Microsoft Advertising Makes AI Max Available to All Search Advertisers

Microsoft Advertising opens AI Max to all Search advertisers

Microsoft Advertising announced on August 27, 2026 that AI Max for Search campaigns is available to all advertisers starting today.

This is a released advertising-platform capability, not a new general-purpose foundation model.

AI Max is designed to extend existing Search campaigns with AI-assisted query matching, ad-text customization and destination-page selection while keeping controls and reporting inside Microsoft Advertising.

Three core capabilities

Microsoft describes AI Max around three primary features.

AI-powered query matching expands how campaigns can match relevant searches beyond manually selected keywords.

Text customization can adapt ad messaging using information from the advertiser's existing campaign and destination content.

Final URL expansion can select a more relevant landing page from the advertiser's site when Microsoft predicts that another page better matches the search intent.

Advertisers retain the ability to control the feature set rather than treating AI Max as an opaque replacement for campaign management.

Reporting and controls

Microsoft says AI Max adds reporting that helps advertisers understand which search terms, assets and landing pages were used.

The company also describes controls for locations of interest and brand-related settings. A prompt-based messaging-guidelines capability is listed as coming soon, so it should not be treated as available at launch.

Microsoft says AI Max is enabled by default for newly created Microsoft Search campaigns, although advertisers can turn it off.

For Google Import, Microsoft says eligible imported settings can be mapped into AI Max behavior, with advertiser controls remaining available after import.

Early test results

Microsoft reports that early AI Max tests produced at least an 8% increase in conversions.

The company says the figure comes from 44 advertiser A/B experiments. Its spend-weighted analysis showed an average conversion lift of about 13.6%, while 10 statistically significant positive experiments had a lower confidence-interval bound of 8.2%.

These are vendor-reported advertising experiments, not a guarantee that every campaign will see a conversion increase. Performance will vary by account structure, conversion measurement, traffic, creative quality, landing pages and bidding strategy.

Why the release matters

Search advertising is moving from exact keyword-and-asset configuration toward systems that infer user intent, generate or select messaging and dynamically choose destination pages.

AI Max brings that pattern directly into Microsoft's mainstream Search product rather than requiring advertisers to create an entirely different campaign type.

For marketers and developers managing ad automation, the important operational detail is that AI Max is now broadly available, while some additional controls such as prompt-based messaging guidance remain upcoming.

Advertisers should test the feature with controlled experiments, inspect query and URL reporting, and confirm that generated or selected messaging complies with brand, legal and landing-page requirements before scaling spend.