The AI Max upgrade timeline, September 2026 and February 2027 A comparison of the two separate AI Max upgrade dates. September 2026 auto-upgrades campaigns using Automatically Created Assets or campaign level broad match. February 2027 is when Dynamic Search Ads campaigns migrate. Ends with the point that these are two different deadlines and it's worth checking which one applies to your account. Two upgrades, two different deadlines The AI Max timeline, in plain terms WHAT'S CHANGING, AND WHEN SEPT 2026 FEB 2027 What upgrades Automatically Created Assets and campaign level broad match Dynamic Search Ads campaigns specifically New campaigns New DSA campaigns can no longer be created anywhere DSA fully retired, AI Max only from here What survives the move Campaign ID, structure and budget stay exactly the same Historical settings carry across automatically Do you need to act No, it applies automatically once your account is eligible Not yet, but worth reviewing settings well before then WHAT THIS MEANS Most accounts are affected by the September date Check which setting applies before assuming you're safe If you're only watching the DSA date, you could miss a change that's already live in your account right now.

What actually happened this month

Since 1 September 2026, Google has been automatically moving some Search campaigns over to a system called AI Max. If you've had a notice pop up in your account, or you've heard the term floating around and aren't sure what it means for you, here's the short version. Google is changing how it decides which searches trigger your ads, and it's doing that whether you asked for it or not.

This isn't a small settings tweak buried somewhere you'll never look. It changes how flexible your keywords are, what your ad copy can say, and sometimes where your traffic lands on your site. Worth twenty minutes of your time to get straight. If you'd rather have someone keep on top of changes like this for you, that's part of ongoing management.

What AI Max actually is

Google describes AI Max as an extra layer you switch on inside a normal Search campaign, not a brand new campaign type. When it's fully switched on it does three things. It widens which searches can trigger your ad beyond your exact keywords, it can write and swap parts of your ad copy automatically, and it can send someone to a different page on your site than the one you originally picked, if Google's system thinks it will convert better.

In plain terms, it hands more control to Google and takes some away from you. Google's own figures say accounts using all three parts together see around 7% more conversions for a similar cost. That's a fair trade for a lot of accounts. For others it's a real risk, especially if your negative keyword list has been left alone for months or your landing pages aren't consistent across the site.

The bit most people are getting wrong

There's a lot of confusion floating around about what's changing when, so here's the exact split.

Two separate things are happening on two separate timelines, and it's easy to mix them up. From 1 to 30 September 2026, Google is automatically upgrading any Search campaign using Automatically Created Assets or the campaign level broad match setting. If your account uses either of those, it's being upgraded this month, whether you've clicked anything or not.

Dynamic Search Ads are a different story. DSA campaigns are not part of this September upgrade. Google pushed that particular migration back to February 2027 after advertisers pushed back on the original plan. So if you're running DSA and nothing else in your account has changed, your existing campaigns are safe for now.

What has changed for DSA users straight away is that you can no longer create brand new DSA campaigns, not in the interface, not in Editor, not through the API. The door's closing even though existing campaigns haven't moved yet.

What to check in your account

Before anything else, look at whether any of your Search campaigns are running Automatically Created Assets or campaign level broad match. If they are, they've already changed, or they're changing this month, and it's worth checking the settings actually reflect what you want rather than whatever Google auto-filled in for you.

A few things genuinely worth going through properly:

  • Your negative keyword list. Broader matching means more of the job of keeping irrelevant traffic out falls on negatives. If yours hasn't been touched in a while, that's the first place to spend twenty minutes.
  • Your search terms report. Check it weekly for the next month or so while things settle, rather than your usual monthly glance.
  • Your landing pages. If URL expansion is switched on, Google can send a click to a page you didn't pick. Make sure every page it could realistically choose actually converts, not just your main one.
  • Your conversion tracking. AI Max leans heavily on conversion data to make good decisions. If your tracking has gaps, you're handing more control to a system working with worse information than it needs.

Quick check: If you got an in-account notice about AI Max recently, it's telling you which of your campaigns are affected and when. Worth reading properly rather than dismissing, it usually lists the exact date your account changes.

Should you fight it or let it run

There isn't one right answer here, it depends on how healthy your account already is. If you've got solid conversion data, a decent negative keyword list, and consistent landing pages, AI Max tends to do roughly what Google says it does. It's a genuine chance to pick up extra volume without much extra work on your end.

If your account is thinner on data, your negative list has been neglected, or you're not fully confident your conversion tracking is accurate, I'd treat this as a prompt to tidy those things up first rather than switching everything on and hoping for the best. If it needs more than a tidy up, restructuring the account before AI Max takes over is worth thinking about. You can turn individual AI Max features off inside a campaign if you want more control while you get things in order.

The bottom line

Google has been moving in this direction for a while now, more automation, more signals pulled from across the account, less manual keyword level control. AI Max is the next step in that direction rather than something that's come out of nowhere. If your account is in decent shape, it's likely to help. If it isn't, this is as good a prompt as any to get the basics right first, because the automation only ever works as well as the data you're feeding it.