ChatGPT Is About to Change Advertising Forever: What Brands Need to Know Now
The advertising industry is standing at the edge of its most significant disruption since Facebook went public. OpenAI's announcement that it will begin testing advertisements within ChatGPT marks a seismic shift in how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products—and brands that fail to adapt risk becoming invisible to the 400 million people who now use ChatGPT every week. In a recent interview with the Schwab Network, AI and consumer trends expert Matt Britton broke down exactly what this shift means for marketers and why the rules of digital advertising are being rewritten in real time.
For more than two decades, the digital advertising landscape has been dominated by a familiar playbook: consumers discover brands on Meta and Google properties, research purchases through search engines, and ultimately buy on Amazon. This linear funnel has generated over $1 trillion in global advertising revenue in 2025 alone. But as Britton explained to Schwab Network viewers, AI-powered chatbots now have the ability to take consumers through the entire purchase journey—from discovery to consideration to conversion—within a single conversation. The implications for marketers, entrepreneurs, and Fortune 500 CMOs are profound.
The End of the Advertising Duopoly as We Know It
For years, Meta and Google have maintained what the industry calls a "duopoly" over digital advertising, together commanding approximately 50% of global digital ad spend. According to recent data from WARC, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta are on track to capture nearly 55% of global advertising spend outside China in 2025, generating a collective $524.4 billion in ad revenue. But this concentration of power is about to face its most serious challenge yet.
Matt Britton drew a direct parallel to Facebook's evolution during his Schwab Network appearance. When Facebook went public, the company pivoted from audience-building to aggressive monetization, fundamentally reshaping how brands reached consumers. OpenAI appears to be following a similar trajectory. With 800 million monthly users, $20 billion in projected 2025 revenue, and a staggering $1.4 trillion commitment to AI infrastructure over the next eight years, OpenAI needs new revenue streams—and advertising represents an enormous opportunity.
The key difference, as Britton pointed out, is that consumers are already paying for tools like ChatGPT. Unlike Google, which has never charged consumers for search, OpenAI has built a substantial paid user base across its Plus, Pro, and Enterprise tiers. This creates what Britton describes as a "more balanced approach" to advertising implementation. OpenAI can afford to prioritize user experience over ad revenue because advertising will complement—not replace—its subscription business.
OpenAI has been explicit about this balance. In its official announcement, the company stated that ads will appear separately from ChatGPT's responses and will be "clearly labeled." The company has committed to never selling user data to advertisers and will allow users to turn off ad personalization entirely. Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscribers will remain ad-free, with advertising limited to free-tier users and subscribers to the new $8-per-month "Go" plan.
From Interrupting to Assisting: The New Advertising Paradigm
Perhaps the most important insight from Matt Britton's Schwab Network interview concerns the fundamental nature of advertising in AI environments. Traditional digital advertising operates on an interruption model—banner ads that disrupt content consumption, pre-roll videos that delay the content users actually want to see, and sponsored posts that appear in social feeds alongside organic content. AI-powered advertising operates on an entirely different principle.
"We're moving from an era of interrupting to assisting," Britton explained. "This is the shift. It's from selling at consumers to helping consumers in AI environments. The most effective ads feel like recommendations, not promotions."
This distinction has enormous implications for creative strategy. When a consumer asks ChatGPT for advice on planning a vacation, choosing software for their business, or finding the best product in a category, they're actively seeking assistance. An ad that appears in this context isn't interrupting the user's experience—it's potentially enhancing it by providing a relevant option the user was already looking for.
Early screenshots of OpenAI's ad implementation show a simple box at the bottom of ChatGPT responses featuring "recommended options." This native integration means that advertising can feel like a natural extension of the conversational experience rather than a jarring intrusion. For brands, this represents both an opportunity and a challenge: the opportunity to reach consumers at the exact moment of intent, and the challenge of creating advertising that genuinely adds value to the conversation.
According to OpenAI's official guidance, ads will be matched to conversation topics using some personalization data—though users can disable this feature. Advertisers will receive aggregate performance metrics like impressions and clicks, but will not have access to individual user data or conversation content. This privacy-first approach addresses one of the most significant concerns about AI-powered advertising while still enabling meaningful targeting.
