Google puts AI agents inside Ads and Analytics: what marketers get
Homepage summaries, chat-driven reports and industry benchmarks are landing across Google's marketing tools, all running on the Gemini AI model.
Key points
- Google is adding AI-generated summaries to the Google Analytics and Google Ads homepages, giving marketers a plain-English recap of what changed since their last login.
- A new Dashboards feature in Google Ads lets users build reports by typing a request in ordinary language, with Google Analytics to follow.
- Ask Advisor, Google's in-product AI assistant, now benchmarks a campaign against anonymised averages from similar businesses.
- Notifications for the AI summaries can be sent by phone or email at a frequency the user chooses.
- All features are built on Gemini, Google's family of AI models, and are rolling out inside Google Ads and Google Analytics now.
Google is stitching more AI directly into the two products most marketers touch every morning: Google Ads and Google Analytics. The pitch is less time clicking, more time asking.
Here is what actually changes.
What are the new AI features?
Three things are new: automatic homepage summaries, chat-style report building, and a benchmarking tool that compares your results to similar businesses. All sit on top of Gemini, Google's family of AI models that also powers its chatbot. We first covered Google's broader Gemini push on 4 August in our story on Google's July model drop.
On the Google Analytics homepage, an AI Overview greets you with a short recap of what shifted since you last logged in. Seasonal sales spikes, a traffic drop, a campaign suddenly over-performing. Click a card and the context carries into Ask Advisor, the in-product AI agent (software that can carry out multi-step tasks on its own) that Google rolled out earlier across its marketing platforms.
The Google Ads homepage gets personalised insight cards and a prompt box. Type a question like "how are competitors affecting my impression share?" and you get a tailored answer.
How does the new report builder work?
Describe the report you want in plain English and the tool builds it. The feature is called Dashboards, launching in Google Ads first, with Google Analytics to follow.
Every chart comes with an auto-written summary explaining the "why" behind the numbers. For a marketing manager trying to justify a budget request to a sceptical boss, that narrative layer is arguably the point.
| Feature | Product | Status |
|---|---|---|
| AI Overviews on homepage | Google Analytics | Available now |
| AI insight cards on homepage | Google Ads | Available now |
| Dashboards (prompt-built reports) | Google Ads | Rolling out |
| Dashboards | Google Analytics | Coming soon |
| Benchmarking in Ask Advisor | Google Analytics | Available now |
What does benchmarking actually compare?
The new benchmarking feature inside Ask Advisor compares your campaign performance against anonymised averages from businesses Google considers similar to yours. It sits inside Google Analytics.
Google hasn't published the exact matching criteria, so treat the comparison as directional rather than a precise league table. Kevin Marshall, paid media director at the indoor-garden company Gardyn, said in Google's announcement that Ask Advisor has become his "go-to for a directional check on paid media performance." Directional is the operative word.
Should marketers worry about handing decisions to an AI?
Not yet. Google says the human stays "in the driver's seat." The tools summarise and visualise. They don't automatically shift budgets or pause campaigns without you.
Two practical cautions are worth keeping in mind. AI summaries can miss the odd or the new: a one-off promotion, a PR crisis, a broken tracking tag. Benchmarks against "similar businesses" are also only as good as Google's definition of similar. Read the underlying data before acting on the narrative.
When can you use it?
The homepage AI Overviews, insight cards and benchmarking are live now. Dashboards is rolling out in Google Ads, with Google Analytics arriving later. Notifications are opt-in, by phone or email, at a cadence you set.
The feature that'll matter most isn't the prettiest one: it's benchmarking. Marketers have always wanted to know whether their numbers are good in context, not just in isolation. Whether Google's definition of "similar businesses" is tight enough to make that comparison meaningful is the thing to watch.
Common questions
Do I need a Gemini subscription to use these features?
No. The new capabilities are built into Google Ads and Google Analytics directly, using Gemini under the hood at no extra cost noted by Google.
Will my campaign data be used to train Google's AI?
Google hasn't said these specific features train its models on your account data. Check your Google Ads and Analytics data-sharing settings if that matters to you.
