TikTok Launches New AI-Powered Smart Search: What Marketers Need to Know – Hello Partner

At Advertising Week 2026, TikTok announced new AI tools aimed to improve measurement and turn social discovery into sales.
TikTok is rolling out a new suite of AI tools that could become essential for brands and marketers looking to capture high-intent audiences and turn social discovery into sales.
Announced at Advertising Week NYC 2026, the updates cover conversational AI shopping, automated search advertising and deeper integration into popular developer AI workflows.
TikTok is currently focused on streamlining campaign creation and measuring genuine ROI as it solidifies its role as a key revenue driver for European businesses. Independent research by Public First revealed that brands advertising on the platform generated €31 billion in economic value across the European Union in 2025 alone.
Central to the announcements is the launch of Shopping Assistant, an AI agent operating within TikTok’s new Agentic Commerce framework. Designed to act as a real-time shopping guide, TikTok showcased the tool as one that understands context and retains user preferences to deliver details on product availability, sizing and purchasing options.
For advertisers targeting users actively seeking products, TikTok is extending its Smart+ automation technology into search. The new Search Ads Campaign feature automates keyword and creative deployment, allowing brands to capture user intent precisely when audiences search for products and trends within the app.
Recognising that creative production remains a bottleneck for many performance marketers, TikTok is introducing Smart+ Creative Selection. The feature combines brand assets, Symphony AI-generated content and creator-made videos into a single unified workflow. By recommending tailored asset groups based on specific campaign goals while leaving final approval to marketers, the tool aims to reduce operational friction without sacrificing creative control.
The platform also announced the expansion of the TikTok for Business Model Context Protocol (MCP). The connector allows developers and enterprise teams to manage TikTok campaigns from within external AI platforms and developer environments, including Claude, Perplexity, Replit, Snowflake, Tencent WorkBuddy, Kimi, Manus and the IAB Tech Lab Agent Registry.
Lastly, upon growing demand from merchants for clearer performance metrics, TikTok is expanding its GMV Max solution. The automated TikTok Shop ad product will now factor in crucial business overheads, such as affiliate commissions, promotional coupons and referral fees. This update allows sellers to optimise campaigns against true profit margins rather than superficial gross merchandise value.
It seems that along with the rest of the marketing world, TikTok has recognised the need for better measurement when it comes to campaigns. These new features could be game-changers for marketers and brands working heavily on TikTok. And with TikTok itself being such a high-volume content discovery platform, it looks like it’s aiming to have a full-circle customer journey moment, covering the whole funnel.
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