Google’s Liz Reid on AI Overviews: Less ad clicks, more searches

Google’s new AI-powered search experience isn’t eating into ad revenue – even as AI Overviews answer more questions directly on the results page. While some queries may see fewer ad clicks, overall query volume is rising, keeping ad performance “relatively stable,” Liz Reid, Google’s head of Search, said in a new interview.

Ads and revenue impact. Google’s AI era looks a lot like its mobile moment – feared at first, but fueling more searches and steady ad dollars. Here’s what Reid said.

• Ad revenue with AI Overviews is “relatively stable.”
• Some queries lose ad clicks, but total query volume rises when answers are faster or easier – offsetting the dip. (“Some queries may get less clicks on ads, but also it grows overall queries, so people do more searches, right? And so those two things end up balancing out.”)
• Commercial searches still require an action. (“So if the ads are for shoes, you might get an answer in AI Overviews, but you still have to buy the shoes, right? Like none of the AI ones substitute the need for the actual pair of shoes.”)
• Today’s AI transition is like the transition to mobile, when skeptics doubted Google could adapt ads to smaller screens, but the shift boosted growth for Google. (“People asked similar questions when the time of mobile came, right? Like, ‘Oh, will you actually be able to have an ads product in the mobile space? The phone is so small. You’re such a desktop product. Are you gonna be able to transition?’ And it actually proved very healthy for us, right?”)

Ads and AI Overviews. How and where people search is changing, but the habit of searching is growing, not shrinking. Some other things Reid pointed out on the podcast:

• Google can show ads above or below AI Overviews; impact varies by layout and query.
• Many informational queries never had ads – with or without AI Overviews.
• Tools like Google Lens lower the effort to ask. When you drop that barrier, people ask more – and that lifts overall search volume.
• AI Overviews set context, but users still click through when they need to verify, compare, or buy.

Why we care. Reid’s comments suggest Google’s AI evolution is expanding the paid search funnel, not shrinking it. Users may click differently, but they’re still converting – which means paid search remains a reliable performance channel for brands.

The interview. The Google Exec Reinventing Search in the AI Era | WSJ’s Bold Names