Google Retains Ad Tech Assets Under New Interoperability Rules
A federal court ordered Google to open its ad exchange to competitors, but the industry is rapidly shifting focus to AI-driven ad systems.
Key points
- Google must integrate its AdX exchange with Prebid and allow it to bid into competing publisher servers for six years.
- Traditional display advertising has declined, with AdWords impressions in display dropping from 40% in 2019 to 11% in 2025.
- AI platforms like ChatGPT are creating closed advertising loops that handle discovery and purchase within the chat interface.
A federal judge in the United States has outlined specific changes Google must make to its advertising technology following an antitrust defeat. The ruling allows the company to keep its core assets, including the AdX exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers, but imposes a six-year regime requiring closer integration with open-source tools like Prebid.
The primary requirement is interoperability. Google must allow AdX to bid into competing publisher ad servers and restrict preferential treatment of its own technology. While this aims to break down barriers in the traditional web advertising stack, Digiday notes that the industry’s center of gravity is already moving toward AI platforms that are building their own closed advertising ecosystems.
Gradual changes face implementation hurdles
The court gave Google 12 months to open its exchange to competing servers, though integrating with Prebid will take longer. A monitor and technical committee will oversee compliance over the six-year period. However, industry sources suggest the competitive landscape has already shifted, making these technical adjustments less impactful than they were originally intended to be.
The remedies primarily target open-web display advertising, a market that has diminished in relative importance. According to Digiday, the share of AdWords impressions flowing into traditional display fell from over 40% in 2019 to just 11% in 2025. This decline limits the practical reach of the new rules in the current digital economy.
AI platforms create new ad loops
Conversational AI models are building integrated advertising systems that differ fundamentally from traditional search. Amazon recently opened ChatGPT inventory to select US advertisers through its demand-side platform, combining AI-based discovery with commerce data. This allows for transactions to occur within the chat interface, bypassing the need to send users to external websites.
This shift threatens the traditional advertising bargain, which relied on sending users to landing pages. New ad formats in AI assistants allow users to research and purchase without leaving the platform. This creates a closed loop where discovery, recommendation, and commercial interaction happen in a single interface, changing how brands connect with consumers.
Governance questions emerge for AI ads
As these new advertising formats expand, governance questions are becoming more urgent. OpenAI recently stopped approving ads for standalone image and voice generators, signaling early steps toward regulating content within AI responses. The industry is now navigating a period where regulatory remedies for the old web coexist with the rapid, often unregulated, growth of AI-driven ad systems.
