How AI is transforming digital advertising and paid search.
OpenAI launched sponsored ads inside ChatGPT conversations on Super Bowl Sunday. They sit below the organic AI answer. That organic slot above the ad is free, and 97% of UK businesses aren't competing for it. Here's why the answer above the ad matters more than the ad itself.
Anthropic spent $8 million on a Super Bowl ad telling 120 million viewers that ads are coming to AI, but not to Claude. Sam Altman called it "clearly dishonest." UK businesses can't buy ads on either platform. Organic AI visibility is the only route that works across both.
OpenAI's ChatGPT ads are rolling out to US users this week at $60 CPM with $1 million minimum budgets. UK businesses are completely locked out. US-only, agency-only, enterprise-priced. The only way to appear in ChatGPT conversations is to earn it organically.
At Davos, Demis Hassabis questioned OpenAI's decision to put ads in ChatGPT: "You want to have trust in your assistant, so how does that work?" He has a point.