OpenAI faces stark doubts about ChatGPT ads. It's beginning the long fight to prove them wrong.
OpenAI is attempting to build a massive advertising business for ChatGPT, but analysts and advertisers remain skeptical of its aggressive revenue projections. Critics argue the product is currently too rudimentary to compete with established giants like Google and Meta.
Why it matters
The success of OpenAI's ad model is critical to its long-term financial sustainability and its ability to compete with other major tech platforms.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images OpenAI has lofty goals for ChatGPT's ads business, an attempt to monetize the blockbuster app. The product is still rudimentary, advertisers said, though it's changing every week. OpenAI's ad revenue projections aren't logical, one analyst told Business Insider. OpenAI badly wants a piece of the advertising empires that Google and Meta built, and it has a lot of catch-up to do. The AI startup began selling ads on its blockbuster ChatGPT product in February, and the ensuing months have brought geographic expansions, added capabilities, and new advertisers onto the platform. Still, ChatGPT's ads business has a long way to go before it rakes in anything like the revenue OpenAI has projected, and customers using ChatGPT for advertising told Business Insider that the product is still rudimentary. Advertising is becoming a major opportunity for OpenAI.
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