Google is moving AI Max for Search out of beta, and starting in September 2026 it will automatically upgrade certain legacy Search campaigns into it. If you run Google Search for a business spending real money, this is one to get straight, because a lot of the reporting on it is wrong about which campaigns are affected and when.
What Google actually announced
In its April 15 announcement, Google said AI Max for Search was leaving beta and that, starting in September, campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), automatically created assets (ACA) and the campaign-level broad match setting would be automatically upgraded to AI Max. Most outlets ran with a version of “Dynamic Search Ads are being retired in September.”
Then Google quietly changed the plan. In an update dated June 11, the same post says: “we are extending the timeline for Dynamic Search Ads sunset and auto-upgrade, which will begin in February 2027,” while “campaigns using Automatically Created Assets (ACA) and campaign-level broad match setting will continue to be auto-upgraded starting in September 2026.”
So the accurate version is this. In September, two things get force-upgraded: automatically created assets, and campaign-level broad match. Dynamic Search Ads got a reprieve to February 2027. If your team has been bracing for a DSA migration next month, that pressure is real, just five months later than the headlines said.
The part that matters for your account
AI Max is not a like-for-like swap. It combines your inputs, your ads and website content, with broader real-time query signals to find searches you were not showing for, and it adds controls Google is positioning as the trade-off for that reach, including brand controls, location controls and text guidelines. Per Google's own help documentation, when the September auto-upgrades complete, settings are configured to mirror your legacy setup, with search term matching enabled by default for campaign-level broad match campaigns, and search term matching plus text customization enabled by default for ACA campaigns.
Read that again, because it is the whole story. “Search term matching enabled by default” means Google gets more freedom to decide which queries your ads show for. If you are already on campaign-level broad match, you have handed over a lot of that control anyway. But if a chunk of your budget sits in campaigns leaning on automatically created assets with tighter query control, the upgrade widens the funnel, and a wider funnel pulls in queries you did not choose.
Google says the full AI Max feature suite delivers, on average, “7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS” compared with using search term matching alone. That number is Google's own internal data for 2026, for non-Retail advertisers, per the footnote on the announcement. It is a vendor figure for the best-case configuration, not an independent result, so treat it as a claim, not a guarantee for your account.
Why this is a control question, not a feature question
The honest way to think about AI Max is that it moves another slice of decision-making from you to Google's models. That is the same direction of travel as broad match, Performance Max and Smart Bidding. Sometimes it wins. It also makes it easier to spend money on searches that never had a chance of converting, and to have that spend buried inside a campaign that reports a healthy blended number.
This connects directly to the Target CPA and Target ROAS change arriving on August 17. Both shifts hand more of the steering to automation. Neither removes your job. It just changes it from pulling levers to setting guardrails and checking the search terms report, which is exactly where accounts on autopilot quietly leak money.
What to do about it this week
Four actions, none of which need new tools.
First, find out which campaigns are actually affected. Filter your Search campaigns for the campaign-level broad match setting and for automatically created assets. Those are the ones changing in September. Anything running Dynamic Search Ads has until February 2027, so do not panic-migrate DSA campaigns you were not planning to touch.
Second, decide whether to upgrade on your terms or Google's. Google is rolling out voluntary upgrade tools now, and doing it yourself lets you learn the new brand, location and URL controls before they are switched on for you. Being auto-upgraded means inheriting defaults. Upgrading deliberately means you set the guardrails first.
Third, baseline before the switch. Screenshot cost per conversion, conversion volume, conversion value and, above all, your search terms report for every affected campaign. When matching widens, some of what follows is new demand and some is wasted reach. If you have no before, you cannot tell which is which, and you will argue about it in the dark.
Fourth, set the guardrails and use an experiment. Add brand controls and negative keywords so broader matching does not drag you into off-target queries, then use Google's one-click experiments to measure AI Max against your current setup on live traffic rather than taking the 7% on faith. Watch the search terms report weekly for the first month after any upgrade.
The honest summary
This is a manageable change if you know which campaigns it touches and you set the guardrails before Google sets the defaults. It is a slow leak if you let it happen to you, because more automated matching plus a healthy-looking blended number is precisely how a Search account wastes budget without anyone noticing. The September date is real for broad match and automatically created assets. The DSA scare is now a February 2027 problem.
If you are not sure which of your campaigns are in scope, whether your controls are tight enough, or whether your reported conversions survive contact with your actual sales, that is exactly what our free 15-point Profit Audit checks. You keep the findings either way.