OpenAI is staffing up to turn ChatGPT into an ad platform

OpenAI is hiring a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer to help develop tools for ad platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution.

• The role is part of a new ChatGPT growth team tasked with building the backbone of OpenAI’s in-house paid marketing platform.

Why we care. OpenAI wants to monetize free users via ChatGPT ads by 2026, according to reports. It seems that OpenAI is now starting to build that ad-buying infrastructure so brands can run campaigns on ChatGPT. That would give advertisers access to a new platform with massive reach (700 million weekly users as of August).

The details. The listing calls for building APIs, data pipelines, and experimentation frameworks to optimize ad spend. According to the job description:

“We are looking for an experienced fullstack engineer to join our new ChatGPT Growth team to build and scale the systems that power OpenAI’s marketing channels and spend efficiency. Your role will include projects such as developing campaign management tools, integrating with major ad platforms, building real-time attribution and reporting pipelines, and enabling experimentation frameworks to optimize our objectives. As we are in the early stages of building this platform, we will rely on you to design and implement foundational MarTech infrastructure that make our marketing investments more effective, measurable, and automated. We value engineers who are impact-driven, autonomous, and adept at turning ambiguous business goals into robust technical systems.”

Zoom out. OpenAI’s ad product could allow brands to input goals and have ChatGPT autonomously plan, buy, and measure campaigns.

• Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s chief of applications, is currently looking for a candidate who can “lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT,” Adweek reported.

Bottom line. Advertisers may soon have to decide whether to invest in ChatGPT as a paid media channel.