Google is forcing the move. The timeline is fixed.
Starting in September 2026, Google will auto-upgrade every remaining Search campaign that uses Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets, or campaign-level broad match into AI Max 1. After that date, you will not be able to create new campaigns with DSA settings through Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, or the API. The format is done.
This is not a beta invitation. It is a forced migration with a hard cutoff. If you run DSA in any meaningful way, you have roughly four months to prepare.
What AI Max replaces and what it adds
DSA worked by crawling your site and matching queries to landing pages automatically. AI Max does the same thing but expands the signal set: it pulls from your landing page content, your existing keyword lists, search themes, and real-time intent data from across Google's properties 2. The matching is broader by design.
Google's published number is a 7% lift in conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS when using the full AI Max feature suite: search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion 2. That 7% is an average across hundreds of thousands of advertisers. Your account may see more, less, or worse, depending on how tightly your current DSA setup was controlled.
The three features that change the most:
Search term matching now uses intent signals beyond the landing page index. Text customization lets the system rewrite your ad copy to match the query. Final URL expansion lets Google send traffic to pages you did not explicitly select. Each of these can be toggled, but they default to on.
The real risk is not the upgrade itself
The risk is losing control of where traffic goes and what the ad says when it gets there. Final URL expansion, in particular, is the feature that catches operators off guard. If your site has thin pages, old blog posts with outdated offers, or landing pages built for a campaign you stopped running two years ago, Google will happily send paid traffic to them.
The operators who will have trouble are the ones running DSA as a catch-all discovery campaign with loose page feeds and broad targets. AI Max will take that looseness and expand it further. If DSA was already sending traffic to pages you did not want, AI Max will do more of the same, faster.
What to do before September
The migration path runs in two phases. Phase one is live now: Google is rolling out upgrade tools that let you port historical settings and data into standard ad groups with AI Max features 1. Phase two, the forced auto-upgrade, starts in September.
Here is the work to do before that date:
Audit every DSA campaign and document which pages are receiving traffic. If you have page feeds, review them. If you are using "all web pages" targeting, that is the first thing to tighten.
Run the upgrade tool on one campaign first. Compare search term reports, landing page reports, and conversion data against the old DSA setup for at least 14 days before rolling out to the rest.
Decide which AI Max features to keep on. Search term matching is the least risky. Final URL expansion is the most risky if your site has pages that should not receive paid traffic. Text customization sits in the middle: useful if your RSA headlines are generic, dangerous if your ad copy carries specific legal or compliance language.
Set up negative keyword lists and URL exclusions before the migration. AI Max respects both, but you have to put them in place. After the auto-upgrade, the system will use whatever guardrails exist at that point.
This is the same pattern, again
Google has been doing this for years: build an automated replacement, run it alongside the manual option, publish performance lifts from early adopters, then sunset the manual option. Smart Bidding replaced manual bids. Performance Max absorbed Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. Now AI Max absorbs DSA.
The pattern is consistent with the firm's thesis: the platforms keep automating the targeting and matching layer, which means the leverage keeps moving to the creative, the offer, and the landing page. Every round of automation makes the ad itself and the page it points to more important, not less.
If you are spending your hours trying to control which queries DSA matches, you are optimizing the layer Google is taking away from you. The hours are better spent on what the ad says and where the click lands.
The question worth holding
AI Max's 7% average lift assumes you have strong creative and strong landing pages for it to work with. If you do, the upgrade is a tailwind. If you do not, you just handed broader matching to a system that will spread your budget across more queries hitting weaker pages. The upgrade is not the variable. The pages are.