Despite heavy competition in the AI chatbot space, ChatGPT remains the dominant consumer AI assistant, drawing enormous traffic and usage—and enormous operational costs.
While paid subscriptions (Plus, Team, Enterprise) are central to OpenAI’s revenue strategy, the company has also been quietly exploring advertising as a potential revenue stream.
CEO Sam Altman has previously said he is not opposed to ads in principle, even expressing a preference for Instagram-style, personalized ads. But OpenAI has never publicly committed to any advertising direction.
Now, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, has offered the clearest insight yet into how the company is thinking about ads.
“A very different model than what has been done before”
Speaking with WIRED, Simo emphasized that any approach to advertising must start with Commerce, an area where ChatGPT already sees significant user demand:
“Advertising as a model works really well when you have a lot of commerce intent. We have a ton of it already—people coming and asking for shopping advice.”
But Simo stressed that before ads enter the picture, OpenAI must first ensure that ChatGPT’s commerce experience is exceptional:
“The important thing before we ever consider ads is making sure that our commerce experience is fantastic… Whatever we do is going to have to be extremely respectful of that.”
Her stance reflects a cautious, user-first posture:
“That’s why we haven’t announced anything on ads, because if we ever were to do anything, it would have to be a very different model than what has been done before.”
Simo’s background provides important context—she previously built and scaled Meta’s mobile and video ad businesses. And she’s keenly aware of why users often dislike ads:
“Very often it’s not the ads themselves, it’s the use of the data behind the ads.”
What Might Ads in ChatGPT Actually Look Like?
While OpenAI has made no commitments, prior reporting offers clues:
• Ads based on ChatGPT Memory
A report from The Information revealed that OpenAI has considered using ChatGPT’s Memory feature—which stores user preferences to personalize responses—as a basis for ad targeting. That idea sparked debate given the sensitivity of personal data in conversational interfaces.
• OpenAI is hiring for an ads division
Additional reporting indicates that OpenAI is actively recruiting leaders to build a multibillion-dollar ads business, with Simo meeting potential candidates—including some of her former Meta colleagues—to lead the initiative.
Together, these signals suggest that OpenAI is taking ads seriously, even as the executive team insists it must be done with extreme care.
A Crossroads for ChatGPT’s Future Business Model
As ChatGPT evolves from a chatbot into a broader consumer platform—with features like group chats, voice assistants, persistent memory, and personalized recommendations—OpenAI is under increasing pressure to monetize responsibly at scale.
Simo’s comments reinforce that if ads do arrive in ChatGPT, they will likely be:
- commerce-focused,
- highly curated,
- transparent about data use, and
- radically different from traditional tracking-based ad systems.
For now, ads remain unconfirmed—but OpenAI’s recent moves make one thing clear: the company is actively preparing for a future where ChatGPT becomes a major commercial engine.
