Our Insights on OpenAI Announcing Ads in ChatGTP

Yes! We’ve seen the announcement, OpenAI is going to start testing ads in ChatGPT!

(Read the full notification here)

We welcome it!

Why? Because LLMs are fantastic! AND they’re expensive to operate. If LLMs are going to remain free or low-cost to use, they need a sustainable business model to support the demand.

So why ads? Ads have powered nearly every other major technology revolution from the web to search to social, video, music, mobile apps, and now, they will power LLMs, too. Some remember when search engines like Google didn’t have ads. There were a lot of concerns when ads rolled out. Will they ruin the experience? Will they impact organic results? Now almost no one bats an eye. (OpenAI has already stated their ads won’t impact organic LLM replies.) When done right, ads don’t have to be disruptive, they can be helpful and part of the conversation.

Some open questions to keep an eye on as OpenAI tests ads in ChatGPT:

- How will OpenAI’s ads affect engagement?
- What will be the trade offs between inserting ads and user loss?
- How will companies like Google, Meta Facebook, and Microsoft evaluate their own ad plans? There is certainly an opportunity to test their own ads, or they may hold off on their ad ambitions in hopes of taking market share from ChatGPT.
- How will other LLM competitors like Perplexity, xAI, and Anthropic respond?
- Which ad formats will be the most useful, or at minimum, the least disruptive?
How will ads be targeted? Will they key off of the user (like web ads) or the prompt?

Many of you predicted that ads would become a natural part of AI. So did we. In fact, we started AdZen to help pave the way for a new approach to ads that are privacy friendly, helpful, and as non-disruptive as possible. We believe that both relevance and ad formats really matter, especially in a medium as personal as LLM conversations. That is why we met with all the major LLMs and outlined our plans to them; to seed the industry with ideas on how ads can be better for consumers and still drive amazing results for advertisers.

We applaud OpenAI, Fidji Simo, and Sam Altman for seeing this as we see it, as an opportunity to think differently about the future of advertising. Over the next year, we expect to see multiple ad iterations from OpenAI and the broader AI industry. We are working closely with them all to drive the best results for everyone. If you would like to be at the forefront of advertising in AI, please reach out directly to us.

ABOUT ADZEN.AI

AdZen.ai is a newly launched monetization network designed to surface new revenue opportunities for artificial intelligence companies and web publishers. By offering a purpose-built platform for integrating native, text-based ads into AI agent responses and publisher content, AdZen.ai provides a sustainable revenue stream in an AI-driven digital economy. Based in Sacramento, the company is led by a team of industry veterans committed to shaping the future of online monetization.