not said that AI Mode replaced the standard results page, although that claim circulates. The default it announced in May 2026 was a model inside AI Mode, Gemini 3.5 Flash, and the same announcement says people will “continue to get a range of results from Search.”

How advertising reaches people inside AI answers

On Google, as of September 2026, there is no separate AI campaign to buy. Google’s help page on ads and AI Overviews says ads above and below an AI Overview come from the Search, Shopping, Performance Max and App campaigns an advertiser already runs, through the existing auction.

Ads inside the AI Overview have narrower rules. Text and Shopping ads from Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible, matched on the query and the AI Overview’s content through AI-powered targeting. Google’s examples of that targeting are broad match, AI Max, Performance Max, Shopping and Dynamic Search Ads. Digital Traction’s reading is that a Search campaign built only on exact and phrase match does not qualify. The placement inside the AI Overview cannot be targeted, opted out of or reported separately, and its ads appear in reports as Top Ads.

ChatGPT Ads runs on its own system. As of September 2026 it offers a self-serve Ads Manager, cost-per-click and conversion-optimized bidding, a pixel and a Conversions API, and shows ads only on the Free and Go plans. ChatGPT ads: what a US business can buy today covers how each part works for a US business. OpenAI’s advertising principles state its policy on ads and answers:

“Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you. Answers are optimized based on what’s most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.”

Where things stand for a US advertiser on September 24, 2026:

• Google, ads above and below AI Overviews: live in the US, one of more than 200 markets where AI Overviews appear
• Google, ads inside AI Overviews: live in the US in English, one of 12 countries where they run
• Google, ads in AI Mode: in a US test since May 2025, with two more formats announced for testing on May 20, 2026
• ChatGPT Ads: live in the US, with self-serve buying for US-based advertisers, and in more than 60 countries in all
• Microsoft Copilot: live in the US, with ads fully ramped in English, French and German speaking markets as of Microsoft’s March 2025 update
• Perplexity: stepped back from ads, according to a Financial Times report in February 2026
• Claude: no ads, and Anthropic said in February 2026 it will stay that way

Category rules also limit where ads appear. As of September 2026, Google does not show ads inside AI Overviews for sensitive verticals, and names finance, healthcare, gambling, alcohol, adult and politics among them. When OpenAI began testing ads in February 2026, it said it would not show them near sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics.

What happens when the ad starts a conversation

Google and OpenAI each have a format that puts a conversation with the business’s own agent inside the ad, and neither is open to most US advertisers. Google announced Business Agent for Leads on May 20, 2026, as coming to Search “in the coming months.” Google describes it as replacing an ad’s lead form with a Gemini chat that answers from the advertiser’s website. In the US it is still only announced. Google has published no US access rules, lead contents or billing, while its only published beta is outside the US. Treat it as unavailable until it appears in your account.

On September 16, 2026, OpenAI began testing Sponsored Agents. In the test, someone who clicks an ad can hold a labeled conversation with the business’s agent inside ChatGPT, then follow a link to its site. As of September 2026 only select US advertisers have it, in what OpenAI’s help center calls a limited alpha.

Both are built to hold part of the sales conversation before anyone reaches the website. Business Agent for Leads changes what arrives in your CRM looks at what that does to lead counts and CRM data, and a guide to agents in ads compares these formats with Meta’s and Snap’s and sets out what the business answers for.

On ChatGPT, the landing page is now an input to the ad as well as its destination. OpenAI’s ad crawler, OAI-AdsBot, visits pages submitted as ads and “may also use content from the landing page to determine when it’s most relevant to show the ad.” That suggests a thin service page can affect when an ad shows on ChatGPT and, where agent formats run, what an agent tells a buyer in the business’s name.

What agents can do for a buyer so far

Google can already phone a business for a customer. Its Business Profile Help says Google “might contact your business on their behalf through an automated phone call” to book appointments, check wait times and confirm price and availability. As of September 2026 these recorded calls are live across the US except Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska. A business can opt out on the call or in its Business Profile settings.

Google announced at I/O in May 2026 that people could ask it to call home repair, beauty and pet care businesses across the US over the summer. No Google source checked for this piece confirms that rollout finished.

Agents also use websites. In July 2026, Google began rolling out Chrome browsing for Gemini Spark, its agent for Google AI subscribers, starting in the US. With permission, Spark uses a person’s logged-in accounts and saved passwords for “tedious web errands,” and hands sensitive steps such as payments back to the person.

