If your team is using Google’s AI tools to speed up festive ad creative this year — auto-generated Performance Max assets, Demand Gen creative variations, or AI-edited product images — a policy change that took effect in July 2026 is worth checking before you scale production any further. Google now has specific AI labeling requirements for advertisers, and they are directly relevant to any brand planning a high-volume creative push for Durga Puja and Diwali.
This guide explains, in plain terms, what changed, what it means for your festive campaign workflow, and what to check before you launch.
On July 9, 2026, Google announced new transparency features to disclose when generative AI is used to create or edit advertisements. The update has two sides:
Google added a “How this ad was made” panel, viewable through My Ad Center, that shows whether generative AI was used in an ad’s creation or editing. This currently applies to ads on Search, YouTube, and Discover.
Google’s Advertising Policies Help documentation confirms that, starting July 2026, image and video ad creatives across Google Ads, Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, Merchant Center, and Ads Editor can carry a text or visual label when they were generated or modified using AI. Google states plainly that this update exists “to comply with emerging regulations in the European Union, India, and New York” — India is named directly in Google’s own documentation, not inferred by this article.
The core requirement is straightforward: if an ad’s image or video creative was generated or meaningfully edited using AI, that involvement needs to be disclosed. Google gives advertisers two ways to handle this:
Google has also confirmed that labels added through its AI label setting will not conflict with its existing policies against text overlays and watermarks, which previously might have discouraged advertisers from experimenting with on-creative labeling.
Google is explicit about one thing: using its AI label setting “doesn’t guarantee compliance with specific regulations.” The feature gives advertisers a tool to disclose AI use — it does not interpret or guarantee compliance with India’s, the EU’s, or New York’s specific legal requirements. Google’s own guidance recommends that advertisers “seek legal guidance and take measures as needed” to meet local legal obligations. For any brand operating in a regulated category (finance, healthcare, or political-adjacent messaging especially), this is worth a direct conversation with legal counsel, not just a settings toggle.
There is also a separate carve-out for election advertising: political advertisers must continue using the existing “Altered or synthetic content” checkbox in campaign settings, rather than relying on the general AI label feature. This is a narrower, pre-existing requirement (in place since 2023) and applies specifically to election ads, not to festive commercial campaigns.
Durga Puja runs October 17–21, 2026, and Diwali follows on November 8. For most Indian brands, this window means a sharp rise in the volume of ad creative going live — multiple product variations, festive messaging, gifting-angle creative, and rapid A/B testing. Google’s own AI-assisted campaign types (Performance Max asset generation, Demand Gen creative tools) are built precisely for this kind of high-volume production, which means a meaningful share of festive creative produced in the next few weeks will fall under this disclosure policy by default.
Treating AI labeling as a compliance afterthought — something to fix if an ad gets flagged — is a weaker position than reviewing it now, before creative volume peaks and teams are moving fast to hit festive launch dates.
This is a disclosure requirement, not a restriction on using AI tools. Google is not banning AI-generated or AI-edited ad creative — it is asking advertisers to be transparent about it, in line with regulatory expectations in several markets including India. Google’s existing policies against misleading or deceptive ad content remain unchanged and continue to apply regardless of whether AI was involved in production.
Google now has specific AI labeling requirements for advertisers — and India is named directly in the policy. Here’s exactly what to check before Durga Puja and Diwali campaigns go live, in plain, non-technical language.
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