Google has begun placing sponsored ads, which it calls Highlighted Answers, directly inside the middle of AI Mode responses, marked with a “Sponsored” tag but designed to look like the rest of the organic results. The format was announced last week at Google Marketing Live, but observers say the frequency of these ads has been climbing. AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly active users globally, with query volumes more than doubling every quarter since launch. Entrepreneur Juozas Kaziukenas, who shared a screenshot of a sponsored coffee-maker listing inserted into the middle of organic results, said Google has broken AI's biggest promise to users by injecting ads mid-conversation and predicted ChatGPT will follow. Sonata Insights analyst Debra Aho Williamson noted that the ad copy appeared to be AI-generated rather than written by the advertiser.
