AI Advertising Is Easy. Reputation Is Not.
Ads in Chat GPT? It’s real. According to an official announcement by OpenAI, the company plans to begin testing advertising in ChatGPT’s free and Go tiers in the coming weeks. Paid plans – Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise – will remain ad-free. The announcement was accompanied by a published set of advertising principles outlining how ads will be separated from AI-generated responses. What does it mean for companies and individuals? The first opportunity of ads in AI-model signals a deeper shift in how trust and reputation are formed within AI-driven environments.
AI as a New Reputation Gatekeeper
As OpenAI itself says, ChatGPT is increasingly used as a direct interface between users and information. For many people, AI assistants have become the first point of contact with a company – replacing traditional search behavior.
This positions AI platforms as a new decision layer in which reputations are reviewed before any human interaction.
Will it be obvious that the answers are independent of the ads?
It seems so. In its official communication, OpenAI explicitly states that:
- AI-generated responses are not influenced by advertising
- Ads are always clearly separated and labeled
- User conversations are not shared with advertisers
These principles draw a clear boundary between promotion and information – a boundary that is critical for maintaining trust in AI systems.
But what if customers can not recognise the ads and organic answers? “We find that only a small percentage of users is able to reliably distinguish between ads and organic results, and that user knowledge of Google’s business model is very limited. We conclude that ads are insufficiently labelled as such, and that many users may click on ads assuming that they are selecting organic results – noted in the article “An Empirical Investigation on Search Engine Ad Disclosure” (Cornell Research University).
Although in the article “Search Results in the Amazon Marketplace” we can see that “almost half of consumers … are unable to distinguish between sponsored and organic results. On most occasions, these demarcations are in significantly smaller fonts and in gray color.” (“Sponsored is the New Organic: Implications of Sponsored Results on Quality of Search Results in the Amazon Marketplace”. (Cornell Research University).
As we see, the same trend can be in AI Models – users can follow ads answers assuming it is organic.
Advertising Has Become Easier – Reputation Has Become Harder
The introduction of advertising into AI platforms has created a paradox for brands.
On the one hand, visibility has become simpler. As AI advertising models begin to resemble familiar formats like Google Ads, brands can pay for exposure and feel “present” in the AI interface with relatively low effort.
On the other hand, long-term presence has become significantly more complex.
AI systems do not build answers based on ads. They rely on data ecosystems – search engines, media, databases, registries, expert content, and structured digital profiles. Brands that have not adapted their information across these sources now face a double disadvantage.
While forward-looking companies actively advertise and optimize how they are understood by AI models, others do neither. They do not advertise, and the information about them is neither structured, verified, or readable to AI systems.
As a result, the gap is expanding.
Brands that follow AI visibility trends will appear in ad placements and in AI-generated answers. Brands that ignore this shift risk being absent on both levels.
Why This Creates New Risk for Compliance-Sensitive Businesses
Advertising can create a short-term presence. But it cannot compensate for missing, outdated, or inconsistent data. In AI-driven environments, reputation is shaped by whether reliable, well-structured information about your business exists – not only the advertisement.
OpenAI’s announcement highlights a simple reality: AI platforms clearly distinguish between promotion and credibility. As AI becomes part of everyday business decisions, managing how your company is represented across the sources AI relies on is no longer a “nice to have”. It’s a basic requirement.