Answer Engine Optimization: The New Marketing Imperative
When asked how brands should respond to this shift, Matt Britton introduced a concept that every marketer needs to understand: Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO. If SEO was the defining marketing discipline of the search engine era, AEO will define the AI era.
"The first thing I'm advising clients to do is something called AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, which is the AI version of SEO," Britton told Schwab Network viewers. "It's a lot easier to have these chatbots recommend your brand than to pay to get into the conversation. And to do that, you need the right content, you need specificity in content, and you need to make sure you understand the conversations where you're likely to pop up."
The statistics support this urgency. According to recent research, one in ten U.S. internet users now turns to generative AI first for online search. AI Overviews appear in 16% of all Google desktop searches. Gartner projects that 25% of organic search traffic will shift to AI chatbots and virtual agents by 2026. For brands that have spent decades optimizing for traditional search, this represents a fundamental reorientation.
AEO differs from SEO in several critical ways. Traditional SEO focuses on ranking webpages highly in search results, driving users to click through to your website. AEO optimizes content to be directly referenced, cited, or recommended within AI-generated responses—even when users never visit your site. The goal shifts from capturing clicks to capturing citations.
Effective AEO strategies focus on three essential pillars. First, citation optimization: creating content that AI systems recognize as authoritative and reference-worthy on specific topics. Second, entity recognition: establishing your brand, products, and key personnel as recognized entities within AI knowledge bases. Third, recommendation engineering: developing approaches that make your offerings more likely to be recommended when users ask for relevant suggestions.
According to data from Profound's 2025 AI visibility research, brands that establish early dominance in AI search results gain significant competitive advantages. In banking, for example, Bank of America leads with 32.2% visibility across AI platforms. Smaller brands that optimize early can achieve disproportionate share of voice—appearing in AI recommendations at rates that would have been impossible through traditional advertising and marketing.
What Consumers Should Expect—and What Could Go Wrong
During his Schwab Network interview, Matt Britton addressed the consumer experience directly. Early implementations suggest that AI advertising can actually enhance rather than detract from the user experience—if executed thoughtfully. Consumers asking questions about products or services may welcome relevant recommendations that help them make informed decisions.
However, Britton also acknowledged the risks. "The moment we hit a point where these models are prioritizing advertising revenue over the consumer experience, and you're seeing just a bunch of paid links, well then I think it changes things," he explained. The concern isn't advertising itself—it's the potential for advertising incentives to corrupt the fundamental value proposition of AI assistants.
This concern has been echoed across the industry. Reports from The Information indicate that internal OpenAI conversations have discussed giving sponsored chatbot results "preferential treatment" over non-sponsored results. While OpenAI has publicly committed that "ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you," the tension between advertising revenue and response quality will require ongoing vigilance.
The comparison to Google's evolution is instructive. Search results pages that were once dominated by organic links now feature multiple sponsored results at the top, shopping carousels, and various ad formats that can push organic results below the fold. If ChatGPT follows a similar trajectory, the conversational AI that users have come to trust for objective recommendations could become another advertising platform optimizing for revenue rather than user value.
OpenAI appears aware of this risk. The company has committed that ads will not appear near conversations about regulated topics including health, mental health, and politics. Users under 18 will not see ads. And the company has stated that it "does not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT," instead prioritizing user trust and experience over engagement metrics that might incentivize addictive design patterns.
The Programmatic Future of AI Advertising
Matt Britton also offered insight into how brands will actually buy advertising on ChatGPT. Rather than a traditional ad sales model with direct relationships between advertisers and the platform, he anticipates a programmatic approach from the outset.
"It's likely going to be a programmatic platform out of the gate, meaning it's going to be essentially an exchange where you're going to be bidding based upon cost per thousand impressions," Britton explained. "Obviously, you're going to be able to hyper-target. But I don't think you're going to see a traditional ad sales model, like television, for example, out of the gate."
This prediction aligns with OpenAI's operational reality. The company has grown dramatically faster than its ability to service customers through traditional sales relationships. A programmatic platform enables automated buying at scale, allowing thousands of advertisers to participate without requiring direct sales support for each account.
