Nigeria’s digital economy is poised for a significant boost following the unveiling of a suite of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) advertising tools by Google at its annual Google Marketing Live (GML) 2025 event.
The newly announced innovations are designed to empower businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa, with a strong focus on accelerating online growth and digital transformation in Nigeria’s vibrant business landscape.
The GML 2025 showcased how AI is reshaping digital commerce and advertising globally. Among the headline announcements were AI-powered ads integrated into AI Overviews in Google Search, the introduction of intelligent marketing assistants, and new creative tools that simplify content generation—all of which are set to roll out in Nigeria later this year.
The director for West Africa at Google, Olumide Balogun, in a statement, said in Sub-Saharan Africa, the digital landscape is experiencing explosive growth, making digital presence and AI adoption no longer an option, but a necessity for businesses to thrive and connect with their customers effectively.
“These GML announcements reinforce our commitment to equipping Nigeria’s vibrant business community with cutting-edge AI tools to unlock new opportunities and achieve their growth ambitions,” Balogun stated.
Among the most anticipated rollouts is the integration of ads into AI Overviews, an AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google Search results. These overviews have already driven over a 10 percent increase in search engagement in early-launch markets like the U.S. and India. Google now plans to extend this feature to English-speaking users in Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, among others, on both desktop and mobile platforms by late 2025.
With Nigerians among the world’s most enthusiastic adopters of generative AI, with over 70 percent of the online population reported using AI tools in the past year, this update aligns with an already fast-evolving digital behavior. As more users turn to AI-enhanced search experiences, businesses in Nigeria stand to gain visibility and customer engagement through targeted, intelligently placed ads.
To further support advertisers, Google introduced a new generation of AI marketing assistants. These tools, embedded in platforms like Google Ads, Analytics, and Chrome, promise to simplify the marketing workflow. One of the standout features is the upcoming Marketing Advisor, an AI agent that offers step-by-step guidance to marketers, from campaign setup to analytics interpretation.
For Nigerian businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that often lack access to advanced digital marketing expertise, these AI assistants are expected to level the playing field by providing accessible, real-time support.
Understanding campaign performance is getting a boost with tools like incrementality testing, which identifies the true impact of ads and Data Manager, a centralized platform for handling customer data across sources while ensuring privacy compliance. These innovations will provide Nigerian marketers with deeper insights, allowing them to refine strategies, maximise return on investment (ROI), and make data-informed decisions with greater confidence.
The timing of Google’s latest announcements is significant. Nigeria’s digital economy is rapidly expanding, with government and private sector stakeholders investing heavily in broadband infrastructure, digital skills, and innovation hubs. As AI adoption accelerates, tools like those announced at GML 2025 could help Nigerian businesses capitalize on these developments. By integrating powerful AI tools into their advertising strategies, local businesse, especially SMEs, can scale faster, reach broader audiences, and contribute more meaningfully to Nigeria’s GDP through digital commerce.
“These innovations are not just about making ads smarter, they are about making growth more accessible. We are excited to see how Nigerian entrepreneurs and marketers use these tools to tell their stories, reach new customers, and thrive in the digital economy,” Balogun stated.
