Criteo joins OpenAI’s ChatGPT ads pilot as first adtech integration

New Delhi: Commerce media company Criteo has joined OpenAI’s advertising pilot inside ChatGPT, saying it is the first advertising technology partner to integrate with the test running on ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers in the United States.

Criteo said the integration will allow brands to use its digital advertising platform as part of the pilot, as OpenAI experiments with ads in a conversational interface. The rollout will begin in the coming weeks.

“This integration with OpenAI represents an exciting step forward in advancing advertising in an emerging AI experience,” said Michael Komasinski, Chief Executive Officer of Criteo. “Through this pilot, we are helping shape how advertising can support discovery and consideration within Large Language Model (LLM) platforms, grounded in experiences that are additive, relevant, and built on user trust.”

The move comes weeks after OpenAI said it had started testing ads in ChatGPT in the US for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go tiers, while keeping Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education ad-free. 

OpenAI said ads “do not influence” ChatGPT’s answers and that conversations remain private from advertisers.

Criteo also cited internal, aggregated observations from its US clients, claiming users referred from LLM platforms such as ChatGPT convert at around 1.5 times the rate of other referral channels. The company did not disclose the methodology or sample size.

Criteo said it activates more than $4 billion in annual media spend and works with 17,000 advertisers globally, and expects the ChatGPT pilot to help evaluate how commerce-focused ads perform in emerging “conversational discovery” environments.