For marketers, this means that AI advertising will likely function similarly to existing programmatic channels—at least initially. Advertisers will bid on impressions based on targeting criteria, with algorithms determining which ads appear in which conversations. The key differentiator will be the quality of targeting: because AI understands the full context of what users are trying to accomplish, not just the keywords they type, the potential for relevant matching far exceeds traditional search or social advertising.
The data available for targeting in AI environments is fundamentally richer than in traditional digital advertising. When someone asks ChatGPT for help planning a business trip, the AI understands not just that the user is interested in travel, but their specific destination, budget constraints, timing requirements, and preferences—all expressed in natural language within the conversation. This contextual depth could make AI advertising significantly more effective than existing digital formats.
Key Takeaways for Business Leaders
The shift to AI-powered advertising represents one of the most significant changes in marketing since the advent of social media. Business leaders who recognize this shift and adapt their strategies accordingly will capture disproportionate advantages in the years ahead.
Invest in Answer Engine Optimization now. The brands that establish authoritative positions in AI knowledge bases and response patterns today will dominate AI-driven discovery tomorrow. This requires creating specific, substantive content that AI systems recognize as definitive sources on topics relevant to your business.
Rethink creative strategy for assistance, not interruption. AI advertising that feels like a helpful recommendation will outperform advertising that feels like a promotional intrusion. Develop creative approaches that add genuine value to consumer conversations.
Prepare for programmatic buying at scale. AI advertising will likely launch as an automated exchange, requiring programmatic expertise and real-time optimization capabilities. Build these competencies before the channel becomes essential.
Monitor the balance between utility and commercialization. As OpenAI and other AI platforms introduce advertising, watch closely for signs that commercial incentives are degrading response quality. Consumer trust in AI recommendations is the foundation of advertising value in this channel.
Diversify beyond the traditional duopoly. The advertising landscape that has been dominated by Meta and Google for a decade is fragmenting. AI platforms represent a significant new channel that could capture substantial share of consumer attention and advertising budgets.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will ChatGPT start showing advertisements?
OpenAI announced in January 2026 that it will begin testing advertisements for logged-in adult users in the United States on the free and Go subscription tiers. The rollout will begin in the coming weeks, with ads appearing at the bottom of ChatGPT responses when there is a relevant sponsored product or service based on the current conversation.
Will ChatGPT ads influence the answers I receive?
According to OpenAI's official policy, advertisements will not influence ChatGPT's responses. The company has committed that answers are optimized based on what is most helpful to users, with ads appearing separately and clearly labeled. However, industry observers will be monitoring closely to ensure this commitment is maintained as advertising revenue grows.
How can brands get their products recommended by AI chatbots?
Matt Britton recommends focusing on Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO, which involves creating specific, authoritative content that AI systems recognize as definitive sources on relevant topics. This includes understanding the conversations where your brand is likely to appear and ensuring your content provides substantive value that AI systems will reference.
Will paid ChatGPT subscribers see advertisements?
No. OpenAI has confirmed that ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will remain ad-free. Advertisements will only appear for users on the free tier and the new $8-per-month Go subscription plan. Users can also turn off ad personalization while maintaining other personalization features.
Looking Ahead: The AI Advertising Revolution
As Matt Britton noted at the conclusion of his Schwab Network interview, the advertising implications of AI are just beginning to unfold. OpenAI's move into advertising may well trigger similar initiatives from Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, and other AI platforms competing for user attention and advertiser budgets.
For marketers and business leaders, the message is clear: the time to understand and prepare for AI-powered advertising is now. The brands that master Answer Engine Optimization, develop creative strategies built for assistance rather than interruption, and establish early presence in AI advertising channels will capture significant competitive advantages as this market matures.
Matt Britton's insights on AI, consumer trends, and the future of marketing are drawn from over two decades advising Fortune 500 companies and his role as Founder and CEO of Suzy, the AI-powered consumer intelligence platform. His national bestselling book, Generation AI, provides a comprehensive roadmap for leaders navigating the AI-powered future.
