By Alexandra O’Neil
ChatGPT Ads has a new format in testing that lets a person talk with a brand before visiting its website. On September 16, OpenAI began piloting Sponsored Agents, which open a labeled conversation with a business’s own AI agent after someone clicks an ad. The same announcement connected ChatGPT advertising to Shopify and HubSpot, two platforms that many small and midsize businesses already use every day. Angi and Wayfair are among the advertisers tied to the early pilot.
TL;DR: OpenAI is currently testing Sponsored Agents (an ad format that opens a labeled chat with a business’s AI agent) and it added integrations that let companies run campaigns from the ecommerce and CRM tools they already use. As of September 21, 2026, agent format is limited to select US advertisers for now, while the integrations are open to eligible businesses.
What Are Sponsored Agents In ChatGPT Ads?
In this format, people chat with an AI representative of a business inside ChatGPT, according to OpenAI’s Help Center. After a relevant ad appears, a user can choose to start a clearly labeled conversation, explain what matters to them, ask follow-up questions, and follow a link to the business’s website when ready, as described in OpenAI’s announcement. The company’s own example is a shopper who sees a dining table in an ad and wants to know whether it fits the room, how many people it seats, and how to care for the finish.
How Does The ChatGPT Sponsored Agent Conversation Work?
The conversation begins only when the user chooses to open it. OpenAI says the exchange is distinct from ChatGPT’s independent answers and separate from the chat the user started, so the organic response and the sponsored conversation stay apart. The agent represents the advertiser, which places the brand in control of what it says about products, pricing, and next steps.
How Is This Different From A Standard Ad?
A standard ad in ChatGPT appears in a labeled section below the response and sends the user to the business’s website. The agent format adds a step between the ad and the site, where a shopper can ask questions and narrow options before clicking through. That extra step gives advertisers a chance to answer objections in real time, and it gives them more to maintain, since the agent needs accurate information behind it.
Why Do Conversational Ads Matter For Small Businesses?
Conversational ads fit purchases that come with questions, such as furniture dimensions, the scope of a home repair, or which product tier suits a particular need. Home services and furniture make sense as early categories, since buyers in both tend to describe a need before they buy.
OpenAI has not published pricing, cost-per-click figures, or performance data for the format, so any promise about results is premature. Coverage of the launch also raises open questions about who owns the conversation transcript, which advertisers will want answered before committing budget.
Which Advertisers Are In The Early Pilot?
Angi confirmed in a press release that its branded agent may appear in relevant home services conversations, where homeowners can share project details and move into a service request flow to connect with local pros. Coverage of the launch also names Wayfair, Lowes, VistaPrint, and more.
Sponsored Agents remain a limited alpha test, and OpenAI states that it is not accepting early access requests at this time. A business can still see the agents in ChatGPT before the format is available for its own campaigns. OpenAI says it will announce how to participate once access expands.
How Do The Shopify And HubSpot Integrations Work?
OpenAI called these its first ecommerce and CRM partnerships, and both have been live since September 16. US-based merchants can use a new app in the Shopify App Store to create and manage campaigns for OpenAI ads, with products already connected through the store’s catalog. The app reaches other supported markets starting September 23.
Businesses that manage customers in HubSpot can connect a ChatGPT Ads account, create ads, track performance, and follow up on leads without leaving the CRM, using customer context already stored there. For lead-driven companies, that keeps the path from ad click to sales conversation inside one system.
The announcement also covered new AI tools for campaign setup. Natural-language prompts now let advertisers create, update, and analyze campaigns through the Ads Manager plugin in ChatGPT, while the ChatGPT Ads Manager suggests copy and imagery drawn from a landing page and campaign objective. Every suggestion can be reviewed and edited before it enters a campaign. An opt-in setting also adapts headlines to the conversation and translates copy into the reader’s preferred language. Our earlier breakdown of the Ads Manager launch covers how the platform works.
Can Small Businesses Advertise On ChatGPT Today?
Standard campaigns are available now, and sign-up for OpenAI ads happens at ads.openai.com. Eligible businesses can also start through the ecommerce and CRM apps above, so a business that wants to advertise on ChatGPT can begin there while the agent format stays in alpha.
OpenAI reports that its advertising business passed a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in under 200 days, with tens of thousands of advertisers now using the platform. Retailers such as Target and Williams-Sonoma were among the early testers, as covered in our roundup of brands testing ads in ChatGPT.
Between May 18th-June 4th, our team tested 550 live ChatGPT queries and found that 84% returned no ads, which suggested that many categories still have room for a brand to show up.
How Should Businesses Prepare For The Next Wave Of ChatGPT Advertising?
Reporting on OpenAI’s Ad Tools Terms indicates that advertisers carry responsibility for the content, configuration, and output of their agents, which places accuracy in the brand’s hands.
What Should The Agent Know About Your Business?
Product and service details should match across the website, any product feeds, and whatever material an agent draws from, because conflicting answers erode trust quickly. A conversation that ends in a service request only pays off when someone responds fast, so lead follow-up needs a named owner. Tracking deserves attention before any ChatGPT Ads spend begins, and the conversion tools in our measurement update breakdown are a good starting point. Because ChatGPT advertising is still building its reporting and attribution track record, a modest test budget paired with clean tracking gives the clearest read.
Floodlight Helps Brands Run ChatGPT Ads
Floodlight offers Programmatic Marketing services and helps your brand run ChatGPT Ads alongside connected TV, streaming audio, and digital out-of-home in one coordinated plan. Our team follows each OpenAI update, including the Sponsored Agents test, and turns it into campaigns that are set up correctly at launch and adjusted as results come in. Contact us to see where your category stands.