How AI-Driven Ads Could Change Everything About What You See and Do

Ads Are Coming to AI and None of Us Are Ready

You’re halfway home from work when you decide to have an early dinner at a new fast-food place nearby. You planned to hit the gym, but instead, you tell your AI assistant to reschedule your workout for tomorrow. What you don’t realize is that you’re one of 100,000 people the company behind the assistant targeted to try Acme Burger that week. In this scenario, you become the product, and the money you spend on that burger is the return on investment (ROI) of a performance marketing campaign.

If this sounds far-fetched, think again. The shift from traditional advertising to performance marketing is more than just semantics. Advertising aims to deliver a message in exchange for human attention. Performance marketing promises results. And with generative AI and large language models (LLMs), promising outcomes takes on a whole new meaning.

How Advertising Will Shape Generative AI

Advertising has influenced every communication medium before, and generative AI platforms won’t be an exception. This shift could disrupt search engines and the massive industries built on them, not to mention the entire content ecosystem that fuels both search and AI today.

Brands subsidize the stories and experiences we consume in exchange for delivering their message. This trade-off is something people instinctively accept because they expect a quality product or experience in return. But if brands fail to deliver, the balance breaks down.

The online economy depends on systems that capture and optimize our time and attention. The breakthrough behind ChatGPT and similar AI models is based on the “attention mechanism”—a way to mimic how humans process language. The foundational paper for this was titled “Attention Is All You Need.”

Effective advertising offers transparency and gives people control over how their attention is monetized. When we hand over that control to algorithms without oversight, problems can arise. Google’s success with search came from making advertising add value rather than detract from the experience. Paid search results are clearly marked as ads to maintain trust, encouraging continued use over alternatives.

Lessons from Other Media

Poor advertising experiences can kill entire mediums. Cable TV, for example, suffers less because of its content and more because of the viewer’s experience with ads. This pattern repeats across other platforms where advertising models degrade user experience.

The stakes with generative AI are enormous. Platforms can’t afford to lose users’ trust or degrade the experience just for ad revenue. The winning platform will be the one that integrates advertising transparently, adds value, and supports the quality content ecosystem it depends on.

Why Publishers Matter More Than Ever

Publishers of original, high-quality content stand to gain in this new environment. Generative AI without good taste or current information is useless. Sustainable AI platforms must partner with content hubs like Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, and trusted publishers such as The New York Times, Reuters, and Forbes.

Ironically, the editorial authority that defines these publishers is exactly what generative AI needs for fresh, reliable content. Yet many of these outlets are struggling as traffic collapses.

A Path Forward for AI Advertising

Creating value through fair advertising has always been challenging but remains crucial. For generative AI, a transparent, user-respecting advertising system could benefit both platforms and publishers. It should value human attention and deliver usefulness—not just make empty promises that lead us to buy burgers without knowing why.

Here’s a telling insight: when asked about the risk of hidden advertising in large language models, ChatGPT responded, “If a generative AI system like ChatGPT is also an ad platform, its primary job becomes not helping you, but monetizing you.” That’s a warning marketers and platform builders can’t ignore.

For marketing professionals looking to build expertise in AI tools and advertising strategies, staying informed is key. Resources like Complete AI Training’s latest courses offer practical learning on AI and its impact on marketing.