The news: Snapchat is shifting brand advertising into conversational AI with AI Sponsored Snaps—a new format that lets brands deploy AI agents directly inside chats, potentially reaching nearly 1 billion monthly active users (MAUs) globally.

The format builds on Sponsored Snaps, which brought full-screen vertical video ads into users' chat inboxes in 2025 and delivered 22% higher conversions and 20% lower CPAs, per Digiday.

“Conversation is becoming the most valuable real estate in advertising,” said Ajit Mohan, Chief Business Officer at Snap. “AI Sponsored Snaps are about pairing the scale of nearly a billion monthly users with AI-powered conversations that drive real engagement and action.”  

Zooming in: Brands can bring their own AI agents onto the platform to drive full-funnel outcomes, from top-of-funnel discovery to lower-funnel installs and purchases.

• Over 500 million users already message Snapchat’s My AI Chat. The chat feed reaches 85% of Snapchatters, who sent 950 billion messages in Q1 2026.
• AI Sponsored Snaps launches with Experian as its alpha partner, letting users message its chatbot about credit and money management.

Implications for brands: With conversation being Snapchat's core user behavior, AI Sponsored Snaps give brands an opportunity to extend engagement by having agents answer users' questions and surface product and service recommendations without users ever leaving the chat window.

• Snapchat offers the same opportunity Amazon and others are exploring with conversational chatbot ads, but with Snap's unique advantage: Audiences are already conditioned to treat chats as their primary interface.
• The immediate priority for brands: Start designing for conversation, and consider bringing a proprietary AI agent to own the full funnel.

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