Wednesday marked a new edition of Google Marketing Live (GML), where the company unveiled a new generation of solutions, built with Gemini, designed to help businesses of all sizes grow more intelligently and effectively across Search and YouTube.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving from a promise into an everyday reality, unlocking new growth opportunities for businesses.
At GML, Google showcased how Gemini is becoming the engine driving new ways for brands to boost discovery, creativity, commerce, and measurement. From transforming AI into a strategic partner for marketers, to scaling human creativity, providing clearer insights into marketing investment performance, and expanding agentic commerce capabilities for retailers, Gemini is turning AI from an operational tool into an intelligent growth engine.
Below are the key announcements from GML 2026:
Introducing next-generation of ads on Search
People are coming to Google to ask more and different types of questions, and Search is becoming an even deeper tool for discovery and decision-making with generative AI. Google is reinventing ads for this new era to answer and inspire all at once.
As Google continues to test ads in AI Mode in the U.S., they are introducing two new ad formats designed to be more useful and contextualized. Both of these new formats feature an independent AI explanation that evaluates information about a product or service, using Gemini models.
With Conversational Discovery ads in AI Mode, Gemini models take the deep context of the user’s question and generate a customized ad creative from a business that offers a solution, highlighting specific relevant features. The second format appears when AI Mode curates a recommendation list. An advertiser can appear as a featured recommendation in Highlighted Answers. This only happens if the recommendation has a high quality and is relevant to the search. These features are currently being tested in the U.S. in English, and ads within AI Mode will continue to be clearly labeled as Sponsored.
Google launched a Direct Offers pilot in the U.S. in January and is now expanding them with two new features: promotion bundling and new travel offers. Brands can now upload promotions like discounts, giveaways, and local coupons, and Gemini will match them to present the most compelling offer. The tool will also soon feature hotel booking deals from travel partners like Booking and Expedia in the U.S. directly within a person’s AI-assisted trip planning.
We’re also introducing two new ad formats built with Gemini on the search results page. AI-powered Shopping ads— in the U.S. — surface relevant Shopping ads along with an AI explainer about why it might be the right choice, anticipating specific needs before the person even asks. Business Agent for Leads, built with Gemini, puts a brand agent directly inside the ad that allows the shopper to chat with an agent trained on the advertiser’s website. This helps turn a helpful interaction into a valuable lead.
New creative tools, AI-powered campaigns, and advanced measurement
Google is upgrading Asset Studio, its AI-powered creative hub, to make it even easier to create the range of assets needed to drive performance across Google and YouTube. Users can now generate compelling, brand-accurate ad assets just by inserting a description in everyday language. Because Asset Studio is built directly into Google Ads, the tool already knows past campaign performances, and business goals. But now, the tool can ingest far more information—allowing users to upload full marketing briefs, reference images, brand guidelines, and more. Google AI will then use these new imports to generate and refine bespoke text, image, and video assets tailored to the user’s exact vision. When the creative assets are ready, they can be tested with a single click using 1-Click A/B Testing to find the best performer.. These features will be available globally and in English.
AI-powered campaigns help marketers keep pace with the new ways people are searching and discovering products on Search, YouTube and beyond. Available globally, Demand Gen capabilities are expanding to new surfaces and gaining new features. With a new Google Maps inventory, Demand Gen connects brands with people exploring their local areas during key moments of discovery and consideration. Google is also launching the ability to integrate Merchant Center product videos directly into Demand Gen campaigns to help retailers bring their products to life at scale.
Having a clear view of performance across channels unlocks smarter investment decisions. Meridian, Google’s open-source Marketing Mix Model, will now be integrated directly into Google Analytics 360 to help businesses globally analyze cross-channel and first-party data in one place. Google is also launching Qualified Future Conversions to help marketers measure what happens long after someone first sees their ad.
New agentic tools
Earlier this year, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and co-developed it with leading partners across the retail ecosystem. UCP solves the core challenge of scaling agentic commerce across the entire web, by allowing agents to connect to business systems, securely and seamlessly. UCP is now expanding into additional industries and bringing new capabilities to retailers on Google. Building on the single-item checkout experience which lets customers buy products on Google without ever leaving their chat, UCP is now evolving, allowing shoppers to buy multiple products from a single business at once. Soon, shoppers will also have the option to transfer items from Google to the retailer’s site to complete the transaction. These features will initially launch in the U.S., in English, with select retailers.
Soon, UCP-powered checkout in Shopping ads on YouTube will make it easier to buy products on the spot. In the coming months, UCP-powered experiences on Google will also expand to Canada and Australia, and later the United Kingdom. Additionally, UCP will also scale to new categories, including hotel booking and local food delivery, in the coming months.
People are using AI Mode and Gemini to shop more, so to help merchants get discovered in those moments, Google is rolling out the AI performance insights tool in Merchant Center in the coming months in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the U.S. This new tool helps brands compare their share of voice against similar brands in all shopping journeys starting from AI Mode, AI Overviews and the Gemini app. Google also released conversational attributes globally which allow merchants to update their product descriptions to reflect the more conversational way people search.
Built with Gemini, Google’s advertising and commerce tools are moving from marketing automation to marketing intelligence, becoming strategic partners to businesses.
The new Ask Advisor works across Google’s in-product agents — Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platform, and soon Merchant Center— to offer proactive personalized recommendations that save marketers time and help them to reach their business goals. Ask Advisor is currently available in beta for English language accounts with new features rolling out in the coming months.
