What exactly is changing
AI Max is Google's AI-driven replacement for the older, more manual side of Search campaign setup. Rather than you controlling Broad Match at the campaign level, feeding Google separate asset libraries, or running standalone Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns, AI Max folds all of that into one AI-managed layer that decides matching and asset creation for you.
From August 2026, Google started retiring the older versions of three features and auto-migrating existing campaigns onto AI Max settings:
- Campaign-level Broad Match, the setting that let an entire campaign run on broad match rather than match type being set per keyword.
- Automatically Created Assets (ACA), Google's older auto-generated headline and description feature.
- Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), campaigns that generate ads directly from your website content instead of keywords.
Existing brand inclusions and exclusions carry over automatically during migration, so the intent is continuity rather than a clean slate. But AI Max behaves differently enough from what it replaces that account performance is worth watching closely through the migration window rather than assuming it's a like-for-like swap.
The key dates
This is rolling out on a staged timetable rather than all at once, which matters if you're planning account work around it:
Full breakdown by date:
If you manage your own account via the API rather than the UI, older API versions also lose support for these legacy features around September 2027, so integrations built against them will need updating regardless of what happens in-platform.
The language targeting change
Running alongside the AI Max migration is a separate but related change: from late September 2026, the campaign-level language targeting setting is being removed for Search and AI Max for Search campaigns entirely. Instead, Google matches ads to searches based on the language of the ad itself.
Performance Max campaigns are affected too, but only partially. On the Google Search channel within Performance Max, the same change applies and campaign-level language settings stop mattering. On every other Performance Max channel, YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail, campaign-level language settings still apply as before.
Where more than one eligible campaign could serve for a search, Google's own ad-group prioritisation picks whichever ad language it judges most relevant. Practically, this means the signal you control shifts from a targeting setting to your actual creative: the ad copy and landing page language now do more of the work than a dropdown ever did.
If you manage campaigns through the API, trying to set or update a language criterion on a Search campaign after this change ships will return an OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT error. Performance Max won't error the same way, since language targeting can still apply to its non-Search channels.
What happens if you do nothing
Both changes are automatic. You don't need to opt in, and there's no setting to toggle to keep the old behaviour, Google is retiring it outright. If you do nothing:
- Your Broad Match and ACA campaigns migrate to AI Max on Google's schedule, not yours, sometime in September 2026.
- Your DSA campaigns keep running as-is until the February 2027 window, then migrate automatically.
- Existing language targeting settings on Search campaigns simply stop applying from late September 2026. They don't need removing, they just go quiet.
The risk with doing nothing isn't that the account breaks, it's that performance shifts without an obvious cause if nobody's watching for it. An account that was tightly controlled around specific match types or language rules can see its traffic mix move once AI Max and automatic language matching take over.
What we'd check on your account
On our own client accounts, this is the sequence we're running before Google's migration windows hit:
- Audit anything relying on campaign-level Broad Match or ACA now, before the automatic migration, so you know your starting point and can compare post-migration performance against it.
- Tighten ad copy and landing pages per language ahead of the language targeting change, since these become the primary signal instead of a setting you controlled directly.
- Flag any DSA campaigns you're relying on heavily and start testing standard Search campaigns alongside them, so you're not caught out when new DSA ad group creation is disabled in 2027.
- Update any API integrations that set language criteria on Search campaigns, since these calls will start failing once the change ships.
- Watch reporting closely through each migration window rather than after the fact. A shift in traffic mix is far easier to explain and act on the week it happens than three months later.
Worth knowing: none of this is optional or reversible on Google's end. The only thing in your control is how prepared your account is when each window opens.
FAQ
Google migrates eligible campaigns automatically on its own schedule. You can migrate earlier by choice if you want more control over timing, but there's no manual step required to receive the change.
Not necessarily, but the control shifts. Google matches based on your ad and landing page language rather than a campaign setting, so ads in a given language should still serve, as long as your creative is actually written in that language and clearly so.
Partially. On the Google Search channel inside Performance Max, yes, the same change applies. On YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail within Performance Max, campaign-level language settings keep working as before.
Not required. Once the change ships, existing language criteria on Search campaigns simply stop applying, they don't need to be manually cleared out. Some advertisers tidy them up anyway for account hygiene, but it's optional.