Five months ago, ads inside AI chat tools were still an experiment. OpenAI was quietly piloting ads in ChatGPT, and Google was expanding a few placements inside its AI-generated search summaries. There was a lot no one knew yet, including whether people would tolerate ads inside a conversation.
That uncertainty is gone. In the space of a few months, this has turned into a real advertising channel, with real dollars and real brands behind it, changing how people make buying decisions before they ever land on a website.
Here’s what’s been happening, and what it actually means for your business.
ChatGPT Ads Went From Pilot to Real Advertising Channel
Since we last covered what’s changed with ChatGPT ads, the pace has only picked up. To catch you up, OpenAI launched ads inside ChatGPT for free and low-cost U.S. users in February 2026. Within six weeks, the pilot had already crossed $100 million in annualized revenue, and OpenAI expanded it to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
By May, OpenAI opened self-serve advertising tools to any U.S. business, with no minimum spend required to get started. By June, one of its ad technology partners reported more than 2,000 brands were already running ads inside ChatGPT, and the platform expanded into the U.K., Japan and South Korea.
Several advertising demand-side platforms (DSPs) also formed partnerships with OpenAI, including the DSP we use. This partnership allows us to create and manage ads inside the tools we already use. This creates improved analysis, conversion tracking, multi-channel integration, execution timelines and overall performance.
OpenAI now projects $2.5 billion in ad revenue for 2026, and the company has said that roughly one in every five ChatGPT conversations includes some kind of purchase intent.
Google Built New Ad Formats Specifically for AI Search
Google has been moving just as fast. At its annual marketing event in May, the company introduced a new set of ad formats built specifically for its AI-powered search experience.
A few examples of what these new formats do:
- Answer a shopper’s question directly inside the AI response
- Appear inside AI-generated recommendation lists
- Write a short, custom explanation of why a specific product might fit what someone searched
- Let a potential customer chat with a brand’s AI agent instead of filling out a lead form
Google is investing here because the audience is already massive. Its AI search experience has surpassed 1 billion monthly users, and Google reports that 75% of shoppers say it helps them make faster and more confident buying decisions.
Most of These Conversations Never Lead to a Website Visit
Here’s the important part. In the large majority of AI search conversations, by some estimates more than 9 in 10, the shopper never clicks through to an outside website at all. The decision happens right inside the AI conversation itself.
That’s an explosive shift from how search has worked for the past two decades and it’s part of why OpenAI and Google are racing to build ad formats that live inside the answer instead of alongside it.
What This Means if You’re Not Running Ads in ChatGPT or Google AI Search
These ad formats have been most attractive to large national and e-commerce brands with big budgets and initially out of reach for small to medium-sized businesses; however, that has changed in the last few months. While some smaller businesses are jumping in early, many aren’t yet, and that’s completely fine.
The bigger takeaway matters regardless of whether you ever spend a dollar in these places: more buying decisions are happening inside AI conversations before a shopper ever reaches a website. That means a few fundamentals matter more than ever:
- Clear, well-organized website content that directly answers common customer questions
- Credible, current online third-party reviews, discussions and recommendations
- Content structured simply enough for people and AI tools to understand and reference
This is the material AI tools pull from to generate recommendations. Brands that keep these fundamentals strong are better positioned either way.
The Takeaway
What was a small, uncertain pilot in February is now a real advertising channel with real dollars behind it, and it’s moving quickly. Whether or not paid ads inside AI tools make sense now for your business, staying visible and credible in the answers these tools generate is no longer optional.
At Callis, we help brands build the kind of content, reviews and online presence that hold up no matter how search keeps changing. If you’re thinking about how AI search and AI advertising might affect your business, reach out. We’d love to talk.
Sources
https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-marketing-live-search-ads
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/09/openai-100-billion-in-ad-revenue
