Agentic AI next frontier in ads and commerce, says Google Ads VP

Google Ads Vice President Dan Taylor says agentic AI could transform shopping journeys and advertising by simplifying decisions and enabling seamless commerce across the web

Dan Taylor, vice president, Google Ads believes that while artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how people search and create new opportunities for businesses, the next frontier for advertisement will be agentic AI.

 

“While it’s still early days, we think AI agents could be a huge asset for businesses and people across the entire purchase journey - from sparking inspiration to refining options to simplifying decisions,” he said in a virtual media roundtable.

 

He elaborated that Google Ads’ goal with agentic commerce is two-fold: one, remove the gruntwork of shopping so consumers can focus on the fun parts. Two, work hand-in-hand with the industry on the building blocks needed to make agentic commerce seamless and secure across the web.

 

“We introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) earlier this year to standardize how businesses connect with AI agents across the entire shopping journey. As a first use case, UCP now powers the ability for US shoppers to buy items from select marketplaces, right in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app. We’re working with partners in APAC, like Flipkart and Shopee, to bring this capability to customers here in the region in the coming months,” he said.

 

Taylor further added that AI is expanding search, which in turn is leading to an increase in commercial queries and in discovery of brands. He said that AI is opening a new turning point in search.

 

According to Google, the firm now gets 5 trillion searched globally. Users are moving away from keywords to a more conversational and intuitive search experience. Taylor said, people are asking complex, detailed, and multimodal questions. For instance, visual searches have become really popular: Lens is at more than 25 billion searches per month. One in every five Lens searches has commercial intent.

 

In India 86 per cent of shoppers agree that they come to Google Search to try new brands or products. About 87 per cent of Indians who discover something on social media come to Google Search to learn more. 

 

In fact, 84 per cent of surveyed Google AI Overview and/or AI Mode users in India agree they're able to make decisions faster because of them while 87 per cent of them agree they're able to make more confident decisions because of them, said Google.

 

For advertisers, Taylor highlighted that today’s consumer are interacting with over 130 mobile touchpoints daily, the linear path to purchase has been replaced by a loop of searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping.

 

“Our AI-powered campaigns make it easy for advertisers to show up in these new moments and keep pace with consumer behaviour,” he added.