Google May Core Update Done, AI Reports & ChatGPT Ads: What Happened This Week

The Google May 2026 core update has finished rolling out, bringing another round of hard volatility on June 2nd just as it was wrapping up. That was one of several big stories Barry Schwartz covered in his weekly recap for Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google May Core Update Done, AI Performance Reports & Controls, Google Ads, ChatGPT Ads, Microsoft Scout & Tools, published June 5, 2026. Between new AI performance tools in Search Console, a Microsoft exec slide that openly admitted AI reduces clicks to websites, and ChatGPT launching multi-advertiser ad placements, this was one of the heavier news weeks the search industry has seen in a while.

If you've been watching your rankings bounce around, you're not imagining it. The May core update hit hard, and the June 2nd volatility spike was a late punch. If you're still trying to figure out what moved for your clients, the data is only now settling.

The Details: What Was Actually Announced

The Google May 2026 core update completed its rollout this week, according to Schwartz's recap. The update wasn't quiet going out the door either — volatility hit hard again on June 2nd, suggesting the final stages of the rollout reshuffled rankings for a meaningful slice of sites.

Google Search Console added new AI performance reports and AI blocking controls, though both are currently in limited release. This is a meaningful shift. For the first time, publishers will be able to see how their content is performing in AI-driven search experiences — and have some controls over how AI interacts with it. The reports are rolling out to a select group, not everyone.

On the ads side, there was a lot of movement. Google Ads rolled out a new leads management screen for hosted forms, new branded search controls for AI Max campaigns, and a new invalid activity credit report. Google also began a limited test of healthcare ads in AI Mode — the first sign that Google is opening its AI-powered results to health-related advertisers. And for the first time in eight years, Google Ads updated its Terms of Service to account for AI-related changes.

A few other notable product updates from the recap: Google Merchant Center expanded attribute rules to automatically discovered products, Google AdSense now allows full IP address sharing with buyers, and Google Business Profiles will soon be connectable to Google Analytics. Google also officially launched Search Profiles — publisher profile pages that are now live for some publishers.

On the Microsoft side, Bing Webmaster Tools is preparing to add more AI reporting features soon. Microsoft also announced two new tools: Web IQ and Microsoft Scout. And according to Schwartz, a Microsoft executive had a slide that openly acknowledged AI search reduces clicks and website visits — a candid admission that doesn't surface often in official communications.

ChatGPT launched multi-advertiser placements for ads along with a batch of Ad Manager updates, signaling that OpenAI's move into advertising is accelerating. Schwartz also noted the release of a new SER volatility aggregator chart to help the community track algorithm movement.

Why It Matters: What This Means for You

Let's start with the Microsoft slide, because that's the one people will remember. A Microsoft exec showing a slide that says AI summarizes results and reduces clicks is the quiet confirmation of what we've been watching in analytics for months. This isn't a bug. It's the product working as designed. Organic click-through is structurally under pressure, and now one of the platforms is saying so out loud.

That makes the new AI performance reports in Google Search Console more important than they might look at first glance. Right now the rollout is limited. But when these reports go wide, they'll be the primary lens through which you understand how your content performs in AI-generated answers — not just in the ten blue links. I've watched tracking shift before — from impressions to clicks, from clicks to conversions. This is the next shift. Start thinking about AI visibility as a metric now, before your clients start asking.

The May core update completing with another volatility spike on June 2nd is a reminder that these updates don't always behave like a gentle wave. They roll, they pause, they spike again. If your rankings took a hit and then partially recovered, that's normal behavior for a core update in progress. Now that it's done, you have stable ground to audit from.

For anyone running Google Ads, the healthcare ads test in AI Mode is worth watching closely. That's a new surface area for a historically cautious ad category. And if you're running AI Max campaigns, the new branded search controls are a welcome addition — broad AI-driven campaigns don't always respect brand boundaries the way you need them to.

ChatGPT adding multi-advertiser placements is the clearest signal yet that paid search competition is about to expand beyond Google and Microsoft. It's early, but the trajectory is clear. AI interfaces are becoming ad platforms.

What to Do Now

1. Check your Search Console for the new AI performance reports. They're limited release, but if you have access, dig in immediately. Understand which pages are appearing in AI-driven results and which aren't.
2. Audit your site now that the May core update has settled. Rankings are no longer mid-shuffle. Pull a pre- and post-update ranking comparison using your rank tracker and look for patterns — topical authority gaps, thin content clusters, pages that lost more than they should have.
3. Review your AI blocking controls if Search Console has surfaced them for your account. Don't block reflexively, but understand what you're allowing. The fact that Google is giving you a lever here means the lever matters.
4. If you run Google Ads, check for the new invalid activity credit report and the updated Terms of Service. The ToS update hasn't happened in eight years — it's worth reading what changed, especially around AI-generated ad content.
5. Start tracking AI-driven referrals separately in your analytics. As ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Mode grow as traffic sources, you need to see them clearly. Don't let them dissolve into direct or referral noise.

Background & Context: The Bigger Pattern

Core updates in 2025 and 2026 have been more frequent and more disruptive than the annual or biannual rhythm many SEOs planned around a few years ago. I've seen sites recover cleanly from core updates by addressing content depth and topical authority — but the window between updates to make those changes keeps narrowing.

The AI performance reporting push from both Google and Microsoft is part of a broader shift: platforms know publishers are anxious about their visibility in AI surfaces, and they're slowly giving us tools to measure it. This mirrors the early days of featured snippets, when visibility shifted before measurement did. We're in that gap right now.

ChatGPT moving into advertising follows the same arc we've seen from every major search platform. Build the audience, then monetize it. OpenAI has the audience. Multi-advertiser placements are how that monetization scales. This is not surprising — but it is fast.

And the Microsoft exec admitting that AI reduces clicks? That's the kind of admission that reshapes how brands think about organic search ROI. The argument for SEO has always been cost-efficient traffic. When the traffic signal weakens, the argument has to evolve toward visibility, authority, and brand recall — not just click volume. Start making that case to your clients now, before they make it to you.

If you want to keep a closer eye on ranking volatility across updates like this one, Aergos rank tracking gives you a clean view of movement over time — useful for spotting when a core update has actually settled versus when you're still in the churn.