{"id":27042,"date":"2025-12-03T23:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/?p=27042"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:06:17","slug":"ppcchat-sorting-through-ai-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/ppcchat-sorting-through-ai-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"PPCChat | Sorting Through AI Hype | 2nd December 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AI has become an integral part of every PPC professional\u2019s workflow. It seems like there\u2019s news about AI almost every day, whether in search or within an ad platform. In this week\u2019s PPCChat session, host Julie F. Bacchini<\/a> discussed the most hyped aspects of AI in PPC, how AI is reshaping the way experts manage campaigns, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Google’s announcement regarding AI https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/robbystein_today-we-launched-gemini-3-our-most-intelli[\u2026]m=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAGuUzYBDlXKq_1mSdj59hd7-vhzlszLDng<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q1: What do you think is the most hyped aspect of AI in general right now? Do you think it is over hyped?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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It is all over hyped to me. I think though, the idea that you should use AI for everything is the biggest one. Especially when it gets things wrong so often. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, and overhyped right now is the vibe-coding stuff. Build this, do that, don’t worry if all your stuff gets erased! non-experts can do anything! ugh. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also think companies pushing AI are out of touch with the appetite of the general public for AI to be shoved into everything. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The definition is the most hyped. Artifical Intelligence. It’s not intelligence yet. It\u2019s a tool powered by LLMs to augment Human Intelligence. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Microsoft being shocked people don\u2019t want an operating system where they have to talk to their computer to do stuff. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitely overhyped. A good starting point, but definitely not production-ready. @Pete_Bowen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe it will be a classic case of branding go wrong – for tech – AI is the holy grail, but for normal people – AI has always been seen as a destroyer – Terminator, Ultron, iRobot, etc @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think applications of AI are still mostly overhyped. It feels like the early days of the iPhone and the App Store. It felt so insane and crazy to have what felt like a limitless amount of “cool, innovative apps” at your disposal, but in reality, it was mostly just redesigned calculators, flashlights, and an app that made it look like you were drinking beer from a glass. In 5-10 years (not to mention 20+), I think we’ll be in a good spot, but right now, it’s a bunch of holler that ain’t worth a dollar. @AnthonyMcDaniel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interesting way to put it @alimehdimukadam<\/a>. I also can\u2019t skip bringing up the environmental aspect of AI. The resources it requires are insane. We will need to reckon with that sooner rather than later. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the cost, it’s all funded by VC hope at the moment. @Pete_Bowen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main reasons I do not use it very much at all is the environmental aspect @Pete_Bowen<\/a> The companies are pouring money into each other to keep it going too. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think there is a certain confusion between “cool” and truly helpful. <\/em>It’s cool to have groceries auto-refilled in a “smart” fashion, but is it helpful? Does it lead to over-consumption? It’s “cool” to abandon keywords (theoretically streamlining workflows), but is it helpful for brands? What about the risk of spending into irrelevance. @teabeeshell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians & media will blame AI for their own lapses and economic policies, which are a cause of the slowdown. AI is being set up to be the fall guy for the next economic downturn and job losses, etc. And people will believe it, coz they have been conditioned to do so over the years. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels like if PT Barnum were alive he would be the CEO of an AI company right now\u2026@NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I keep hearing \u201cWe should start integrating AI into our processes\u201d like it\u2019s magic but a major hype\u2026 like cool but what are we trying to fix or make better? @Meriem<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think some people are overly reliant on AI and trust it too much. I’ve seen it make mistakes. If you’re using AI, verify the output you see; it could be wrong. @JeffreyHain<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that AI is a substitute for people, search engines, etc is overhyped. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s very useful for things like taking meeting notes and then add some automations. Some use cases like Slides, Images, Summary, Deep Research are awesome, but it still requires Humans to prompt and drive. Can’t be automated or artificial. Human in the loop always. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@alimehdimukadam<\/a> yes. I love AI for my meeting notes & task extraction. It’s great for menial tasks. Not great for deep thinking. