Google VP doubles down: ads aren't going anywhere despite AI takeover

The question hung in the air on October 30, 2025. "Do you feel like Google Ads is going away in the future?" the interviewer asked. "Because as a business owner, we rely on them, right? They drive traffic."

Robby Stein didn't hesitate. "Don't see them going away."

The VP of Product for Google Search, the executive responsible for how ranking actually works inside the world's biggest search engine, had just spent an hour demonstrating how artificial intelligence now makes phone calls, books restaurants, and recommends businesses through conversational interfaces. Yet when pressed about the future of Google's advertising empire—the $198 billion revenue machine that funds the entire operation—Stein's answer cut through months of industry speculation.

"What people actually do, we're observing, is that the way people use Google search isn't really changing," he explained. "It's really expanding is what's happening."

The statement contradicts mounting publisher fears that AI features are destroying traditional web traffic. It challenges assumptions that conversational AI will eliminate the need for traditional advertising. Most importantly for the marketing community, it signals Google's commitment to maintaining paid advertising alongside—not instead of—AI-powered recommendations.

The revenue question everyone wants answered

Google has been carefully avoiding direct commitments about AI Mode monetization. Liz Reid, head of Google Search, told The Wall Street Journal in June 2025 that "at this point, we don't know" how advertising revenue will compare between AI Mode and traditional search results.

But Stein's October interview provided more clarity about the separation between organic AI recommendations and paid advertising opportunities. When asked directly whether businesses paying for ads receive preferential treatment in AI recommendations, he delivered an unequivocal response.

"So, it doesn't use ads information," Stein stated. "This is done entirely with um you know, what's on the web and what's within Google's um information system."

The technical explanation matters less than the strategic implication: Google maintains a wall between paid advertising and AI recommendations. Businesses cannot buy their way into the restaurant lists or shopping suggestions that AI Mode provides through conversational interfaces. The organic recommendation algorithms consider review data and business information without incorporating advertising spend as a ranking signal.

"Um, but if a business has claimed their local business and have has modified that, put menu information in there, um, it's eligible for reviews, that information could be used," Stein explained.

Advertising experiments begin—carefully

While organic recommendations remain untainted by advertising, Google has initiated experiments integrating ads into AI experiences. "Um, but I think what you'll find is that there could be new and novel ad formats," Stein suggested, before pivoting to a hypothetical scenario.

"If you're, let's say, shopping or you're, you know, looking for, you know, you have a complex doing a house remodel, like there's all kinds of interesting services that could be helpful for you that if we had more information and you could articulate more what you needed."

The vision involves users providing detailed parameters: "Hey, I have this kind of wood. These are the kind of contractors I have. This is my constraints. These are the price range." Such specificity enables "even more fine-tuned recommendations or potential other services that you could consider or deals that could be more useful to you."

"Those are all things we're thinking about," Stein added, before the critical qualifier: "Um, I'd say it's early days and finalizing kind of how ads might appear in these systems."

The cautious approach reflects internal tensions at Google. The company started experimenting with ads within AI Overviews in October 2024, generating mixed reactions from the marketing community. Some professionals praised the contextual relevance while others raised concerns about control mechanisms and brand safety in automated placements.

"Um, but something that we're thinking about," Stein concluded about advertising integration. "We started some experiments on ads within AI mode and within Google AI experiences. Um, but we've been really focused on building great consumer products first and foremost. Um, but I think users are starting to see some ads experiments there too."

Why usage patterns support advertising's future

Stein's confidence about advertising's staying power stems from observed user behavior. Rather than replacing traditional search patterns, AI features add new use cases that expand overall search volume.

"Think about all the things you need in a given day. It's everything like you need a quick insurance quote. You need to file your taxes. You need to look up a kind of question about a local business question in your county," Stein explained. "Like you're going to use Google and find that you need that information."

The expansion thesis holds that AI enables searches people wouldn't have attempted before. "Um, but what's happened is that now you can do all these new things. So, you could take a picture of your shoes and say, 'Hey, these are my shoes. What are other cool shoes like this?' And we could answer that now or help give you provide you context with that."

Complex, multi-sentence queries represent another growth area. "Or you could ask about this really cool restaurant question. It can be five sentences about all your, you know, allergies, issues with this. I have this big group. I want to make sure it's got light. Um, what can I book in advance?"

These expanded capabilities create advertising opportunities. "I think that's in in opportunity for in the future um to be even more helpful for you, particularly in advertising context," Stein suggested.

Reid's June interview revealed that queries in AI Mode run "2x to 3x longer than they do on main search." Longer queries provide enhanced intent signals for advertising targeting, enabling "better targeted, higher quality ads" through improved understanding of what users actually want.

The numbers tell a complicated story

Google's Q2 2025 earnings painted a mixed picture for advertising revenue. Search advertising grew 12% to $54.2 billion while Network advertising declined 1% to $7.4 billion. The divergence suggested that Google's owned properties captured advertising growth while third-party publishers struggled.

