The news: Google is moving faster than its AI rivals on monetization by threading personalized ads directly into AI-powered shopping conversations with Direct Offers. Advertisers can now surface targeted offers inside its Gemini-powered AI Mode, per The Financial Times.

The search giant says retailers can trigger discounts, bundles, or free shipping at the moment a shopper is most likely to convert.

Zooming in: Google’s latest AI ads push demonstrates that unlike classic sponsored placements, intent-aware advertising will be shaped by real-time conversations and context.

“It gives retailers the flexibility to deliver value to people shopping in AI mode, whether that’s a lower price, a special bundle, or free shipping. At the moment, it matters most to just close the sale,” said Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s ads and commerce vice president.

Trendspotting: AI platforms are rebuilding advertising around conversation. As AI usage scales and compute costs rise, platforms need revenues that don’t fracture the user experience. Advertising and ecommerce are emerging as clear answers.

• OpenAI: It’s testing in-chat checkout inside ChatGPT, directly linking ecommerce to AI search. 
• Microsoft: Copilot Checkout shows the leverage of conversational prompts. 
• Perplexity: The startup has leaned into sponsored answers and commerce tie-ins to fund AI search.
• Google: Instead of treating checkout as the product, it’s turning AI conversations themselves into a new ad surface. Its Universal Commerce Protocol, developed with Walmart, Target, and Shopify, captures intent live as users talk, compare, and decide.

Implications for brands: By anchoring ads to live conversations, Google is redefining performance media from something users click into to something that appears when a decision is forming.

AI advertising helps protect Google’s core ads business while AI chats collapse search, consideration, and action into a single flow. Brands should expect shorter decision windows and faster drop-offs for weak offers. 

The challenge for brands will be aligning their offers to real-time intent and modernizing measurement for new ad funnels. 

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