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hype is real y’all. We’ve had pitch feedback that they didn’t see us using enough AI in our proposals. Like, we’ll pitch what’s appropriate for your business, but go off I guess. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@JuliaVyse<\/a> UGH @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALSO the AI Overviews aren’t always right… and that’s getting on my nerves at the mo too LOL @Meriem<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think video AI is currently really bad and pushed a lot. I have seen loads of bad quality, yes, you can push a load of content out fast, but quality is still important. @JoeWilliams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q2: What do you think is the most hyped aspect of AI as it relates to PPC right now? Do you think it is over hyped?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The lack of controls. The creative enhancements in Meta and Google are not ready for regulated fields and they’re aggressively pushing them into everything with no opt-outs or opt-outs that don’t work. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, the amount of Meta creative ‘optimization’ toggles drives me nuts. @Ashsanh<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a few, but one of the biggest ones is that ad platforms have AI in them that is sophisticated enough to target effectively when you let them do what they want. AI Max, for example. And with the increase in AI in platforms, the transparency into performance decreases. It is a whole lot of \u201ctrust us, it\u2019s working\u201d which, thank you, but I need to see that for myself. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What people are missing is context – especially if we put an algorithm – its job will be to maximize output – i.e. recommend budget increase, etc. It doesn’t have the context of the budget of the advertiser, seasonality, operational bottlenecks and capacity at their end, goals (top line, bottom line – all of which get discussed with the agency or the ppc professional knows why the setup is the way it is. But an algorithm doesn’t. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the hype over agentic things is also overblown to me. Like has Google really thought through these changes they are making to how search works beyond the next quarterly report and not seeming like they are falling behind in the AI race? Because how they want search to evolve does not seem compatible with ads like traditional search has been? @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m more comfortable with AI-driven targeting than I am AI-driven creative. Since the beginning of advertising, brands curate their own image. Granted, this is often overplayed, but with AI, we’re degrading this into background swaps, faux actors, and awkward contrived product angles. It’s under baked, to say the least. @teabeeshell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And people are not thinking about all of this sameness and where it gets to @teabeeshell<\/a> When you\u2019re using the AI for your creative, your messaging and targeting, where does your competitive advantage go? I think largely up in smoke\u2026Having been through the original dot com bubble, this feels eerily familiar @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can tell the difference between fast food hamburgers, but to the machine, a burger is a burger. So what do I say to my QSR client? @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think Google still has played it smart and well when it comes to plugging AI mode (not perfect obviously) But if we zoom out and look at the demand for TPU\u2019s – over a long enough horizon – the search revenue has a competitor like how AWS was for Amazon. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think Google and all the platforms and companies are really overestimating both true demand for what they are shoving everywhere and the reality of how it actually performs. All those stories about companies letting people go in favor of AI doing their jobs? Most are rehiring cause AI can\u2019t actually do that work. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I agree with @teabeeshell<\/a> re the creative. I’m very pleased when other people are using AI slop in their ads @Pete_Bowen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one wants to deal with AI agents when they need anything more than the most basic of customer service. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that AI = great performance is overhyped. It’s not always true. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10000% agree with the meta AI stuff I’m so tired of turning them off and then doing it again multiple times if I edit anything or breath\u2026. @Meriem<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the way that LLMs were sold as thinking models rather than very sophisticated pattern matchers is truly amazing. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not even really AI. It’s machine learning. There is a difference @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gemini, ChatGPT, etc are not thinking or solving a problem through reasoning and \u201cthought\u201d they are spitting out the answers that are most \u201clikely\u201d based on their training data and mathematical algorithms. Yet they are touted as being smarter than trained professionals of all stripes. Like I said, someone should just name one Barnum be be done with it! @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think most platforms are pushing it but it’s so new and lack of data available it\u2019s just a black box of currently unknown answers, which is always hard to speak to a client about. @JoeWilliams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just want to say I appreciate you all so much – I’m actively working on “AI empathy content” and these nuggets are gold. P.s. does all of this apply to Copilot as well or is Copilot so far out of your sphere of consideration that you don’t think of it as a distinct AI @navahhopkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s our main ai platform at work, it’s definitely in our sphere of consideration. It’s distinct for the user, so we consider it distinct w understood differences. