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At Google Marketing Live 2026, Nick Fox, who leads on Google’s most iconic products, including Search, Maps, Commerce, and Ads, sat for an interview with Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith. Nick shared his view on the future of Search and what this new AI era means for marketers.
Google SVP Nick Fox in conversation with Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Semafor.
Here are our top five marketing takeaways from Nick’s talk.
1. Search lets you ask anything and, now, helps you ask everything
Nick’s take: “Our vision of Search is that you should be able to ask any question that’s in your head and get an incredibly helpful answer. Instead of just typing keywords, people are looking for nuanced, highly personalized answers to their questions. What we’re seeing now are two, three, or four-sentence queries, using words like, ‘I’m having this problem. Can you help me with it?’ It’s a dramatic change. We realized that as people are trying to articulate what’s in their heads, we needed a Search box that could actually reflect and enable that. We announced the biggest reinvention of our Search box at I/O. The Search box shouldn’t be constrained to one line. It should expand with the breadth of your question.”
What it means for marketers: Matching simple keywords doesn’t cut it when people are asking detailed questions instead. Longer and more conversational searches mean richer signals of intent to better match your ads and offerings with what people are looking for. And a more personalized, agentic Search means a quicker path from discovery to decision. You need AI to keep up with these new and expanding opportunities. We designed AI Max for Search for exactly this reason. It helps you show up in specific, nuanced queries you might have missed with traditional keyword targeting. Advertisers using AI Max are seeing 27% more conversions compared with manual campaigns.1
2. The mechanics of marketing are changing, but AI is giving marketers superpowers
Nick’s take: “What’s working is when marketers speak to users in these moments where users are asking much longer, more detailed queries. The ads that work are ads that reach the breadth and the specificity of what users are looking for. If a user is looking for a very specific product, an ad that is broadly relevant to the space isn’t nearly as good as one related to the very specific thing they want. The marketers of the future will be so much more powerful than marketers of the past. We’re giving marketers superpowers. And that enables marketers to be more effective, more efficient, more productive. Everyone is going to get turbocharged with tools.”
What it means for marketers: Super-empowered consumers are using AI to discover, compare, and make purchases in new ways. Armed with real-time information and inspiration from AI, creators, and the web, savvy consumers are flipping the old marketing paradigm. The trade-off between the ease of a spontaneous purchase and the confidence of a well-researched decision is over. And people aren’t avoiding brands. They are actively looking for inspiration. In this environment, relevant, helpful ads and products aren’t interruptions. They’re answers. Success today is about having the right strategy, and using AI-powered ads to make your brand the clear, confident choice at the exact moment someone is ready to buy.
3. Agentic commerce is coming to remove the friction in shopping
Nick’s take: “The past of shopping has been filters and drop-downs, this very coarse way of looking for what you want. The reality is that the questions we have are much more nuanced than that. As users can ask questions in a much more specific, natural way when shopping, they will adopt [conversational search] really quickly. What is so powerful about UCP [Universal Commerce Protocol] is it enables people to buy really quickly and reduces a lot of friction. There’s friction up front in actually figuring out what you’re looking for, and there’s also a lot of friction in the checkout process, filling in your payment information and address each time. The AI Mode conversational experience solves the first part of that. UCP solves the second part of that and makes the checkout much more seamless. It’s such a leap forward that I expect adoption will be very quick.”
The marketers of the future will be so much more powerful than marketers of the past. We’re giving marketers superpowers.
What it means for marketers: The classic purchase journey is evolving with frictionless experiences, such as conversational buying. Between AI Mode helping shoppers discover, research, and verify what they’re looking for and Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) making the transaction seamless, the distance between intent and purchase has never been shorter. For brands, this means your product feeds must be structured, accurate, and rich in descriptive data. This is a huge opportunity, as AI agents help consumers discover, research, and compare products. And, by using Shopping ads in Search, like Performance Max and AI Max, you can show up earlier in the journey. Because in the age of agentic commerce, the best answer could be your ad.
4. Search in the AI era helps people explore and discover earlier in their journeys
Nick’s take: “The web is good for expertise and individual, unique experiences. If you’re looking to buy something, you don’t just want to hear what the AI says. You want to hear from someone who has used it. What do they think? What went wrong with it? What broke? What was amazing about it? What accessories did they get? All of that rich human content. Ultimately, as humans, we like to hear from humans. We want human perspectives and human experiences.
“We really believe that the best Search is a combination of AI and the web. There are others out there focusing on ‘it’s all about the AI.’” We think the AI is incredibly powerful and bringing frontier AI capabilities to people is incredibly important, but the web is also incredibly important. We don’t want users to have to choose between the web and AI, but rather we can bring those together into one powerful search experience.”
The way to optimize for AI search is the same way to optimize for Search: Create great content.
What it means for marketers: By combining intelligent responses and links to authentic and authoritative sources on the web, AI Mode helps people discover, explore, and decide. According to Google Trends data, queries related to brainstorming in AI Mode have grown 30% faster than AI Mode queries overall since launch, and searches starting with “where to,” “where should I,” and “ideas for” are growing as well.2 Meanwhile, searches beginning with “which” have increased 40% faster than AI Mode queries overall in the past six months. In that time frame, the frequent queries with the biggest growth were “which of” and “which one,”3 suggesting that people are increasingly using AI Mode from discovery all the way to decision, giving marketers a high-intent, full-funnel opportunity to be the answer curious consumers are looking for.
5. To optimize for AI Search visibility, keep making great content for people
Nick’s take: “Everyone is trying to figure out how to optimize for this new world and ensure that they, as a marketer or a website, are relevant and visible in AI search and chatbots. We’re trying to help with that. Just last week, we shared quite detailed guidance on how to optimize for this moment. The biggest piece of advice we give is that the way to optimize for AI Search is the same way to optimize for Search: Create great content. Create content that you would want as a user and expect your users to want. The additional piece of advice we give is: Go beyond the surface level. The content that will do the best within AI is the content that goes one or two levels deeper and is really helpful there.”
What it means for marketers: Google’s AI features make use of our core ranking systems, and therefore, SEO best practices are just as important as they’ve always been.
- First, lead with what your brand can uniquely say. Instead of generic, commodity information that could originate from anyone, focus on specific, one-of-a-kind content and expertise. Share reviews, firsthand experiences, or expert takes only you can provide.
- Next, focus on the most helpful content for your customers. Don’t try to write for bots, and think beyond text. People appreciate finding relevant images and videos. Generative AI in Search pulls all that content right into the results.
- Finally, get your website ready for users, systems, and agents. Your content needs to be well-structured, accessible, and easy to navigate. And make sure your product and business listings are accurate in places like Merchant Center and Google Business Profiles.
Search never sits still and neither does the opportunity for marketers
The only thing predictable about the future of Search is that it always evolves, because people’s needs are always evolving. Our AI experiences represent another evolution with Search, as we continue to best meet shifting user needs. This evolution also means that the practice of marketing is changing. But with the help of AI, individual marketers are becoming more powerful and capable than ever.
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