OpenAI used its Dev Day on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, to introduce Dots, its new agentic assistants, alongside new AI models. The company also said it was remaking ChatGPT into a service where people and AI agents can find, launch and use software.
The move is best read as an effort to build a new distribution layer inside ChatGPT. OpenAI said it was assembling parts of an alternative to the traditional app-store model. The details of what Dots will do, the terms for developers and any commission on transactions through ChatGPT were not announced.
Advertising is becoming part of that model. OpenAI said it would add visual display ads beside images that users ask ChatGPT to create. The ads are due to start appearing later this month in the US, initially on that basis only. OpenAI said they would be clearly labelled and would not affect ChatGPT’s answers.
The company is also strengthening the systems advertisers use to judge whether their spending works. OpenAI is linking ChatGPT Ads with Hightouch, Tealium and LiveRamp, allowing advertisers to send conversion signals from their own platforms into the service.
Its attribution partners now include AppsFlyer, Triple Whale, Adjust, DV Rockerbox, Northbeam, Branch, Singular, Kochava, Airbridge and Tenjin. Full-funnel measurement partners include Fospha, Measured and INCRMNTAL. OpenAI is also developing brand-suitability evaluation pilots with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, which are intended to give advertisers independent assessments of its safeguards. Neither company will receive access to users’ actual conversations during those reviews.
Early campaign results offered by the measurement firms point to the commercial case OpenAI is trying to make. WeightWatchers recorded a cost per acquisition on ChatGPT Ads 15.3% below its blended paid-search benchmark, according to DV Rockerbox. Portland Leather saw 93% of visitors arriving through ChatGPT Ads come as new customers, according to Triple Whale.
OpenAI said ChatGPT now reaches 1.2 billion people each week. Ads have rolled out in India and across 38 countries in total. Amazon also struck a deal last week that lets brands using its advertising platform place ads within ChatGPT, beginning with a limited group of brands in the US.
The company is working to broaden its sources of revenue ahead of a planned 2026 IPO. It said it does not sell users’ data or share ChatGPT conversations with advertisers or marketing partners. Business, Enterprise, Edu and ChatGPT for Healthcare plans do not include ads.
Comments (0)