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@navahhopkins<\/a> Unfortunately for me, I don’t use Copilot AI (my perception – it\u2019s same as ChatGPT – coz of the OpenAI\/MSFT deal, please correct me if I am wrong – I haven’t taken the effort to figure out if there\u2019s a difference to it or not) And I don’t have a strong enough reason as I am on Google Workspace, Mac & use MSFT only for ads & office. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q3: What are you getting asked about with regard to AI from clients or stakeholders right now?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Showing up in AI Overviews. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we get mentioned in ChatGPT, and: How are we using it, how should we use it, what is the right approach? like, this arrived two seconds ago. @JuliaVyse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And my follow up question is always – why do you want to be in the overview and what do you think that will do for your business? @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showing up in AI Overviews here too. we have clients OBSESSED with that @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that full on AI Mode is getting put into regular old search by Google is going to be a mess. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme for me is, Can I trust this?<\/em> For targeting, sure. We’re far past the minutia of age, gender, demo, interests, etc. For efficiency, absolutely not, at least not right away. With AI Max, for example, you forfeit the ability to target with specificity (KWs), but you gain scale through never-before-thought-of KWs…AND a ton of irrelevance. So I propose the known trade-off back to them. Does this feel worth it to you\/your business?<\/em> @teabeeshell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have not seen it, I shared this earlier, but here is what Google is announcing about AI Mode in search: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/robbystein_today-we-launched-gemini-3-our-most-intelligent-activity-7396596480817582080-iFbT<\/a> @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@NeptuneMoon<\/a> Well they have to get people to use it and that’s the only way right??? @Meriem<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the FOMO for clients is so real too. AI is being talked about by people who have no idea what it actually is and they really fear being left behind or seeming out of touch. It is a problem. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOMO is definitely driving a lot of it. @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first draft from last week. I have tried to reverse engineer how Gemini works and how it can help. Need to polish it a bit more. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I also don\u2019t want to seem like I am somehow gatekeeping searching, but does anyone else find it creepy how all these AI systems want to suck you in by sounding like a friend or therapist, etc.? @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@NeptuneMoon<\/a> Yes, especially with ChatGPT. It ends up saying Yes to everything. @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is very fear mongering… and i don’t like that. I get people are scared of the unknown, but also we need to learn how to use these things… and my clients are 50\/50, some assuming they won’t need me within a year and others are scared it will kill there businesses in some way due to the biggest beasts or tech making it easier for people to copy them… most my clients are eCom. @Meriem<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The level of sucking up the AI does when you keep engaging with it is creepy and dangerous depending on what you are asking of it. @NeptuneMoon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ChatGPT knows my name and thinks I’m very detail oriented. It also provides incorrect or incomplete answers to my detailed questions. @JeffreyHain<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More how ppc and ai can work in multi channel strategy, how LLM are impacting search and if so how much, are impressions decreasing and CPM increasing thats some analysis I have been carrying out. @JoeWilliams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Q4: How is AI impacting how you do PPC?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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I recently had AI take a keyword list for an account I’m restructuring (several hundred long) and break them out into general themes that I could then use for either campaigns or ad groups. I was able to confirm relevance much more quickly than I’d have been able to determine the themes myself. I’ve also used AI to help write and troubleshoot google ad scripts (about to do that today) which has been very helpful! @AnthonyMcDaniel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are using it for routine things like SQR reviews and ad copy creation. It’s also great for competitor research . Go watch my SMX Next preso from a couple weeks ago to see how we’re using it @beyondthepaid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lot of thoughts here: @alimehdimukadam<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n