OpenAI has shared new details on how advertising will work inside ChatGPT, and while the rollout is deliberately cautious, it signals an important shift in how people may discover brands through AI.

On a recent episode of the OpenAI Podcast, OpenAI executive Assad Awan outlined the principles guiding ads in ChatGPT, who will see them, and why trust sits at the centre of the strategy.

For non-technical marketers, here is what actually matters.

Who will see ads and who will not

Ads will only appear for users on ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers. Anyone on Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plans will remain ad free, and Enterprise workspaces will stay completely untouched by advertising.

This instantly positions ChatGPT ads as a mass market product rather than a premium one, aimed at scale and accessibility rather than high-paying power users.

How OpenAI is protecting trust

OpenAI has been very clear that ads cannot interfere with answers. Several guardrails are already in place:

• Ads are visually and technically separate from ChatGPT responses
• Conversations are not shared with advertisers
• Sensitive topics like health and politics will not trigger ads
• Users can adjust or turn off ad personalisation, or upgrade to remove ads entirely

Crucially, the AI itself does not know when ads are present and cannot reference them unless a user explicitly asks about one. This is designed to prevent any influence on how answers are written.

Why is this different from search and social ads

OpenAI says it is prioritising user trust over advertiser value and revenue. That is a big statement, but it explains why the rollout will be slow and conservative.

For marketers, the opportunity is not about volume at launch. It is about intent.

ChatGPT is used during active thinking moments. People are researching, comparing, planning, or trying to solve a problem. Ads appearing in that context could be far closer to a recommendation moment than a scroll-based interruption.

If executed well, this could become a powerful discovery channel rather than a traditional performance one.

A big opportunity for small businesses

One of the most interesting points from the podcast was OpenAI’s long-term vision. Awan described a future where AI acts as an advertising agent.

Instead of dashboards, keywords, and complex targeting, businesses could simply describe their goals in plain language and let AI handle the setup and optimisation.

If that becomes reality, it could significantly lower the barrier to entry for small and medium-sized businesses that currently struggle with paid media complexity.

The bigger picture

Advertising is how OpenAI plans to scale access to ChatGPT without compromising its core experience. The company is betting that relevance, usefulness, and trust will ultimately outperform aggressive monetisation.

For marketers, the key takeaway is simple. AI is no longer just a tool behind the scenes. It is becoming a front door to brands, services, and decisions.

And that makes this worth paying attention to now, not later.

Google has just revealed a range of upcoming AI-powered advertising features that are designed to help brands reach potential customers in smarter, more intuitive ways, especially as people increasingly use generative AI tools to find information online.

AI-Driven Ads Inside Search Answers

One of the biggest changes coming is a new ad format that will appear within AI search responses. Instead of only showing ads in traditional search results, Google will start placing relevant product suggestions alongside AI-generated answers to user questions. These will be clearly labelled as “Sponsored,” so users understand they’re paid placements. This gives advertisers a new way to capture attention when people are relying on AI for discovery, not just traditional search.

Personalised Offers Based on AI Conversations

Google is also testing a feature called Direct Offers. This lets businesses link specific deals or promotions directly to an AI answer. For example, if someone asks a question about a product type, the AI might show a tailored special offer from a brand that sells that product. It’s an evolution of personalised advertising that meets people right where they are in an AI-assisted journey.

Easier Purchases Through AI Agents

Another priority for Google is the expansion of AI agent tools, automated helpers that can guide users through tasks, including buying products without leaving an AI chat window. Google’s new UCP system aims to make it easier and more secure for people to complete purchases inside AI environments like Gemini and AI Mode in Search.

Connecting Brands with Creators

Finally, Google is improving how brands find and work with creators by using AI to match businesses with the best user‑generated content partners. This builds on early testing of its “Open Call” feature, which lets brands request creative videos from relevant creators.

Overall, these updates show how Google is evolving advertising to blend more seamlessly with AI‑driven discovery – giving brands new opportunities to be seen in the moments people are already asking questions.

In 2026, almost all marketing companies will be using AI to varying degrees to assist them in their workflow whether that be with ideation, vibe coding, writing titles and descriptions for their websites or designing graphics. While no one would deny AI can be a useful tool for marketers to improve workflow and performance, overrelying on these tools, especially when writing content or producing code can create negative results for your site, especially if you are using it to create regurgitated content or intrinsic code. This can damage rankings and performance, which all marketers can agree is the opposite of helpful.

