OpenAI is testing "Sponsored Agents" in ChatGPT: a separate, clearly labelled conversation a person can open with a business after seeing its ad, asking follow-up questions about features, sizing or compatibility before following a link to the advertiser's site. Alongside it, OpenAI's Ads Manager will now generate ad copy and imagery from an advertiser's own landing page.
Key takeaways
- OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents with select United States advertisers, and is accepting interest from businesses for future testing.
- The sponsored conversation is kept separate from ChatGPT's own answers and from the user's original conversation.
- Advertisers can create, update and analyse campaigns through natural-language prompts in ChatGPT Work, using an Ads Manager plugin.
- Ads Manager can suggest ad copy and imagery based on the advertiser's landing page and campaign objective, for the advertiser to review and edit.
- HubSpot and Shopify are the first customer relationship management and ecommerce partners, and United States Shopify merchants get a ChatGPT Ads app.
- None of this is announced for South Africa. The part that travels is what it says about your landing page.
What OpenAI actually announced
Someone sees an ad inside ChatGPT. Instead of clicking through, they open a conversation with an agent the advertiser sponsors and ask the things people ask before buying, like whether it will fit or whether it works with what they already own. When they are ready, they follow a link to the advertiser's website.
OpenAI says these conversations sit apart from ChatGPT's independent answers and from the user's original thread, and it has said before that advertising does not influence ChatGPT's answers and that advertisers do not see private conversations.
The rest of the announcement is an advertising platform filling in. Campaigns can be built and analysed by prompt in ChatGPT Work through an Ads Manager plugin. Advertisers can opt into text customisation that adapts existing headlines and descriptions to the context of a conversation, and translates copy into the reader's preferred language. HubSpot and Shopify are the first integrations, with United States Shopify merchants getting an app to build and monitor campaigns. Search Engine Land covered the announcement on 16 September 2026.
The line worth stopping on
Ads Manager can suggest ad copy and imagery based on the advertiser's landing page and the campaign objective.
Read that again with your own site in mind. Your page has quietly become an input to the advertising. A machine reads it, decides what your offer is, and writes the advertisement from what it found there.
That has been quietly true for a while in Google's asset generation. Here it is stated plainly, and paired with an agent that will go on answering questions about your product after the ad is over. Both of them work from whatever your page actually says.
The cost of a thin page
A hero image, three adjectives and a price give a generating model almost nothing to work with. It will still produce an advertisement, since that is what it is for, and the advertisement will be as vague as the page was.
Now give it the material, the dimensions, what is included, what the thing works with, who it suits and what happens after the order. The ad comes out specific, and the agent answering follow-up questions afterwards has something true to say.
This is the same requirement the rest of AI search has been converging on. It is the argument in our guide to what an ecommerce website costs, and it is why a build that treats product information as an afterthought gets more expensive later.
Where that leaves South African operators this week
Nothing to sign up for. Sponsored Agents are in testing with selected advertisers in the United States, and the Shopify app is for United States merchants. Anyone telling you to prepare a ChatGPT ads budget is ahead of the facts.
Read your own highest-value page the way a machine would instead. Open your best-selling product page and ask what an advertisement written only from this could honestly claim. A thin answer points at a gap that is already costing you in Google Shopping, in AI Overviews and in any agent comparing products for a customer.
Fixing it is ordinary work. Accurate attributes and specifications, policies a reader can find, and copy that confirms what the pictures show. That is what a Growth Retainer does month to month, and it is built into how we design an online store.
Frequently asked questions
What is a ChatGPT Sponsored Agent?
It is a separate, clearly labelled conversation that a person can start with a business-sponsored agent after seeing that business's advertisement in ChatGPT. They can ask follow-up questions about things like features, sizing or compatibility, then follow a link to the advertiser's website.
Are ChatGPT Sponsored Agents available in South Africa?
No. OpenAI says Sponsored Agents are being tested with select advertisers in the United States, and the ChatGPT Ads app for Shopify is for United States merchants. OpenAI is accepting interest from businesses for future testing.
Does advertising change the answers ChatGPT gives?
OpenAI says conversations with Sponsored Agents are separate from ChatGPT's independent answers and from the user's original conversation, and has previously said that advertising does not influence ChatGPT's answers and that advertisers do not get access to users' private conversations.
Why does my landing page matter for AI advertising?
OpenAI's Ads Manager can suggest ad copy and imagery based on the advertiser's landing page and campaign objective. A page carrying real attributes, specifications and policies gives a generating model accurate material to work from, while a thin page produces a vague advertisement.
The check worth running today
Open the product page you sell the most of and read it as a stranger with no pictures to go on. If the words alone cannot tell you the size, the material, what is included and what happens after you pay, a machine writing an ad from that page has nothing better to use than you did.