OpenAI Partners with Smartly to Build Conversational Ads Inside ChatGPT — Turning the AI Assistant into a Shopping Mall

Six weeks after launching its first advertisements to free-tier users in the United States, OpenAI is escalating its commerce ambitions. The company has partnered with Helsinki-based ad-tech firm Smartly as its first creative advertising partner for ChatGPT, with the goal of building interactive, conversational ad units that respond to users in real time rather than sitting passively beside answers.

The partnership represents a fundamental shift in how AI assistants generate revenue — and raises pointed questions about where product discovery ends and advertising begins.

What Is Changing Inside ChatGPT?

OpenAI introduced static, labeled advertisements to ChatGPT's free and Go subscription tiers on February 9, 2026. Those early placements were contextual but passive: a sponsored card for an air fryer might appear beneath a question about countertop appliances, clearly separated from the chatbot's organic response.

Smartly's involvement moves the format forward. The company is developing conversational ad units — described internally as "mini-chatbots" — that can engage users in two-way dialogue within the ChatGPT interface. A user researching running shoes could click a sponsored placement and enter a secondary conversation offering tailored recommendations, size guidance, and purchase links. The ad becomes a dialogue, not a banner.

Smartly has already tested similar formats on Meta's platforms. A campaign for UK retailer Boots used a chatbot-style ad that guided users through gift recommendations and reportedly drove sales at nearly five times the rate of standard display ads, according to Smartly's own performance data.

The Numbers Behind the Push

OpenAI's advertising pilot has grown faster than most industry observers expected. Within six weeks of launch, the program crossed $100 million in annualized revenue, attracted more than 600 advertisers, and reached fewer than a fifth of eligible users, according to reporting by Business Insider and The Next Web. Criteo, which joined as OpenAI's first formal ad-tech partner in early March, reported that users referred through large language models convert at 1.5 times the rate of other digital channels.

The financial incentive is substantial. OpenAI has told investors it expects consumer revenue from ChatGPT to exceed $17 billion in 2026, with advertising forming a meaningful share of income from its non-paying user base. The company claims more than 800 million weekly active users, but only about 5 percent pay for subscriptions. Self-serve advertising tools, which would remove the current $200,000 minimum commitment, are scheduled to launch this month, with pilot markets in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand expected to follow.

Why This Matters for Everyday Consumers

The shift from static ads to conversational ads inside an AI assistant is not merely a format upgrade. It changes the trust architecture of the entire interaction. When a user asks ChatGPT for product advice, the expectation is that the response reflects the model's analysis of available information — not a commercial relationship with a brand. Conversational ads blur that boundary in ways that search engine sponsored results never fully achieved, because the ad adopts the same conversational interface as the assistant itself.

OpenAI has stated that advertisements will remain clearly labeled, separated from organic answers, and excluded from sensitive topics including politics and health. User conversations will not be shared with advertisers, and users under 18 will not see ads. Whether those guardrails hold as the format scales from static placements to interactive dialogues remains an open question.