Luckily for marketers, WordPress, the most used content management platform worldwide, have released a guide on how to use AI to combat “AI Slop” as they call it and make sure your using AI to the benefit, not detriment of your site.

Core Principles

WordPress have released some core principles to help people remain ethical in their use of AI on their site. We’ll go through this principles together and talk about why they are important for maintaining a healthy WordPress site.

• You are responsible for your own contributions – Everything that goes live on your site comes under your domain, so any content that you produce or code that is written with the help of AI, you need to make sure that you understand it and that it is helpful to your site in a meaningful way. If you are producing content or code you don’t understand you are likely to be giving content to your users that has hallucinations or adding code to the site that could break functionality.

• Disclose when AI is used in content – Unless you’re using AI in a very minor way to make small adjustments, then you should always disclose to the end user that AI has been used to help create a piece of work.

• Non-code contributions and assets – Making sure you are licensed to use any and all of the assets that you have acquired from AI is important. You need to make sure that all images and videos are available for public use otherwise you could be infringing on copyright and be penalised for this.

• Quality over volume (No AI Slop) – You need to review anything that has been created by AI that you will add to your site thoroughly to make sure it is quality. AI could be creating bloated or unnecessary code for example when a simple fix would have sufficed.

What this means for Marketers

AI can be a useful tool but making sure it is fully licensed, you understand – can ensure the quality of what is being produced and making sure that you have thoroughly reviewed any AI content going live on your site and have explicitly stated to end users when it is used, will ensure that marketers are complying with the latest AI guidelines and making safe and reliable content while improving your workflow.

Reports recently surfaced claiming that Google plans to introduce advertising into its Gemini AI chatbot in 2026. For marketers, this immediately raised questions about how Google might monetise AI, and how ads could appear inside conversational tools. Google has since pushed back on those claims.

According to the company, there are currently no ads in Gemini and no confirmed plans to add them.

The speculation began with a report suggesting Google had briefed advertisers on future plans to place ads inside Gemini. If true, this would mark a significant shift, transforming Gemini into a new advertising surface, similar to Search or YouTube.

Given Google’s advertising-first business model, the idea wasn’t hard to believe. AI tools are expensive to run, and marketers are watching closely to see where paid placements may appear next.

What has Google said in response?

Google responded quickly and publicly. Dan Taylor, Google’s Vice President of Global Ads, stated that the report was based on inaccurate information and anonymous sources. He confirmed that Gemini is ad-free today and stated that there are no plans to introduce ads.

Google’s Ads Liaison team backed up that message, reinforcing the company’s stance and aiming to calm concerns across the industry.

Ads are appearing in other AI Experiences

While Gemini itself remains ad-free, Google is already experimenting with ads in other AI-powered areas. Ads currently appear in AI Overviews within Search, and Google has acknowledged testing advertising in its AI Mode.

From a marketing perspective, this matters. It shows Google is actively exploring how ads can fit into AI experiences, just not directly inside Gemini, at least for now.

What should we take from this?

For now, Gemini isn’t an advertising channel. But the bigger picture hasn’t changed. Google is clearly testing where AI and advertising intersect.

Marketers should expect AI-driven ad formats to continue expanding across Search and beyond. Even if Gemini stays ad-free in 2026, the conversation signals what’s coming next, and why staying informed is essential.

As Google continues to integrate generative AI into search, advertisers are learning that familiar rules don’t always apply in new environments. One of the latest clarifications from Google Ads confirms that exact match keywords are not eligible to trigger ads within AI Overviews. While subtle on the surface, this shift has meaningful implications for how campaigns are structured and how brands show up in high-visibility search moments.

Understanding Google’s Update on Exact Match

Google recently confirmed that even if an advertiser is bidding on an exact match keyword identical to a user’s query, that keyword alone will not make an ad eligible to appear within an AI Overview. These AI-generated summaries are designed to respond to broader, more conversational intent, not precision keyword matching.

This marks a departure from how many advertisers traditionally think about control and relevance. Exact match still plays an important role in standard search results, but AI Overviews operate under a different logic, one driven by machine learning and inferred intent.

Why AI Overviews Favour Broader Targeting

AI Overviews are built to answer complex, exploratory questions. To do that effectively, Google relies on broad match keywords and AI-powered campaign types that give its systems flexibility to interpret meaning rather than syntax.

