The ad industry spent years debating whether AI would hollow out Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) business. Instead, Google handed advertisers an AI toolkit and turned it into an opportunity. The company’s latest numbers tell the story plainly: ad revenue of $82.28 billion in Q4 2025, up 13.5% year over year, with total annual revenue crossing $400 billion for the first time.
AI Ads Boost Retail Revenue
At the heart of this push is a suite of AI-powered ad tools like AI Max and Performance Max that Google claims are delivering extraordinary results for brands. Canadian fashion retailer Aritzia is an example. In an interview published on Tuesday, Courtney Rose, Google’s VP of Retail Ads, told ModernRetail, “When they enabled AI Max, they saw a 80% increase in revenue.”
Rose shared an example of a natural-language search, asking Google for outfit suggestions for a spring trip to Atlanta, including a sweater, purse, and jeans, instead of using simple …
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