Google has pushed back the automatic migration of Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns to AI Max from September 2026 to February 2027, and restored the ability to create new DSA campaigns. If you were mid-scramble to migrate before the original deadline, you now have roughly five extra months. As Search Engine Land reported, Google is delaying the Dynamic Search Ads migration to AI Max after advertiser feedback asked for more time to prepare. The reprieve is real, but it is a deadline extension, not a cancellation — and how you spend it decides whether the eventual cutover helps or hurts your pipeline.
For B2B SaaS teams the stakes are specific. AI Max expands targeting and match behaviour in ways a tightly governed DSA setup does not, so an unprepared automatic flip can quietly widen your traffic toward off-ICP queries. This guide lays out the exact revised timeline, why Google blinked, what the extension does and does not give you, and a decision framework for whether to migrate now or use the runway to test. If you are new to the format difference, start with our comparison of Dynamic Search Ads versus standard search ads, then come back for the migration plan.
What actually changed
The headline change is a slipped deadline: the automatic upgrade of DSA campaigns to AI Max now happens in February 2027 rather than September 2026. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin framed the move as a response to advertisers requesting more time to prepare for the transition. Alongside the delay, Google reversed course on DSA creation — the ability to build new DSA campaigns, which had been phasing out, was restored on June 15, 2026. Taken together, the two decisions signal that AI Max was not yet a clean, universal replacement for Dynamic Search Ads, and that Google would rather advertisers migrate deliberately than be forced across before the format was ready for their accounts.
This is the second time the AI Max rollout has been re-sequenced, and the pattern matters for how much weight to put on any single deadline. Google has also been publishing a firmer AI Max migration timeline for Search campaigns, so the direction of travel is not in doubt — DSA is being absorbed into AI Max. What changed is the pace. For planning purposes, treat February 2027 as the real backstop and everything before it as a window you control, rather than assuming another extension will arrive. The safe reading of a delayed forced migration is “more time to do it well,” not “it might not happen.”
The revised timeline in dates
Three dates define the runway. First, June 15, 2026: DSA campaign creation was restored, so you can again build new Dynamic Search Ads campaigns. Second, January 2027: the ability to create new DSA campaigns is removed, closing that door one month before migration. Third, February 1-28, 2027: Google automatically migrates any remaining DSA campaigns to AI Max. Between now and January 2027 you have full freedom to create, restructure, or wind down DSA; between January and February 2027 you can still run what exists but not build new; and after February 2027 the choice is made for you.
The practical implication is that voluntary migration is a strictly larger option set than waiting. Google is explicitly encouraging advertisers to audit existing DSA campaigns, run side-by-side experiments against AI Max for Search, and use the voluntary migration tools, noting that manual upgrades preserve historical reporting and campaign learnings. A campaign you migrate yourself keeps its performance history and lets you supervise match expansion; a campaign migrated automatically in February 2027 changes on Google’s schedule. The dates are not just a countdown — they are a menu of control that shrinks the longer you wait.
Why the AI Max shift matters more for B2B SaaS
AI Max is not simply a rename of Dynamic Search Ads; it broadens how Google finds and matches queries, and that breadth cuts differently for B2B SaaS than for high-volume consumer accounts. A SaaS account typically sells to a narrow ICP with a small set of genuinely qualified queries, so match expansion that looks efficient on raw conversion counts can pull in job-seekers, students, free-tier hunters, and competitors. The risk is not that AI Max performs badly in aggregate — it is that it optimises toward whatever you told it to value, and if that signal is raw leads, it will happily buy cheaper, lower-intent traffic. That is the same failure mode behind campaigns that look profitable in Google Ads but produce no pipeline.
This is why the extension is worth using rather than ignoring. Before you hand more matching autonomy to the algorithm, your bidding needs to be pointed at qualified outcomes, not form fills, and your negative keyword governance needs to be tight enough to fence out the queries AI Max would otherwise explore. Teams that have already done the work of optimising for SQLs instead of leads will find AI Max far safer to adopt, because the algorithm is being rewarded for the right thing when its reach widens. Teams that have not should treat the five-month reprieve as the time to fix the signal first and the format second.
Should you migrate now or wait?
The default answer for most B2B SaaS accounts is: migrate voluntarily before February 2027, but only after an experiment proves AI Max holds or improves your cost per qualified lead. The decision hinges on evidence, not calendar anxiety. Run AI Max for Search against your existing DSA campaign on a controlled slice of budget, let it gather enough data to clear the noise, and judge it on downstream quality — qualified leads and pipeline — rather than raw conversion volume or CPA, which can improve for the wrong reasons. If AI Max matches or beats DSA on qualified outcomes, cut over on your own schedule and keep the reporting history. If it underperforms, you have found that out on your terms, with time to adjust.
Waiting until the automatic migration is the weakest option because it collapses your choices. You lose the experiment, you lose schedule control, and you inherit whatever match behaviour AI Max defaults to for your account on a fixed date in February 2027. The only accounts for which waiting is defensible are those with negligible DSA spend or DSA campaigns already slated to be shut off — for everything material, a supervised, tested migration beats a forced one. If you want to pressure-test the new format’s controls before you commit budget, our guide to the AI Max controls B2B SaaS should use covers the levers that keep expansion in check.
How to use the five months
Spend the runway on three things, in order. First, audit: inventory every DSA campaign, what it targets, and how much qualified pipeline it actually drives, so you know which campaigns deserve careful migration and which can simply be retired. Second, govern: build the negative-keyword lists and exclusions that will constrain AI Max’s exploration, because the moment matching widens, weak governance becomes expensive fast. Third, experiment: launch AI Max side by side with your strongest DSA campaign and compare on qualified leads, letting the test — not the deadline — decide the cutover date. Done in that sequence, the migration becomes a validated upgrade rather than a leap.
Underpinning all three is measurement. AI Max is only as good as the conversion signal it optimises toward, so if you have not already, use these months to feed real downstream outcomes into bidding — the discipline behind journey-aware bidding on non-biddable goals. And because AI Max sits inside the same broader September-2026 auto-upgrade wave that also touches automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match, read it in context with the September 2026 ACA and broad match auto-flip so you are not surprised by adjacent changes. The delay bought you time; the accounts that come out ahead are the ones that treat it as preparation, not postponement.