Google adds AI performance insights and conversational attributes in Merchant Center

Google pushed Merchant Center deeper into AI shopping with two updates that connect measurement and merchandising in the same workflow. The new AI Performance Insights tool shows how a brand is performing on AI surfaces by comparing share of voice against similar brands, and Google said it will roll out in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the U.S. in the coming months. At the same time, Conversational Attributes gives retailers a way to add more natural product descriptions and attributes inside Merchant Center so Google’s systems can better match items to conversational shopping queries.

The operational shift is bigger than a reporting tweak. Google said new Merchant Center data attributes help retailers get discovered in conversational commerce, and AI Max for Shopping campaigns use Merchant Center feeds to transform product data into dynamic Shopping ads that answer conversational queries. Google also said AI-driven shopping experiences in AI Mode, virtual try-ons and shoppable CTV are powered by the product data merchants provide. In practice, that puts feed quality, attribute depth and wording consistency closer to the center of visibility strategy than classic shopping-ad thinking ever did.

Ask Advisor adds another layer to that system. Google said the tool connects marketing data across Google Ads, Google Analytics and Merchant Center, and it is in beta for English-language accounts with more features due later this year. Google’s Marketing Live 2026 roundup described Ask Advisor as a unified agent built with Gemini spanning Google Ads, Google Analytics, Merchant Center and Google Marketing Platform. That means merchants are getting both a measurement layer, where AI performance can be tracked, and a guidance layer, where marketing signals from across Google’s stack can be pulled into one place.

The direction had been visible for months. In July 2024, Google said all retail users would be upgraded to the new Merchant Center by September and pointed to new insights reports, generative AI imagery tools and a more intuitive interface. Google also said 25% more omnichannel merchants were adding product offers in the new experience, while 80% of merchants using Product Studio saw it as an efficiency-builder. By 2025, Google had already introduced a conversational feature on merchant brand profiles in the U.S., Canada, Australia and India, and Business Agent began rolling out in the U.S. as an evolution of that experience.

By early 2026, Google had made the strategy explicit: product data would determine whether retailers showed up in conversational commerce at all. The latest Merchant Center changes make that logic measurable. For merchants, visibility is no longer just about listings and ads. It is about feeding AI systems the attributes they need to understand, rank and recommend products inside the shopping interfaces users are starting to trust.