YouTube advertising reached $9.8 billion with 13% growth, demonstrating strength in video advertising as Think Week 2025 unveiled comprehensive AI advertising capabilities including ads within AI Mode and enhanced Performance Max features.

Performance Max campaigns drove 19% higher Return on Ad Spend in 2023 compared to AI-powered campaigns on the largest social platform, according to Marketing Mix Models run by TransUnion. The data supported Google's push toward AI-powered automation across advertising products.

Reid addressed revenue concerns directly in her October Wall Street Journal interview. Traffic analysis has documented substantial click-through rate decreases when AI summaries appear in search results. Reid countered that revenue with AI Overviews "has been relatively stable," explaining that reduced clicks on some queries get offset by increased overall search volume.

"Most queries lack advertising presence entirely," Reid noted. "Celebrity gossip searches typically show no ads before or after AI Overview implementation. Ads appear predominantly on commercial queries where users demonstrate purchase intent."

The 25-year transformation accelerates

Google Ads marked its 25th anniversary on October 23, 2025, just one week before Stein's interview. Ginny Marvin, Ads Product Liaison, reflected on the platform's transformation from keyword-based auctions to AI-powered campaign management.

"The first time I saw a PPC campaign in action, it blew my mind," Marvin stated in a LinkedIn post. She joined the industry in early 2005 at a small search marketing agency, witnessing how digital campaigns compressed the timeline "from launching an ad to seeing engagement to watching conversions come in."

The 2005 advertising landscape bore little resemblance to modern campaign management. Analytics software required overnight processing on dedicated computers with external battery backup systems. Account structures featured granular complexity, with campaigns constructed to capture every possible keyword variation, location, and device combination.

"There were gains to be had that made this effort worthwhile then," according to Marvin's reflection. "However, as Google Search and advertising systems evolved to understand synonyms, misspellings, and intent, hypergranular structures became unsustainable."

AI Max for Search campaigns now operate globally in open beta, providing "14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS" for most advertisers according to Google's data. The platform evolution enables automated optimization that previous generations of marketers handled through manual bid adjustments and keyword management.

What advertisers should actually do

When asked for practical advice—"Give me some tips as a business owner who still runs Google ads. what should I focus on right now to be recommended by and actually my business is recommended by AI"—Stein drew parallels to traditional optimization.

"Yeah interestingly the AI thinks a lot like a person would in terms of the kinds of questions it issues," he explained. "And so if you're a business and you're mentioned you know in um you know top business list or from a a public article that lots of people end up finding those kinds of things become useful for the AI to to find."

The interviewer immediately understood the implication. "So invest in your PR. That's something I've been hearing a lot."

Stein confirmed the strategy. "So, it's not it's not really different from what you would do in that regard."

The interviewer pressed further: "But also like sometimes I invest in PR and I ask my friends, have you seen that article? And they're like, no. But then I ask AI and it really sees the article and it uses that information. So, now you're investing in PR not for people to see it, but for AI."

"That's actually a good way of thinking about it," Stein agreed, "because the way I mentioned before how our AI models work, they're issuing these Google searches as a tool. And so in the same way that you would optimize your website and think about how do I make helpful, clear information for people. So people search for a certain topic, my website's really helpful for that. Think of an AI doing that search now."

The framework positions AI optimization as an extension of traditional SEO rather than a replacement. "And then knowing for that query, here are the best websites given that question. That's now coming will come into the uh context window of the model."

"And so when it renders a response and provides all of these links for you to go deeper, that website's more likely to show up," Stein concluded. "And so it's a lot of that standard best practices around building great content really do apply in the AI age for sure."

The control question remains unresolved

When asked whether businesses could "pay to get recommended like for AI to even consider my business," Stein's response revealed Google's philosophical stance.

"I mean, we don't think that there should be any barrier to people finding information. So, if there's information out there, it should be found."

The answer sidesteps whether paid placements will eventually appear within AI recommendations while maintaining that organic discovery should remain accessible. "Um, but I think what you'll find is that there could be new and novel ad formats" for specific use cases like shopping or complex service needs.

The ambiguity reflects Google's position as it navigates competing pressures. Advertisers demand clarity about how to maintain visibility as AI transforms search. Publishers complain that AI features reduce traffic by answering questions directly within Google's interface. Regulators scrutinize whether Google's AI features constitute anticompetitive behavior that harms the broader web ecosystem.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT processes over 1 billion weekly searches while demonstrating superior conversion rates according to some analysis. The competitive threat forces Google to move quickly on AI features while maintaining the advertising revenue that funds continued development.

The bottom line for marketers

Stein's interview provided three critical takeaways for marketing professionals navigating AI search transformation:

First, Google Ads aren't disappearing. "Don't see them going away" represents the company's clearest statement yet about advertising's future alongside AI features. The expansion of search use cases through AI capabilities creates new advertising opportunities rather than eliminating existing ones.

