OpenAI is building its ChatGPT ad business around three priorities in a set order: user trust, user value and then advertiser value, VP of Monetization Benji Shomair said in an on-stage interview with LUMA Partners CEO Terry Kawaja at LUMA's Digital Media Summit in New York, AdExchanger reported. Shomair said that if the first two are right, the third will follow, and that OpenAI's mission "actually requires [us] to build an ad business" to reach people who will never pay.
Since launching ads less than a year ago, OpenAI has onboarded more than 50 ad tech, measurement and agency partners, Shomair said, calling it a "partner-first approach." He said some partners want OpenAI to do things it won't, citing five principles set before internal ad testing began: mission alignment, answer independence, conversation privacy, choice and control, and putting user trust and experience over revenue. He said ChatGPT answers "are separate from the ads and not influenced by the ads."
AdExchanger noted Anthropic's Super Bowl spots mocking ads in AI chats; Claude daily downloads rose from about 63,000 in January to about 225,000 at a mid-February peak, according to Appfigures, and daily active users rose 11%, per BNP Paribas. Shomair, who previously helped build Meta's ads business, said it is hard to forecast beyond six to 12 months and urged advertisers to experiment.