OpenAI Tests Sponsored Agents and Rolls Out New Ad Tools for ChatGPT

OpenAI has unveiled a set of AI-powered advertising tools and started testing business-sponsored agents that users can chat with, marking a further push into the competitive market for AI-driven marketing.

The Sponsored Agents feature allows users to begin conversations with agents backed by businesses and to visit a company's website after engaging with ads inside ChatGPT. According to OpenAI, these agents will be clearly labelled and kept separate from ChatGPT's independent responses and from the user's original chat. The pilot is being run with a limited group of advertisers in the United States.

Alongside the agent test, OpenAI has introduced a ChatGPT Ads Manager plugin that lets advertisers use natural-language prompts to create, update and analyse campaigns. The tool can turn a website or a campaign brief into a full campaign, review performance and offer recommendations. It can also suggest copy and images based on an advertiser's landing page and campaign objective.

An optional AI text-customisation feature can adapt existing headlines and descriptions to the context of a conversation and translate copy into a user's preferred language.

OpenAI named HubSpot as its first customer relationship management partner and Shopify as its first e-commerce partner. The Shopify app is set to launch internationally in markets where ChatGPT Ads is available, starting September 23.