Second, organic recommendations remain separate from paid advertising. Businesses cannot buy their way into AI-generated suggestions for restaurants, services, or products. The recommendation algorithms operate on content quality, review data, and business information without incorporating advertising signals.

Third, traditional optimization practices remain relevant. "It's a lot of that standard best practices around building great content really do apply in the AI age for sure," according to Stein. Public relations coverage, authoritative content, and clear business information matter more than ever as AI systems use Google searches as tools for research.

The marketing community adapts to these realities. Research shows 24.3% of marketers receive consistent referral traffic from AI tools while 39.3% report occasional traffic. The combined 63.6% rate suggests widespread integration between AI search platforms and traditional websites rather than wholesale abandonment of the web.

For Stein and his team at Google, the challenge involves maintaining advertising revenue during a fundamental transformation of search technology. The interview suggested confidence that expanded search usage will create sufficient advertising opportunities to offset any reduced click-through rates on individual queries where AI provides direct answers.

"What's going on?" the interviewer asked at the beginning of the conversation, seeking to understand how her 20-25 year old audience should think about search.

"Well, I say I say that search is now a place where you can truly ask anything and get pretty effortless information about whatever you have on your mind," Stein replied. The vision assumes advertising will adapt to new formats and contexts rather than becoming obsolete.

Whether that vision materializes depends on execution quality Google hasn't yet demonstrated publicly. But for advertisers worried about AI eliminating their primary traffic source, Stein's message offered reassurance: the game is changing, not ending.

Timeline

• October 23, 2025: Google Ads celebrates 25 years marking transformation from manual campaigns to AI automation serving over one million active advertisers
• October 10, 2025: Liz Reid addresses revenue concerns in WSJ interview, asserting AI Overviews maintain relatively stable advertising revenue despite click-through rate declines
• September 16, 2025: Power Pack strategy launches combining AI Max for Search, Performance Max, and Demand Gen for multi-channel optimization
• September 14, 2025: Think Week 2025 unveils ads in AI Mode testing alongside comprehensive AI advertising capabilities
• August 6, 2025: Google Ads API v21 releases with AI Max integration enabling programmatic campaign management
• July 23, 2025: Q2 earnings reveal Search advertising growth to $54.2 billion (12% increase) while Network advertising declines 1% to $7.4 billion
• June 25, 2025: Google confirms advertising rollout within AI Mode with queries 2-3 times longer providing enhanced targeting signals
• May 1, 2025: Google begins placing ads in AI chatbot conversations as industry explores advertising-based revenue models
• October 3, 2024: Google launches ads within AI Overviews for mobile U.S. users, integrating promotional content into AI-generated summaries
• October 30, 2025: Robby Stein declares "Don't see them going away" when asked about Google Ads future during Silicon Valley Girl interview

Summary

Who: Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search since joining the company, leads teams responsible for search ranking mechanisms affecting billions of daily queries and over one million active advertisers globally. The interview addressed marketing professionals, business owners, and advertisers seeking clarity about advertising's future as AI transforms Google's core search product.

What: Stein stated definitively that Google Ads are not disappearing despite AI transformation, explaining that search usage patterns are expanding rather than changing. The company maintains strict separation between organic AI recommendations and paid advertising, with recommendation algorithms operating without advertising signals. Google conducts experiments integrating ads into AI Mode and AI Overviews while prioritizing consumer product development over aggressive monetization. Queries in AI Mode run 2-3 times longer than traditional searches, providing enhanced intent signals for future advertising targeting. Traditional optimization practices including public relations coverage, authoritative content, and business information remain relevant as AI systems use Google searches as research tools.

When: The interview occurred October 30, 2025, one week after Google Ads celebrated its 25th anniversary marking transformation from manual keyword campaigns to AI-powered automation. The discussion addressed nine months of AI search deployment following AI Mode's March 2025 launch and ads within AI Overviews testing beginning October 2024. Revenue questions intensified following Q2 2025 earnings revealing Search advertising growth while Network advertising declined amid expanding AI features.

Where: The statements apply to Google Search globally, with AI Mode operating in over 200 countries and territories supporting more than 35 languages. Advertising experiments within AI Overviews and AI Mode currently focus on United States markets with international expansion plans undisclosed. The advertising implications affect over one million active Google Ads advertisers worldwide managing campaigns across Search, YouTube, Display, and Discover properties.

Why: Marketing professionals sought clarity about advertising's future as AI features transform search behavior, reduce website click-through rates, and shift user interactions toward conversational interfaces. Google must maintain $198 billion annual advertising revenue supporting continued AI development while addressing competitive pressure from ChatGPT and alternative platforms. The company balances publisher concerns about traffic declines against advertiser demands for visibility within AI-powered search experiences. Stein's statements aimed to reassure advertisers that expanded search use cases through AI capabilities create new advertising opportunities rather than eliminating existing revenue streams, positioning traditional optimization practices as foundations for AI-age visibility rather than obsolete techniques.