AI Enters Advertising: OpenAI, Retail Media, and Shifting Tech Power

Resources

Resources & Recommendations

People Mentioned

• Fiji Simo (CEO of Applications at OpenAI) - Discussed her comments on OpenAI's potential advertising model and the importance of commerce intent.
• Reed Hastings (Former CEO of Netflix) - Referenced for his past comments about Netflix's competition with HBO.
• David Zaslav (CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery) - Mentioned in the context of Warner Bros. Discovery's potential sales and mergers.
• Lena Khan (FTC Chair) - Referenced for her critical stance on big tech companies during her tenure.
• Has Patel (Former Ads Chief at Perplexity) - Mentioned in relation to the struggles of Perplexity's ad business.
• Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) - Discussed his perspective on what an ad product within ChatGPT should and shouldn't be.
• Elena McGurn (Digitas) - Mentioned for her insights on how agencies are getting data from various chatbots.
• Nina Gold (Chief Innovation Officer at Forbes) - Discussed her insights on actual prompt data and referral traffic from platforms like ChatGPT.
• Sam Bradley (Senior Marketing Reporter at Digiday) - Mentioned for their reporting on the topic of AI and ad tech.
• Sarah Guaglione (Digiday) - Mentioned for her reporting on the topic of AI and ad tech.

Organizations & Institutions

• OpenAI - The primary subject of the episode, discussed for its potential entry into the advertising business.
• Warner Bros. Discovery - Discussed in the context of potential acquisitions and its plan to split into two companies.
• Meta - Mentioned regarding its antitrust case and the judge's verdict.
• Comcast - Referenced as a bidder for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming business.
• Netflix - Referenced as a bidder for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming business.
• European Commission - Mentioned for approving the Omnicom IPG merger.
• United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - Mentioned in the context of its antitrust lawsuit against Meta.
• Google - Referenced in relation to its antitrust case and the launch of Gemini 3.
• Instacart - Discussed in relation to Fiji Simo's previous success in building its retail media business.
• Amazon - Mentioned as a key player in retail media and an early example of commerce media expansion.
• Walmart - Referenced for its referral traffic from ChatGPT and its participation in instant checkout programs.
• Target - Mentioned for rolling out a ChatGPT app for Black Friday and its role in retail media.
• Uber - Referenced as an example of a commerce company with an ad business.
• Booking.com - Mentioned as a commerce company that may have commerce media networks.
• Expedia - Mentioned as a commerce company that may have commerce media networks.
• Best Buy - Referenced for its efforts to connect in-store and digital experiences for consumers.
• Digitas - An agency mentioned in the context of data from chatbots.

Tools & Software

• ChatGPT - The central AI chatbot discussed in the episode, particularly its potential for an advertising business.
• Gemini - Google's AI chatbot, mentioned for its new multimodal responses and web app creation capabilities.
• Perplexity - An AI search engine discussed as an example of challenges in building an ad business in the AI space.
• Semrush - A search analytics provider that Adobe is acquiring, relevant for its data on brand appearance in AI chatbots.
• Adobe products - Mentioned as tools brands use to create ads, with the potential for integration with Semrush data.
• Adobe Marketing Cloud - Referenced as an existing analytics suite within Adobe.
• Similarweb - Another analytics provider mentioned for providing data on brand appearance in AI chatbots.
• Claude Code - An AI coding agent mentioned in the context of competition among AI companies.
• Bing - Referenced as a search engine, in comparison to Google.
• Shopify - Mentioned as part of an instant checkout program.
• Etsy - Mentioned as part of an instant checkout program.
• Pulse (OpenAI product) - Mentioned as one of OpenAI's products.
• Sora (OpenAI product) - Mentioned as one of OpenAI's products.

Articles & Papers

• "Wired interview" - An interview with Fiji Simo where she discussed OpenAI's potential ad model.
• "Modern Retail report" - A report by Mitchell on Target rolling out a ChatGPT app and Walmart seeing referral traffic from ChatGPT.
• "Search Engine Land report" - A recap of an interview with Sam Altman discussing his thoughts on ad products within ChatGPT.
• "Digiday reporting" - General reference to reporting by Sam Bradley and Sarah Guaglione on AI and ad tech.
• "Forbes interview" - An interview with Nina Gold at the publishing summit in Europe discussing prompt data from ChatGPT.

Podcasts

• "The Glassy podcast" - A sibling podcast that will have a special episode on Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.
• "The Modern Retail podcast" - A sibling podcast that will have a special episode on Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.