OpenAI is developing an in-house advertising platform for ChatGPT to create a new revenue stream.
The company is hiring a "Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer" to build foundational MarTech infrastructure.
OpenAI's strategy includes managing its own marketing at scale, with potential plans to commercialize its ad tools.
The move contrasts with competitors like Perplexity, which rely on traditional agency models for ad buys.
OpenAI is developing its own in-house advertising platform to monetize ChatGPT, a move signaled by a recent job posting as first reported by Adweek. The plan to build its ad tech from the ground up marks a major step in creating a new revenue stream from the chatbot's massive user base, moving beyond simply relying on outside agencies.
Help wanted: Ad architect: The company is hiring a "Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer" for a new "ChatGPT Growth team" to establish the in-house tools for managing and measuring ad campaigns. According to the listing, the goal is to "design and implement foundational MarTech infrastructure that make our marketing investments more effective, measurable, and automated."
Stacking the deck: Bringing its ad tech in-house accelerates the company's strategy and follows a report from Alex Heath of Sources that OpenAI's CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, is hiring a team to bring ads to the chatbot. Simo previously built Instacart's ad business. The company also recently appointed Omnicom’s PHD as its global media agency of record.
The real prize: While most companies rely on third-party tools, OpenAI is gearing up to manage its own marketing at scale, tapping into a user base that reportedly hit 700 million weekly active users in August. Down the line, OpenAI could even package these internal tools into a commercial product, giving other brands a direct line to run ads within the chatbot.
While OpenAI builds its own systems, other AI players are taking a different path, with competitor Perplexity using a more traditional agency model for its ad buys. The move also shows advertising isn't the only monetization game in town for OpenAI, which has also been experimenting with e-commerce and shopping integrations.
