Google says AI Overviews drive shopping, some marketers aren’t sold

Google says its AI-powered search has accelerated shopping behaviours — as boundaries blur between online activities — but marketers on the ground have offered a contradictory viewpoint.

Dan Taylor, Google Ads global vice president, held a media roundtable yesterday where he presented a vision of search, advertising and shopping unified within the Google ecosystem.

“Google is an AI-first company ,” he said, noting that analytical and predictive artificial intelligence has been used in its search and Google Ads offering for a decade, “operating quietly in the background”.