TL;DR
- Digiday reported on 14 September 2026 that OpenAI is testing a ChatGPT ad whose click opens a chat with the brand's AI agent inside ChatGPT, not a website.
- Wayfair confirmed it is in the Sponsored Agent pilot, testing at limited scale with guardrails on product accuracy, transparency and service handoffs.
- OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said on 8 September 2026 that today's ads under ChatGPT answers are the basic starting point.
- No pricing, measurement details or market list were reported, and ChatGPT ads were not live in Thailand at the last public count in late August 2026.
OpenAI is testing a ChatGPT ad format in which clicking the ad opens a chat with the advertiser's own AI agent inside ChatGPT instead of sending the user to a website. Digiday reported on 14 September 2026 that the format has been introduced to select clients, that it viewed and verified the format on video, and that Wayfair confirmed it is taking part in what the retailer called OpenAI's Sponsored Agent pilot. OpenAI has not published documentation, pricing or a list of markets for it.
How the Sponsored Agent format works
The mechanics Digiday describes are simple. An advertiser attaches a branded business agent to an ad. The ad carries a call-to-action button with a message such as "Chat with us." When a user taps it, ChatGPT opens a branded chat, still inside the ChatGPT app, where the user talks to the brand's AI agent. The click does not open a browser tab and does not land on the advertiser's site.
That is a different job from the ads OpenAI already sells. The current format appears underneath ChatGPT responses for users on the free and Go plans, and its click goes out to a destination URL, the way a search ad does. In the new format the ad is the entry point to a conversation, and whatever qualifying, answering or recommending happens next is done by the brand's agent in ChatGPT's interface.
Digiday calls it an early iteration of what OpenAI has described as AI-native advertising, meaning ads designed around the way people use an assistant rather than around scrolling or searching.
What OpenAI and Wayfair have said
OpenAI has not announced the format publicly. The closest on-record comment came from its chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia and Technology Conference in San Francisco on 8 September 2026. Friar said the ads currently shown under ChatGPT responses are the "basic starting point" and that the company is already seeing "early indications" of what a more AI-native format could look like. "This is all before we've really launched a format that feels truly endemic to AI," she said.
Wayfair is the only advertiser named. Digiday saw a screenshot of a Wayfair ad in the format, and the company confirmed its participation. Morgan Brown, Wayfair's director of paid media, said the retailer is in the Sponsored Agent pilot "to explore how conversational commerce can help customers make more informed, confident decisions." He added that Wayfair is "testing at limited scale with guardrails around product accuracy, transparency and service handoffs."
Those three guardrails are worth reading closely, because they name the obvious failure points of the format. An agent can describe a product wrongly. A user may not realise they are talking to a brand's sales agent rather than to ChatGPT itself. And at some point a real purchase or support question needs to reach a human or a checkout, which is the service handoff.
Current ChatGPT ads versus the Sponsored Agent pilot
The table sets the two formats side by side using only what has been reported. Where a source is silent, the row says so.
| Feature | Current ChatGPT ads | Sponsored Agent pilot |
|---|---|---|
| Placement | Underneath ChatGPT responses, free and Go plans | Ad with a call-to-action such as "Chat with us" |
| What the click does | Sends the user to the advertiser's destination | Opens a branded chat with the brand's AI agent inside ChatGPT |
| Access | Self-serve Ads Manager in some markets, partners elsewhere | Select clients only; number not disclosed |
| Named advertiser | Several, including Delta Vacations through the Amazon DSP pilot | Wayfair, confirmed to Digiday |
| Pricing and measurement | Minimum spend and bid strategies documented in OpenAI's help centre | Not reported |
Why an ad that keeps the user inside ChatGPT matters
Most search and display advertising has been built on the click leaving the platform. The landing page, the pixel, the conversion tag, the retargeting list and the first-party data a brand collects all depend on the user arriving on the brand's own property. A format that keeps the conversation inside ChatGPT moves that interaction onto OpenAI's surface.
Digiday put the retailer's dilemma directly. One paid media executive it quoted said retailers want user data through their owned sites, but know the consumer journey can happen anywhere and they need to compete for attention and spend wherever it happens. The same executive said the return on ChatGPT ads "just hasn't been there for the most part" so far, and that OpenAI could become an alternative for some spending from advertisers facing rising costs and flat returns on Google and Meta, provided the agent experience works.
