• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 1, 2025

Google confirmed Thursday to MediaPost that it ran a limited experiment with a handful of publishers serving ads in chatbots before making AdSense for Search (AFS) broadly available to sites that host conversational AI interfaces earlier this year. 

AFS has been a long-standing product that allows publishers to show ads on relevant queries within the search results on a publisher’s page.

The AdSense network was traditionally used to place ads in search results and across websites. Now it is running ads in chatbot interactions.

Some have opted in to this product. Bloomberg reported those companies include conversational AI startups iAsk and Liner.

Google’s AdSense network was traditionally used to place ads in search results and across websites. Now it’s running ads in chatbot interactions.

AFS has been a long standing product that allows publishers to show ads on relevant queries within the search results on a publisher’s page. But the way people search online continuously evolves, and conversational AI experiences have become a new source of information for consumers looking for products and services, according to a Google spokesperson. 

“AFS not only helps publishers generate additional revenue, but it also allows businesses to reach new audiences and customers with helpful and relevant ads,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. 

Publishers regularly integrate AFS into their search results and it's not uncommon for teams to conduct some early testing to ensure Google’s products work as intended, especially for different types of user interfaces, such as conversational AI sites. 

Google said it will continue to evaluate AFS on these sites and make adjustments as needed.

CB Insights recently released a list of 100 AI startup, including evinced, poolside, and codemetal. Since the beginning of 2024, these companies and thousands of others have formed. Funding to AI companies has surpassed $170 billion primarily driven by companies such as OpenAI, and Anthropic.