The news: OpenAI will make it easier for retailers and ecommerce brands to create ads in ChatGPT with a “product feed” campaign that automatically turns product names, images, and other attributes into ads—no manual setup required, per Digiday.

The feature, currently being piloted with retailers through OpenAI’s first ad tech partner, Criteo, could be a time-saver for brands managing thousands of product SKUs.

Zooming in: Retailers can already upload catalogs into ChatGPT for pricing and availability, but not for paid ads, forcing brands to build campaigns one product at a time. OpenAI’s new product feed automatically generates ads from product names, images, and attributes—closing onerous production gaps for brands with thousands of SKUs.

• The tool can handle up to a million SKUs per advertiser, and retailers can filter which products are eligible.
• The setup mirrors Google Shopping, so most retailers can repurpose their existing structured feeds featuring product data (titles, brand, price, availability, etc.).

Why it’s worth watching: OpenAI’s approach is different from what Google, Meta, and Amazon offer brands since ChatGPT serves ads based on conversational intent, not search history, social activity, or a user’s browsing behavior. 

We forecast 23.4% of the US population will be AI-assisted digital shoppers this year, growing 19% YoY. Tools like OpenAI’s product feed help brands capture this market as more consumers make AI shopping a habit.

Implications for brands: For brands managing tens of thousands of SKUs, product feed campaigns promise a meaningful reduction in production overhead—they spend less time building ads and free up the budget to actually run them.

Advertisers looking to reach ChatGPT’s audience should prioritize developing a clean, structured product feed—shift from designing for search to answering specific customer questions so product discovery is more seamless in a conversational flow. 

OpenAI already lets advertisers pay per click rather than per view and is building toward a model where brands only pay when a shopper completes a purchase.