May 21 (Reuters) - Google will start testing search and

shopping ads in its AI-generated answers in the U.S., the

Alphabet-owned company said on Tuesday, days after it

rolled out the AI Overviews feature widely at its annual I/O

conference.

Ads will appear in a 'sponsored' section within AI Overview

based on the query's relevance and information, , the company

said in a blog post.

Google has been looking to extend its dominance beyond

traditional search advertising to emerging generative AI tech.

It aims to boost its ad sales, a major source of revenue for

the tech giant, by integrating AI in its search engine.

Google reported a 13% increase in advertising sales,

reaching $61.7 billion in the first quarter ended March 31.

The company said it would continue to test and learn new ad

formats, getting feedback from advertisers.

Last week, at its I/O conference, Alphabet showed how it is

building on AI across its businesses, including a beefed-up

Gemini chatbot and improvements to its prized search engine.