WSJ Tech News Briefing · Friday, September 18, 2026
OpenAI is experimenting with new ad formats, including 'sponsored agents,' which allow users to interact with a branded AI conversation. When a user clicks on a sponsored agent ad, a new ChatGPT-like conversation opens, providing information about the advertiser's product.
“So they began testing a couple of weeks ago, ads that felt very needed to the platform. And these are called sponsored agents.”
“So the ad appears as I described at the bottom and when the person clicks on it, they're not actually sent to a company's website. What happens is another chat GPT conversation pops up and this is a branded one. So this allows me as the user to have a conversation with an agent that's been fed all the information about the advertiser so that I can query about a product.”