New Street Research’s Dan Salmon spotted a milestone during a presentation at Advertising Week in New York this past week: ChatGPT Ads now has more than 60,000 advertisers, up from the “20K+” figure cited by OpenAI’s applications CTO Vijay Raji on Aug. 31.
In his note to investors yesterday, Salmon put that growth in perspective:
“The 60K+ advertisers was revealed as part of an OpenAI and AppsFlyer’s slide presentation and suggests that OpenAI is well on its way to passing 100K advertisers by the end of the year, with momentum building to millions of advertisers – i.e., Google and Meta-level scale – one day.
It also means that OpenAI Ads is already likely in the total advertiser range of platforms like Pinterest, Snap and Reddit, i.e., Pinterest former CRO revealed the platform was at ‘tens of thousands’ of advertisers in January 2026, and Reddit derived 21% of revenue from its Top 10 advertisers in 2025.
But it is the speed of the ramp that is most impressive.”
Related: “ChatGPT Ads (OpenAI) integration setup” – AppsFlyer
From tipsheet: In his note, Salmon makes another point which bears watching: OpenAI’s measurement and bidding tools suggest it is competing for Meta’s performance budgets, even while much of the attention stays on Google Search.
AGENTS
O’Kelley promotes Universal Buying Platform (UBP)
CEO Brian O’Kelley continues to shape the narrative for Apostra after his startup’s rebrand (was Scope3) two weeks ago.
Previewing a blog post co-written with COO Anne Coghlan, O’Kelley provided his take on recent events:
“Amazon says they’re done with the DSP. They launched the Amazon Ads Agent, connected to ChatGPT, and are well on their way to being the biggest ad platform in the world – in fact, a Universal Buying Platform (UBP).”
Read more on LinkedIn. (Oct. 8)
In the blog post, O’Kelley and Coghlan describe Amazon Ads—with its new Ads Agent—as a Universal Buying Platform. They suggest agency platforms such as WPP Open could follow, with gateways like Apostra connecting those platforms to advertising surfaces.
The Apostra co-founders identify a “$1T agentic advertising pie” and make part of the case for the UBP around a not-programmatic future:
“Amazon is acknowledging that a programmatic-only demand-side platform makes little sense outside a web-centric universe. Much of the world outside the web, like ChatGPT, isn’t, won’t, and can’t be programmatic.”
Read: “The Universal Buying Platform” (Oct. 8) – BOK & Anne on Ads blog
O’Kelley told Business Insider (Sept. 23) that Apostra expects to seek additional funding by mid-2027. The UBP thesis and Apostra’s gateway will likely be part of the pitch.
Related: Just a few weeks ago, ad tech venture firm Aperiam proposed a Universal Media Platform, or UMP, category for a group of rising ad tech startups. Read tipsheet. (Sept. 21)
From tipsheet: UBP has a buy-side tilt. Will there be a need for a sell-side version? Is Apostra the agentic successor to Right Media Exchange and AppNexus? So many questions, so little time.
TECH
Debates: SPO, agent interoperability
Supply-path optimization
Jounce Media CEO Chris Kane says buyers and publishers have conflicting incentives around reselling supply:
“We guide buyers to block rebroadcasting supply chains. It is in the best interest of brands, agencies, and DSPs to avoid multi-hop paths in favor of more direct paths.
But we guide publishers to enable rebroadcasting supply chains. As long as demand exists through resold auctions, it is in the best interest of publishers to enable reselling.”
Kane says reselling is a short-term monetization strategy.
Read more on LinkedIn. (Oct. 8)
The debate: When does reselling’s short-term revenue benefit become a long-term liability for publishers? Buyers want more direct paths, while publishers want to capture demand wherever it remains. AI could sharpen that tension by helping buyers identify which paths justify their fees—and avoid those that don’t.
Agent interoperability
Adgentek CEO Frank Sinton argues that Advertising Week’s buying-agent launches leave a question unanswered:
“What I didn’t hear: how any of these agents will talk to each other. Every holding company built its own. One transaction all week ran over an open protocol with independent sellers on the other side. And nobody connected the intent a person declares inside an AI assistant to an agent that can act on it across the open web.”
Read more on LinkedIn. (Oct. 8)
The debate: Where should agencies’ proprietary systems end and shared standards begin? Agencies can retain their own buying logic while using common protocols to transact. The question is whether agents can work across sellers and platforms without requiring a separate integration for each.
COMMERCE MEDIA
Expedia eyes non-travel ads in AI era
Expedia Group Advertising is pitching fashion, beauty, electronics and other non-travel brands on travelers’ spending beyond flights and hotels. The company estimates a potential $100 billion consumer market, with US travelers spending about $500 beyond the core booking.
Meanwhile, Expedia is following travelers into AI tools. It says it is appearing in Google AI Mode and Meta’s Muse, has relationships with OpenAI and Anthropic, and recently acquired conversational travel planner Layla. “We want to be where our traveler is,” says ad chief Bill Watkins.
