Devstars
Blog
Date: 05/01/2026
Stuart WatkinsOpenAI’s reported plans to prioritise ChatGPT Advertising in its responses could reshape how businesses get discovered online. The smart money is preparing now.
We’ve been telling clients for months that 2026 would be the year AI search really bites. Turns out we were right, just not in the way we expected.
The Information recently reported that OpenAI employees are actively discussing how to implement advertising in ChatGPT. The conversations include giving sponsored results “preferential treatment” over organic recommendations. With 900 million weekly users, ChatGPT is about to become prime advertising real estate.
The thing is: this changes the entire GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) playbook we’ve been building.
According to anonymous OpenAI employees speaking to The Information, internal discussions have covered:
The example that keeps coming up is someone asking about headache relief and receiving a promoted Advil recommendation before actual dosage information. Sound familiar? It’s basically Google’s sponsored results model, but embedded in conversational AI.
OpenAI’s official statement was carefully vague: “We’re exploring what ads in our product could look like. People have a trusted relationship with ChatGPT, and any approach would be designed to respect that trust.”
Translation: they’re definitely doing it, they just haven’t finalised how.
For the past two years, we’ve been helping clients prepare for AI-mediated discovery. Your marketing strategy was straightforward: create authoritative content, implement proper schema, build brand signals that AI platforms recognise and cite.
That strategy still works. But it will soon be competing against paid placements.
Think about how Google search evolved. Twenty years ago, ranking on page one meant something. Today, you scroll past four ads, a featured snippet, and a “People also ask” box before seeing organic results. The value of that page-one ranking decreased as paid real estate expanded.
ChatGPT is about to compress that same evolution into months, not decades.
Consumer brands and e-commerce: Brace yourselves. High-volume, high-CPM categories like health products, consumer goods, and travel will see ads first. If you’re selling vitamins and someone asks ChatGPT “what supplements should I take for energy?”, your organic mention might get buried beneath whoever’s paying for placement.
B2B and professional services: You’ve got a window. Advertising CPMs for niche B2B queries won’t justify the spend initially. A question like “what should I look for in a fractional CMO?” is less attractive to advertisers than “best running shoes 2026.” Use this time to establish organic visibility before the ads arrive.
Local service businesses: The economics are trickier here. Hyperlocal advertising in conversational AI requires sophisticated targeting that OpenAI hasn’t built yet. “Best plumber in Jersey” queries might stay organic longer than national consumer searches.
Professional and creative agencies: Portfolio visibility, case study citations, and expertise positioning remain valuable. AI platforms still need authoritative sources to cite. The question becomes: will your citation appear above or below the paid placements?
Right, so what do we actually do about this?
The Information’s reporting mentions ads appearing “after a second prompt.” This suggests initial responses may remain organic for longer. Strong brand recognition becomes more valuable, not less.
When someone asks ChatGPT about your industry and your brand appears in that first response, before ads kick in, you’ve captured attention at the moment of highest trust.
What we’re seeing across our clients is that brand signals (mentions, reviews, authoritative citations) directly influence AI platform responses. Double down on digital PR, expert commentary, and being cited by publications your audience trusts.
ChatGPT isn’t the only game in town. Claude, Perplexity, Google’s AI Mode, and Microsoft Copilot all have different monetisation timelines. Some may stay ad-free longer than others.
The businesses that build visibility across multiple AI platforms will be more resilient when any single platform introduces disruptive changes. Same principle as not relying solely on Google for traffic.
Here’s the reality: relying on any single discovery channel is increasingly risky. Whether it’s Google algorithm updates, AI platform changes, or now advertising disruption, you’re vulnerable if discovery depends on platforms you don’t control.
Email lists, owned communities, direct traffic, and brand recall become more valuable when AI platforms can be bought. The businesses building these assets now will weather the disruption better than those who don’t.
If ChatGPT introduces advertising, it will likely follow Google’s playbook: paid placements will be labelled (however subtly), and organic results will appear alongside them.
This creates an interesting dynamic. In Google search, sophisticated users skip past ads. The same behaviour may emerge in AI chat. Organic citations could become more trusted precisely because they’re not paid.
The businesses that invest in genuine authority, comprehensive content, and strong brand signals will benefit from the contrast with paid placements.
Not everything changes. The fundamental GEO principles remain valid:
Technical foundations matter. Schema markup, site architecture, and crawlability still determine whether AI platforms can understand and cite your content.
Content quality wins. AI platforms need authoritative sources to cite. Thin, AI-generated content won’t suddenly become valuable because ads exist.
Brand recognition compounds. When your name appears consistently across AI responses, whether paid slots exist or not, you build trust that converts when users are ready.
Commercial intent content is protected. Bottom-of-funnel queries, where users are comparing specific solutions, will likely see fewer ads than top-of-funnel informational queries. The person asking “HubSpot vs Salesforce for small agencies” is more valuable to keep engaged than the person asking “what is a CRM?”
When does this actually happen? OpenAI hasn’t announced dates. The Information’s reporting suggests active internal discussions, not imminent launch.
My guess: we’ll see testing by mid-2026, with broader rollout by end of year. OpenAI needs advertising revenue to justify its valuation, and 900 million weekly users is too valuable to leave unmonetised forever.
That gives you roughly 6-12 months to prepare. Not forever, but enough time to take meaningful action.
This week:
This month:
This quarter:
ChatGPT advertising isn’t the end of GEO. It’s the maturation of it.
The platforms that drove traffic for free are introducing paid options. This happened with Google, with Facebook, with every discovery platform eventually. The playbook is familiar, even if the technology isn’t.
The businesses that adapt, building brand authority, diversifying discovery channels, and strengthening owned audiences, will navigate this shift successfully. The ones waiting for certainty will find themselves competing against paid placements without the organic foundation to stand out.
We’ve been preparing clients for this moment. The question is whether you’re ready.
Stuart Watkins is the founder of Devstars & LWDA, a Jersey-based digital agency specialising in GEO, AI automation, and bespoke web software. He’s been building “the future of search” strategies since before ChatGPT launched.
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