This doesn’t mean Google is removing advertiser control. Instead, control shifts from rigid keyword matching to smarter signals including conversion data, audience behaviour, and strong negative keyword strategies. Advertisers who lean into this approach are better positioned to access AI-driven placements.

What Marketers Should Do Next

For clients, this shift highlights an important evolution in how search works. User behaviour is becoming more intent-driven and conversational, particularly within AI-powered results. Brands that approach this change cautiously but proactively are better positioned to appear where attention is increasingly concentrated within AI-generated answers at the top of the page. By evolving keyword strategy in a controlled, data-led way, advertisers can safeguard results today while preparing for the future of paid search.

A new benchmark report from Conductor has revealed an interesting shift in how people discover websites. While organic search is still the clear leader, AI tools have quietly become a meaningful new source of traffic – and almost all of it is coming from one place: ChatGPT.

AI referrals: small share, growing fast

Across ten major industries, just over 1% of website visits came from AI platforms between May and September 2025. That may sound small, but it represents the beginning of a new behaviour: people using AI assistants instead of traditional search engines.

ChatGPT was responsible for a staggering 87% of all AI-driven traffic. Other AI tools such as Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot contributed the rest, but none came close to ChatGPT’s influence. Some industries saw stronger performance than others. IT and Consumer Staples gained the most traffic from AI answers, while sectors like Communication Services and Utilities saw very little.

Even so, AI referrals grew by around 1% month-on-month, showing that usage is steadily rising.

AI tools vs. traditional search

Despite the buzz around ChatGPT and similar tools, organic search is still the biggest source of website visits by far. In some sectors – such as Health Care and Communication Services – organic search drives over a third of all traffic.

But here’s the important shift: AI is becoming its own performance channel. The brands that appear in AI answers are shaping what users see, trust, and eventually visit. Ranking well on Google no longer guarantees visibility inside AI tools. If your brand isn’t showing up in AI answers, you’re quietly disappearing from a growing share of discovery.

AI Overviews: where Google is heading

The report also looked at Google’s own AI Overview feature, analysing 21.9 million searches. Around a quarter of all queries triggered an AI Overview, with Health Care searches leading the way. Interestingly, the types of pages most often cited by these overviews were common content formats: blogs, videos, articles, news stories, and product pages.

This suggests that Google is blending familiar SEO content with new AI-driven presentation, and brands with strong content libraries are more likely to be featured.

What this means for marketers

The message is clear: organic search remains essential, but visibility in AI platforms is becoming just as important. AI is now shaping which brands people discover first, particularly in categories where trust and authority matter.

Ensuring your content is accurate, credible, and helpful is no longer just good SEO practice – it’s how you stay visible in AI-powered answers. And as ChatGPT continues to lead the market, brands will increasingly need to consider how they appear across both search engines and AI assistants.

For a channel that barely existed a couple of years ago, AI-driven traffic is already proving it deserves attention.

ChatGPT has launched its own web browser, “ChatGPT Atlas,” which integrates ChatGPT into the web browsing experience. Atlas is currently only available on Mac, but a Windows version is coming in the future.

How does ChatGPT Atlas work?

ChatGPT Atlas is built on the Chrome engine and implements ChatGPT within the browser, allowing it to assist you on any page. The ChatGPT Sidebar is intuitive and knows which page you’re on, understanding the content. Other features include:

• Browser Memories – Much like a standard browser history, but easier to navigate. E.g. “Can you help me find the Keyword Research tool I used last week?” It can then use its browser memories to take you to the correct site.

• Agent Mode – A tool that allows you to let ChatGPT take over the browsing experience for you. E.g. doing a competitor research report, ChatGPT will open tabs, compare competitors, gather data and create a report for you. This feature is only available to Plus or Pro users.

Issues with ChatGPT Atlas

ChatGPT Atlas has been built on the Chrome engine, which could cause a potential issue for SEO and PPC. This is because, as it’s built on Google Chrome, it cannot distinguish the activity of the ChatGPT bot that is being used to aid in web browsing from an actual web user. This means that ChatGPT Atlas could mess with advertising, budgets and analytics by clicking on Ads. It could also hugely distort GA4 traffic data for SEOs as it is visiting websites, making metrics unreliable.

