Google AI Brief adds seven languages, and Arabic is not one

No, AI Brief is not available for Arabic campaigns. On 23 September 2026, Google opened its closed beta to seven new languages, and Arabic is not among them. So your account in Saudi Arabia runs AI Max today without the layer that steers it in your own words. AI Max is an optimization layer that expands the ad text and search terms of an existing Search campaign. Here is what stays in your hands instead, and what you should not build on.

What did Google announce about AI Brief in September 2026?

Google opened the AI Brief closed beta to seven languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. AI Brief is a tool where you describe your business, audience and messages in your own words, and AI Max follows them. Arabic is not on the announced list. Google gave no date for it.

Google first announced the tool on 30 April 2026 in its post "AI Max Turns 1". It said the tool would launch in English first for Search campaigns, then for Performance Max and Shopping campaigns. The latest announcement brings the total to eight languages, and Arabic is outside them.

Google explains that AI Brief rests on three types of guidance. Message guidance tells the ad what to say and what not to say. Google's own example is "never mention prices". Matching guidance sets the boundaries of the search terms you want to capture. Audience guidance describes who you are talking to, and with which message.

In the same post, Google announced a second item. It is a new unified report inside Google Ads that shows the journey of a Search ad on one screen. It shows the search term that triggered the ad, the creative assets the user saw, and the page they landed on in your site. Google said it will publish details and availability later this year.

What is different for a Saudi account?

The difference is that the execution layer is open to you and the steering layer is closed. AI Max itself has been available to all advertisers worldwide since 10 September 2025, according to Google's announcement. Your Arabic campaign runs on it today. But the interface that limits what the ad says, and which terms it captures, is restricted to eight languages. Arabic is not one of them.

What stays in your hands are older tools that work in Arabic. Negative keywords are the terms you block your ad from showing on. The help page says they are respected when AI Max is on. They are the closest practical substitute for matching guidance. Build the block list from the search terms report in your account. Do not build it from guesses about what a Saudi buyer will type.

On the creative side, you keep one weighty decision. Google says the assets AI Max generates are fully automated and cannot be edited. It also says pinned headlines in a responsive search ad are not respected if you turn on text customization and final URL expansion together. So a brand that requires a fixed form of its name, or a regulatory phrase, must choose between expansion and pinning.

One operational limit affects small accounts. Google says AI Max search term matching does not work with manual bidding, because the system relies on automated bidding signals. An account that sets its cost per click by hand runs half the feature and pays for all of it.

When does this not work?

It does not work if you read the 14% figure Google shows for AI Max as a promise for your store. The footnote on the help page says it is internal Google data from 2025. It was measured on advertisers outside retail. An online store is retail, so the number was never measured on its case.

A second limit sits in the word "closed". The beta is closed even in the eight languages. A Spanish-speaking advertiser cannot switch it on from their dashboard at will. So the right comparison is not between a left-out Arabic account and a well-served European one. It is between one advertiser's wait and another advertiser's shorter wait.

A third limit concerns the unified report. Google said it will publish details and availability later this year. It announced no date and no markets. Building on a screen that has not arrived is a decision to postpone, not a decision to act. I covered what the dashboard says about cost per sale in an earlier piece on Google's targets and limited budgets.

A fourth limit concerns the language itself. Google says AI Max is available to all advertisers worldwide. It has published no statement on the quality of the text AI Max generates in Arabic. What you know about your assets' performance comes from the asset report in your own account, not from a platform announcement.

The test I run

With an Arabic Search account running AI Max, I do not wait for AI Brief and I do not pause the campaign. I start with the negative keyword list, the terms I block my ad from showing on. I build it from the actual search terms report, not from my own guesses.

Then I split the campaign into two groups with the same budget and the same goal. In the first, I let Google choose the landing page. In the second, I fix one page. I run both for three full weeks.

After that, I compare what an order cost me in each group. Anyone who runs AI Max without a negative list pays for terms that have nothing to do with their store. They see a high number in the dashboard and do not know where it came from.

Frequently asked questions

Is AI Brief available for Arabic campaigns today?

No. On 23 September 2026, Google announced seven new languages for its closed beta, and Arabic is not among them. The tool had started in English only, with the April 2026 announcement. So your Arabic campaign runs on AI Max without this steering layer.

What is the difference between AI Max and AI Brief?

According to Google's help page, AI Max is an optimization layer inside an existing Search campaign, not a new campaign type. AI Brief is an interface where you write, in your own words, what the ad says, what it avoids and which terms it captures. The first executes. The second steers the execution.

Are pinned headlines respected with AI Max?

Google says pinning in responsive search ads is not respected if you turn on text customization and final URL expansion together. If pinning is a requirement for your brand, do not turn on final URL expansion or URL inclusion rules. Details of the accounts I manage are on the work page.