A debate is brewing over the risks and rewards of serving ads to AI agents
Publishers are experimenting with 'Agent Ads' designed specifically for AI crawlers rather than human readers. These ads appear on stripped-down versions of websites to influence AI chatbot responses and brand visibility.
Why it matters
This represents a fundamental shift in digital marketing as brands attempt to capture traffic and influence discovery in the age of AI-driven search.
John Keeble/Getty Images A version of this post appears in the CMO Insider newsletter. Sign up for Business Insider's weekly marketing newsletter . Ads designed to influence AI agents rather than human consumers are emerging as a new marketing channel. They're also opening up a new brand safety battleground. The big outstanding question: Once the AI platforms get wise to brands advertising to their crawlers, will they play ball or try to stamp out the practice? Here's an example of how these ads function: Adtech startup Mobian recently worked with the publisher Time to serve "Agent Ads" for brands including Ally Bank and the Project Management Institute. Previously, Time had created stripped-down, text-only versions of its webpages that AI agents could read more efficiently.
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