Google - Agentic Commerce, AI Ads & the End of the Keyword. Alex Storey - Media Tech Talk #038
Media Tech TalkShow Notes
Media Tech Talk #038 - Alex Storey (Google) Part 2
Alex Storey, Senior Client Manager at Google, returns to Media Tech Talk to take on the topic causing the most anxiety in publishing right now: zero click search. If the answer appears on the page, what happens to the click? Alex doesn't dodge it. She makes Google's case that its AI features are built to point back at the web rather than away from it, and walks through the newer mechanics designed to keep readers moving through to publishers, including one feature rolling out now that hands control over which publications show up in your AI results straight back to the user.
From there the conversation moves into agentic commerce, and Alex's line that Google is the matchmaker, not the merchant. She explains the open standard being built so retailers, payment providers and AI agents can finally speak the same language, then runs a live worked example that starts with a 90s colour blocked ski jacket that doesn't exist yet and ends with an agent completing the purchase on her behalf while she's doing something else entirely. She is also clear about which parts of this are already switched on in Australia and which are still US only, and why one unglamorous piece of retail infrastructure has quietly become the most valuable asset a merchant owns.
The final stretch turns to the paid layer and the future. Alex breaks down what happens to search marketing when the manual keyword goes away, and what conversational ads inside AI Mode mean for brands that are used to buying a slot rather than an answer. Then comes the crystal ball. In 2022, a nervous client made a bet with Alex about whether search would still matter a year later. Alex tells you how that turned out, then makes a new bet with Daevid for September 2031, and shares the piece of career advice she wishes she'd taken far earlier.
Chapters: (00:00) Cold open: picking up on zero click search (00:55) Welcome back Alex Storey (01:11) What zero click search actually means (01:35) Publisher anxiety and the open web (02:35) How AI responses link back out (03:47) Preferred sources: pick your own publishers (04:57) Agentic commerce: matchmaker, not merchant (06:42) The shared language behind agentic shopping (07:31) The ski jacket test: from prompt to purchase (09:12) Virtual try-on and letting an agent buy for you (10:44) What is live in the US versus Australia (11:20) The retail data that now decides everything (12:10) The advertiser toolkit: the paid layer (13:03) What happens when the keyword disappears (14:49) Conversational ads in AI Mode (15:56) Closing the loop the internet was built for (17:06) Crystal ball: the 2022 bet, and a new one (19:43) Voice, screens and the Star Trek device (21:33) The advice Alex would give her younger self (22:55) What the future of media looks like (23:52) Wrapping part two (24:30) Coming next on Media Tech Talk
💬 Guest: Alex Storey, Senior Client Manager – Google https://www.linkedin.com/in/storeyalex/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/google/ | https://ads.google.com/intl/en_au/start/
🎧 Hosts: Daevid Richards – https://www.linkedin.com/in/daevidrichards
Media Tech Talk explores ad tech, digital media, AI in advertising, programmatic monetisation, audience engagement, and the technologies shaping the future of publishing.
🏷️ #MediaTechTalk #Google #ZeroClickSearch #AgenticCommerce #AIMax #AIMode #GoogleAds #AdTech #DigitalMarketing #Ecommerce #ArtificialIntelligence #SEM #MarTech #Podcast
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