Another agency executive quoted by Digiday compared the format to Meta ads that send people to WhatsApp: a way to open a line of communication with a prospect, then qualify who needs a sales or service person and who should be sent to the right page to buy. That comparison is the most useful one for readers in Southeast Asia, where click-to-message ads that open Messenger or LINE are a familiar format.
Where ChatGPT's ad business stands
The pilot arrives about seven months after ads first appeared in ChatGPT. Digiday's own check-ins with advertisers have produced the same verdict each time: promising, but too early for firm conclusions, so budgets stay in incremental or experimental lines. OpenAI reached what Digiday reported as a $1 billion annualised advertising run rate on 31 August 2026, the same day beta self-serve access to Ads Manager opened across 31 European markets.
The surrounding product has moved quickly. Relevant Audience has covered OpenAI making automated bidding the default for new ad groups in August, the expansion of ChatGPT ads to 41 publicly counted markets at the end of August, and Amazon Ads opening ChatGPT inventory to select US advertisers through its DSP on 10 September. The Sponsored Agent pilot is different in kind from those updates: it changes what an ad does after the click rather than how it is bought or where it runs.
What the report does not say
The gaps are large, and they matter more than usual because the format moves a sales conversation onto a third-party platform:
- Which markets the pilot runs in. Wayfair is US-based, but no country list was reported.
- How the pilot is priced: per impression, per click, per conversation or otherwise.
- How the brand's agent is built or configured, what product data it draws on, and who is responsible when it answers wrongly.
- What conversation data the advertiser receives, and whether conversions inside the chat can be measured against the advertiser's own analytics.
- How the handoff to a website, checkout or human agent works in practice.
- When, or whether, the format will be offered more widely.
What this means for Thai marketers
ChatGPT ads were not live in Thailand at the last public count. When Relevant Audience counted the 41 markets at the end of August 2026, Thailand was not among them, and nothing in the Digiday report suggests the Sponsored Agent pilot runs here. There is no sign of anything to buy here yet.
The format is still worth preparing for, because Thai advertisers already know the closest equivalent. Click-to-message campaigns that open Messenger through Facebook ads, and campaigns that start a chat with a LINE Official Account through LINE ads, rest on the same logic: the click opens a conversation, and the sale depends on how well that conversation is handled. Teams that already measure chat-to-sale rates, response times and handoff quality on LINE know which questions to ask OpenAI when a similar format reaches this market.
Three practical steps follow from the report. First, write down the product facts an agent would need to answer correctly (prices, stock rules, delivery areas, warranty terms) in a structured, current form, because a branded agent is only as accurate as the data behind it. Second, decide in advance what a good handoff looks like: which questions go to a human, and how a chat becomes an order that your analytics can see. Third, keep working on how ChatGPT describes your brand organically. The Sponsored Agent format is paid, but users will still ask ChatGPT about your category without an ad in view, and ChatGPT SEO work on the pages and sources it draws from affects that answer. For the wider picture of how AI assistants choose sources, see our GEO service.
FAQ
What is OpenAI's Sponsored Agent pilot?
It is a test of a ChatGPT ad whose click opens a chat with the advertiser's AI agent inside ChatGPT. Digiday reported it on 14 September 2026, and Wayfair used the name Sponsored Agent pilot when confirming it takes part.
Does the ad send users to the advertiser's website?
No, not directly. The call-to-action, such as "Chat with us," opens a branded chat within ChatGPT. Wayfair said it is testing guardrails around service handoffs, which suggests users can move on to other steps, but the report does not describe how.
Can Thai brands use the Sponsored Agent format?
Not at the moment. Thailand was not among the markets where ChatGPT ads were live as of late August 2026, and the pilot is limited to select clients with no market list published.
How much does a Sponsored Agent ad cost?
Pricing has not been reported. Neither OpenAI nor Wayfair disclosed how the pilot is charged or measured.
Is this the same as Meta's click-to-WhatsApp ads?
It is similar in purpose, according to an agency executive Digiday quoted: both open a conversation instead of a web page. The difference is that the ChatGPT format connects the user to a brand's AI agent inside OpenAI's app rather than to a messaging account the brand staffs.
If you want your product data, chat flows and brand visibility in AI assistants ready before conversational ad formats reach Thailand, Relevant Audience can help you plan the work across ChatGPT, LINE and Meta.
