The two dates
This did not happen overnight. Google first restricted the FAQ rich result in 2023, limiting it to well known authoritative government and health sites, which quietly took it away from almost every commercial site while leaving the markup in place and validating. Most brands never noticed, because the code was still there and no error was ever reported.
Then came the end. The Search Central changelog entry dated 8 May 2026 is titled Deprecating the FAQ rich result feature, with the reason given as the feature no longer appearing in Google Search starting 7 May 2026. A second entry dated 15 June 2026 is titled Removing documentation for the FAQ rich result feature. Google’s structured data features gallery now lists around twenty five features with no FAQ among them. Q&A is still there, which is a different feature with different rules.
What this changes about your pages
Less than people fear. The reason an FAQ section works has never been the markup. It works because somebody arrives with a specific worry about postage, sizing or returns and finds a direct answer in plain words near the point of decision. That is still true. Strip the questions out because the rich result has gone and you have deleted the useful half while keeping the useless half.
The markup is harmless to leave in place as long as it stays honest. Google’s structured data guidelines require that you do not mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page and that markup is a true representation of the page content. So if you delete an FAQ section, delete its FAQPage block with it. Markup describing questions that are no longer on the page breaks a rule that still carries a manual action.
Where the effort goes now
Into the structured data that still earns a result. Organization on the home page, Product with a nested Offer on product pages, Breadcrumb, Review snippet, Video plus the merchant listing properties for shipping and returns. Those are current features in Google’s own gallery and they still change what your listing looks like on the page.
Then into the answers themselves. Google’s guide to optimising for generative AI in Google Search states that structured data is not required for generative AI search and that there is no special schema.org markup you need to add. What it asks for is content that genuinely answers the question. A page that opens with a direct, self contained answer in the first two sentences is quotable by a person, by a search engine and by a model. No schema is required for that.