AI overviews have led to more searches than ever, but Google is not making money at the same rate. Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Google has a pitch for advertisers worried AI agents will make Search obsolete: Let the bots do the shopping legwork, but leave people to compare brands, prices, perks — and sponsored offers.

"When users shop, and that's important, there's a part of the journey they don't like, the grunt work, which is frankly fantastic to automate with AI," Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, said on Alphabet's earnings call on Tuesday. "But we also want to enhance, not just automate away the discovery experience that people frankly love in so many cases."

He said users do not always want the cheapest option; they also weigh brand loyalty and customer service.…