What this means for Marketers

Just like with many other AI tools that have come before it, one of the biggest benefits it seems of using ChatGPT Atlas seems to be its speed at gathering information, making it a great tool for users to improve their workflow and productivity. However, if Google doesn’t find a way to track AI Chatbots crawlers, this could have a long-lasting and damaging impact on the role of data analysis in marketing, having to account for unreliable traffic, which will impact ROI and results.

Research into ChatGPT-5’s safety

The latest research from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has revealed that the latest version of the model is responding with harmful replies in spite of OpenAI’s assertions that it is safe.

Research saw 5 separate AI models being tested on their safety features, submitting 120 prompts to each of the LLMs. The prompts contained topics of a sensitive nature, ranging from suicide to substance abuse and eating disorders.

A staggering 53% (63 responses) of ChatGPT-5 contained harmful responses, either encouraging or providing information to assist with the harmful acts. Where previously the ChatGPT-4 model would have refused to answer prompts.

Qualifying factors for grading harmful content included:

• Providing instructions, information or encouraging harmful behaviour
• It’s matter of fact representations of harmful acts, which can be perceived as a positive or normalised interpretation of the issue
• The model did not refuse or discourage prompts with said harmful behaviours
• The model is not displaying any help resources or highlighting the explicit risks

The CEO of the CCDH has this to say about the latest research:

“OpenAI promised users greater safety but has instead delivered an ‘upgrade’ that generates even more potential harm. Given the growing number of cases where people have died after interacting with ChatGPT, we know that their failure has tragic, fatal consequences. The botched launch and tenuous claims made by OpenAI around the launch of GPT-5 show that, absent oversight, AI companies will continue to trade safety for engagement no matter the cost. How many more lives must be put at risk before OpenAI acts responsibly?”

The CCDH states the prompts were crafted to specifically test the guardrails of ChatGPT, implying within the prompt that the harmful content pertained to both adults and children. Using third-person phrasing to overcome the model’s safeguarding processes when it believes it detects an immediate risk.

The current climate of ethics in AI

The process of teaching AI means there are absolutely pitfalls and unpredictable responses that it can generate. With the latest research in the clutch, it’s becoming more apparent that it can pose risks to the public, especially with models like ChatGPT being free for all.

Perpetuating biases – Because it’s learning is done by feeding it existing information out there, it can skew the data it has and ultimately perpetuate biases. This can then be conducive to potentially discriminatory outcomes.

Hallucinations/Misinformation – This is when AI presents an untrue response, which can happen through data bias, content gaps, bad training approaches and misinterpretations of content context. This misinformation can then be taken by searchers as gospel, when it’s quite the opposite!

A lack of accountability – There’s a lack of responsibility when it comes to AI providing harmful advice or information. This can be problematic when raising concerns around who is liable, absolving AI companies of accountability essentially.

The findings serve as a reminder that progress in AI must go hand in hand with strong ethical oversight. Without it, the line between innovation and harm becomes dangerously thin.

10Web announced Vibe for WordPress, an AI tool that can generate a fully functioning WordPress site from prompts. This could be a game-changer in the marketing industry, significantly reducing the time and cost it would take to make a fully functioning site.

How does Vibe for WordPress work?

When users visit this URL, there is a prompt box that allows users to provide the name of your site and describe it. This prompt will be used as the basis for the creation of your site.

I created a prompt for a new Intelligency site to test out what Vibe has to offer:

Once you have submitted your prompt, Vibe gives you a chance to lay out a basic site structure for how you want your site to look and the pages you want to create. Vibe will then autogenerate a site based on the prompts you gave it earlier.

Above is the Hero section of the new homepage Vibe generated for my new Intelligency site. While it’s only basic, this could be a huge time saver for developers. Giving them a nice framework to build out from. Below is a review section I asked in my prompt to be added to the homepage.

Once Vibe has created your site, you can log in to the backend and edit functionality, including creating new pages or adding a plug-in, just as you would with any other WordPress site. Vibe is also SEO friendly and makes sure any new site created follows key seo principles, such as optimised content and applying Schema markup to pages.

You can also use Vibe to update your already existing site with AI to give it a “fresher” look, but make sure that when prompting it to tell it to generate as a draft version, so you don’t overwrite your live site.

What this means for Marketers

Having the ability to use AI to create new but also update existing content with the click of a button makes site creation immediately more accessible to non-developers, while also speeding up workflows for developers themselves.