Google says browser agents read screenshots, page structure and the accessibility tree. Its web.dev guide asks for real buttons, labeled form fields, no transparent overlays and stable layouts, and says the same changes make a site better for humans.

At OpenAI, current evidence suggests buying inside the assistant has moved more slowly than finding things in it. OpenAI launched checkout in ChatGPT in September 2025. In March 2026, a spokesperson told Digital Commerce 360 that search and product discovery were the priority and “Instant Checkout is moving to Apps.”

What has not changed

The needs that send people to a search box now also reach an assistant. Businesses still pay to reach them on Google, as Alphabet’s search revenue shows.

Google’s guidance says the basics still hold. Its guide to generative AI features in Search, updated July 10, 2026, says “the best practices for SEO continue to be relevant,” because those features rest on Google’s core ranking and quality systems. It asks for “non-commodity content” with “a unique point of view,” and says many hacks suggested under answer engine and generative engine optimization “aren’t effective or supported.” That guidance covers Google Search only.

Several platforms say they are protecting the answer itself. Besides OpenAI, Microsoft said in March 2025 that Copilot’s organic responses are “never influenced by sponsored content.” Anthropic said in February 2026 that Claude’s responses will not “be influenced by advertisers.” A Perplexity executive told the Financial Times that ads could lead users to start doubting everything.

A click from an AI answer, a chat inside an ad and a call from an agent still have to be judged on the business they produce. OpenAI said in August 2026 that cost-per-click and outcome-optimized bidding account for most of its campaigns. The discipline is the same as on Google: report qualified leads and revenue back as conversions, as Feeding real outcomes back to the platform sets out.

What to do now

1. Check what is live in your markets and category. Availability differs by country and language, and category rules can close a placement outright
2. Know which Google campaigns meet the AI-powered targeting requirement for ads inside AI Overviews. Google said it would begin upgrading campaigns that use automatically created assets or campaign-level broad match to AI Max in September 2026, and has postponed the Dynamic Search Ads upgrade to February 2027. Handle this within the wider Search & acquisition program
3. Treat the landing page as part of the ad. State the service, the area served, what is included and what affects the price, because a crawler, a chat agent and a person may all read it. Use real buttons and labeled form fields, which agents read through the accessibility tree, as assistive technology does
4. Judge AI placements on outcomes across the account. Ads inside AI Overviews cannot be isolated in reporting, and campaign-level figures can count moved conversions as new ones, as Campaign-level lift is not account-level lift explains
5. Read AI traffic and impressions from two places. GA4’s AI Assistant channel covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and similar assistants, while AI Overviews and AI Mode count as Organic Search. Search Console’s generative AI performance report, which Google says reached all websites on August 31, 2026, counts AI Overview and AI Mode impressions. Where AI traffic actually lands in GA4 walks through the split
6. Make the AI settings a decision. Search Console’s generative AI control, rolled out August 31, 2026, can remove a site from AI Overviews and AI Mode, which Google says then send it no traffic or impressions. It does not affect AI training. For that, Google points to Google-Extended, which also covers grounding in Gemini Apps and, Google says, does not affect inclusion in Google Search. OAI-SearchBot covers ChatGPT search answers. Digital Traction’s view is that most businesses should stay included, by deliberate choice
7. Decide who answers when an agent calls. Check the “Google automated calls and text messages” setting under Advanced settings in Business Profile, keep prices, hours and availability current, and make sure whoever picks up can answer a price question

What to leave alone

A page for every variation of a question. Google’s guide says fan-out variation pages made primarily to manipulate rankings or AI responses violate its scaled content abuse policy. Query fan-out does not mean you need more pages explains the alternative.

Paying for tactics that do nothing for Google Search. Google’s guide says Search ignores llms.txt files, that its AI features need no special schema markup or chunked content, and that chasing inauthentic mentions “isn’t as helpful as it might seem.” That is no reason to remove something that already has a job. Google calls keeping llms.txt for other services “completely fine” and still recommends structured data for rich results. For other assistants, ask for evidence before paying.

Numbers without a dataset. Confident zero-click and AI Overview percentages often arrive with no named dataset or date. A limited, dated study like Pew’s is worth more than a figure nobody can trace.

The platform details here were checked on September 24, 2026, and will change. The questions underneath last longer: who the buyer is, where the message belongs, what someone finds after they respond, and what evidence will inform the next decision. That is where Advertising in AI starts. If you are working through one of these decisions, start a conversation.