Beyond Search: Google Eyes AI Chatbots as New Ad Territory

Highlights Google is testing ad placement in AI chatbot conversations to protect its $200 billion search ad business, as user behavior shifts away from traditional search. The company is facing the classic “innovator’s dilemma,” balancing the need to defend its profitable legacy business while adapting to disruptive technologies like generative AI. Google must be careful not to degrade the user experience and may need to explore selective ad categories or offer an ad-free option to avoid losing groun ...