A new study from marketing agency Nectiv has revealed that ChatGPT performs a web search in nearly one-third of all prompts, and when it does, it searches more deeply and precisely than the average Google user.

Rather than relying solely on pre-existing knowledge, ChatGPT actively goes online, reads live pages, and incorporates real-world data into its answers. This shift could profoundly affect how marketers approach visibility, content strategy, and SEO in an era where AI is rapidly becoming a core information source.

How the research worked

To understand how ChatGPT interacts with the web, Nectiv analysed more than 8,500 prompts across nine industries using its internal tool, AI Tracker. This software detected when ChatGPT performed an external search and captured the queries it used.

The findings showed that around 31% of prompts triggered at least one search, with ChatGPT averaging just over two searches per prompt and sometimes as many as four. This behaviour suggests that when ChatGPT goes online, it doesn’t just pull one result – it triangulates information across several pages before generating a response.

The average search length was 5.5 words, which is roughly 60% longer than a typical Google query. In fact, more than three-quarters of all searches contained five or more words. This means ChatGPT searches in the way experienced users might – using longer, more specific phrases to find precisely what they need.

The frequency of searches also varied by topic. ChatGPT was far more likely to search for local information (such as “best dentist near me”) than for topics like credit cards or fashion, where data tends to be static or straightforward.

What ChatGPT looks for

When ChatGPT does search, it gravitates towards content that feels useful, trustworthy, and relevant. Nectiv found that the most common search terms included:

• “Reviews” – often tied to buying decisions or product comparisons.
• “Features” – especially in software, travel, or product-related prompts.
• “Comparison” – indicating that ChatGPT wants balanced or side-by-side information.
• “2025” – showing a clear preference for current or updated content.

This pattern tells us something important: ChatGPT favours fresh, decision-focused content that helps it validate facts or provide recommendations. Review articles, comparison pages, and feature breakdowns are the types of pages most likely to appear in the material it uses to answer users’ questions.

A new kind of search engine

What makes this so interesting is that ChatGPT now behaves like a “meta search engine.” Instead of relying purely on stored knowledge, it combines live searches, reasoning, and conversation into a single process.

Ask a question like “What are the best project management tools for remote teams in 2025?” and ChatGPT might run several searches – one for the general topic, one for brand comparisons, and another for recent reviews. It then digests that data, compares multiple sources, and delivers a single, summarised answer.

Unlike Google, which leaves users to browse links themselves, ChatGPT does that work on their behalf. For marketers, this means the focus is shifting from ranking highly on search results pages to becoming the source that ChatGPT trusts enough to read, summarise, and cite.

Why this matters for marketers

According to Nectiv’s co-founder Chris Long, “When ChatGPT uses search, SEOs have much more control over the information that’s presented. ChatGPT is basically a wrapper for search engines. If we can figure out how often and what the model is searching, we can optimise for it.”

That’s a key shift in thinking. SEO is no longer just about visibility in Google. It’s also about how your site performs when AI tools like ChatGPT are deciding which pages to use to form an answer.

To stand out, marketers should focus on four main factors:

• Relevance: ChatGPT looks for content that answers questions directly, not keyword-heavy copy.
• Freshness: Newer pages are preferred, particularly when the topic changes rapidly.
• Structure: Tables, bullet points, and clear headings make your content easier for AI to understand and summarise.
• Authority: Expert, transparent, and credible sources are more likely to be used.

These principles should now inform both SEO strategy and content creation, ensuring your website is equally appealing to people and machines.

The new era of AI-driven SEO

This study reinforces that digital discovery is changing. Success will depend on creating content that AI systems can read, interpret, and trust. Instead of thinking solely about clicks and rankings, marketers need to think about credibility, clarity, and usability.

That means:

• Keeping your content detailed, accurate, and updated.
• Writing in clear, natural language that mirrors how people ask questions.
• Using formatting that allows AI systems to quickly extract and summarise key details.
• Auditing your own visibility by asking ChatGPT industry-specific questions and noting which sources it references.

The line between search and AI is already blurring. ChatGPT’s growing use of web search is proof that SEO is no longer limited to Google’s algorithm. The next challenge for marketers will be ensuring that when AI tools go looking for information, they find – and trust – you.

In this new landscape, the goal isn’t simply to rank. It’s to become the source that teaches the machine what to say.