OpenAI is quietly testing an ad format that ends the click. Sponsored Agents, disclosed via an OpenAI advertiser email published by Search Engine Roundtable on September 16, drops a labeled, business-sponsored agent into ChatGPT so a shopper can, per Marketing Interactive’s description, “ask follow-up questions, explain what they are looking for and assess whether a product or service suits their needs before visiting the advertiser’s website.” The conversation, OpenAI told advertisers, is “distinct from ChatGPT’s independent answers and separate from the original conversation that the user started in ChatGPT.”
Read that carefully. The qualification step, the part where a buyer figures out whether a product fits, is being pulled off the merchant’s landing page and into the chat window itself.
For now this is a US alpha with select advertisers. The interesting piece is what OpenAI wrapped around it. A ChatGPT Ads app for Shopify lets US merchants plug in a product catalog, build campaigns, and track performance without leaving Shopify; a HubSpot integration handles lead follow-up; international availability of the Shopify app was slated for later in September. That’s a small-merchant onboarding path, not an enterprise pilot dressed up for the trade press.
The expansion around it’s the second beat. On September 24, OpenAI extended ChatGPT Ads into Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, and used the newsroom post to claim a $1 billion annualized run rate in under 200 days, tens of thousands of advertisers, and operations in more than 60 countries. A day later, Criteo said it had followed OpenAI into the same six Southeast Asian markets, bringing its ChatGPT Ads footprint to 61. Criteo also self-reported more than 2,000 brands running through its technology, click-through rates two to three times comparable formats, and over 80% of ChatGPT Ads traffic coming from new customers. Grocery Trade News flagged those figures as unverified, and they should be read that way.
Still, the direction is legible. A year ago ChatGPT wasn’t a paid channel. Last week’s read on the earlier read on ChatGPT becoming a paid channel small brands can actually buy into covered the Ads Manager surface; Sponsored Agents is the next layer, where the ad itself does the sales call. IAB’s raised US ad forecast to 12.3% sits behind all of this: acquisition dollars are moving, and OpenAI is building the format they move into.
The strategic shift for founder-run brands is straightforward and uncomfortable. What used to live on the landing page, objection handling, spec comparison, fit assessment, now has to live in a product feed and an agent’s brief. The page still matters. It just isn’t where the buyer decides anymore.
Sources
- https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-ads-expands-southeast-asia-taiwan/
- https://www.seroundtable.com/openai-chatgpt-sponsored-agents-42104.html
- https://www.marketing-interactive.com/chatgpt-ads-makes-its-southeast-asia-debut
- https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/openai-expands-chatgpt-ads-to-7-more-asian-markets-ws-l-111312.htm
- https://www.grocerytradenews.com/criteo-chatgpt-ads-southeast-asia/