Read: “Inside Expedia Advertising’s next $100bn ad opportunity” (Oct. 7) – The Drum
From tipsheet: A trip gives Expedia a reason to pitch advertisers far beyond travel. The question is how much of that intent Expedia can capture and monetize when planning starts in someone else’s AI assistant.
DATA
Retailers extend access, retain control
Retailers are giving brands more ways to buy media and use shopper data through existing buying platforms, while retaining control over that access.
New Google Ads Help documentation describes how retailers can share audiences with brands for eligible commerce media campaigns. The condition: campaigns using those audiences must send traffic back to the retailer’s approved website. Retailers choose which audiences to share and with whom.
Read: “About commerce audience sharing through Google Ads” – Google
An April announcement from retail media infrastructure startup Kevel, Dollar General and The Trade Desk addresses a related challenge: connecting onsite retail media with offsite campaigns. The companies described coordinating inventory, reach, frequency and measurement within TTD, with onsite self-service buying framed as a future expansion.
Read: “Kevel, Dollar General and The Trade Desk Introduce First-of-its-Kind Retail Media Solution” (April 30) – press release
More: “Your Share, Not Your Sales: Rethinking Retail Media Measurement” with The Trade Desk’s Matthew Fantazier (Sept. 23) – Unlocking Retail Media Podcast
From tipsheet: Retailers’ sharing rules could shape AI buying by determining 1) which shoppers an agent can reach, 2) where it can buy ads and 3) where it must send customers. Google’s condition is pretty concrete: use the retailer’s audience, send the traffic back to the retailer.
MARKETING
How to make an AI-native marketing org
Advertising Week New York this week yielded more anecdotes on the steady AI transformation of marketing organizations.
Agencies are helping drive the change.
Marketing Dive reports on how beverage brand Liquid Death is working with an agency to change its marketing operations:
“To become an AI-native organization, Liquid Death works with Power Digital Marketing, a digital marketing agency that announced in August a proprietary AI ecosystem that unites an intelligence layer called Iris, operating system Omega and a creative intelligence layer called Creative Affinity. The system has changed how Liquid Death’s marketing team operates.
’Instead of going on Slack or writing my own queries or asking my team to post something, I can go in and have a sense of what’s going on and be able to share that with my internal team so we can act fast,’ [Benoit Vatere, chief media and digital commerce officer at Liquid Death] said.”
Read: “How Liquid Death is building an AI-native marketing organization” (Oct. 7) – Marketing Dive
Related: “There are about 100 companies pitching AI Marketing transformation, and it’s mostly bullsh*t.” (Oct. 8) – Tejas Manohar, CEO, Hightouch on LinkedIn
SEARCH
Google AI Overviews expand into branded search
Google’s AI Overviews, which often appear above traditional search results, are expanding to include branded searches according to CEO Alex Halliday at GEO firm AirOps.
In a breakdown of his company’s recent data on LinkedIn, Halliday concludes, “With the growth of AI Overviews and AI Mode, the ‘safer’ territory of branded search is now being shaped by content you don’t control.”
Read more. (Oct. 8)
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Developments
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- “Welcome to Gemini at Work 2026: Introducing the Gemini agent” (Oct. 8) – Google Cloud blog
- Introducing all-new Amazon Alexa Tablets—powerful tablets with Alexa+ built in (Oct. 8) – Amazon
- “AI startup Manus raises $500 million in first funding round since Meta breakup” (Oct. 8) – CNBC
PEOPLE MOVES
Now hiring
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- Databricks on the march: “After nearly 5 years at Amazon, I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Databricks to help grow partnerships with Business Application Partners and scale their business through the Databricks Marketplace! I’m incredibly grateful for my time at AWS & Amazon Ads — the people, challenges, learnings, and opportunities to grow. Now, I’m energized by what’s next. Databricks offers Partners and Customers a unified data intelligence platform built on choice, context, control, and cost efficiency — exactly what’s needed at this moment of AI innovation.” (Oct. 8) – Shaila Mathias on LinkedIn
MORE
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- Podcast: “Agents Are Easy. Context Is Hard. w/ PMG’s Mike Treon” (Oct. 8) – Unharnessed with Magnite’s Jonathan Moffie and Swivel’s Joseph Hirsch on Spotify
- Google watch: Search Engine Land reports Google Ads is adding AI-powered insights to experiment reporting and letting advertisers preview AI Max-generated ad copy before opting in. (Oct. 8)
- Olyzon orchestration: “How Does Agentic Buying Work In CTV?” (Oct. 8) – AdExchanger
- Walmart strategy: “Walmart Lays Out Its Plan to Take Over TV Advertising” (Oct. 7) – Adweek (subscription)
- Economy: “U.S. Ad Outlook Improves On WARC Update” (Oct. 8) – MediaPost