How the launch of AI search chatbots such as Bing Copilot is affecting advertisers, as they look for new ways to target users with relevant ads
Microsoft and Google are bringing ads to their AI search experiences. But users don't always find it helpful. Mastodon: @kubikpixel@chaos.social . Bluesky: @self.agency Mastodon: @kubikpixel@chaos.social : Oh yes, Bing and its sibling search engines were offline only recently (see my previous Toots). This is one of the reasons why I use #SearXNG, @Mojeek, @MetaGer & #Stract to find my way around the #internet — »As #Google Targets AI Search Ads, It Could Learn a Lot From #Bing: … Bluesky: @self.agency : oh jesus can't wait for the chatbots to start inserting paid recommendations into their results [embedded post]
Context & Ripple Effects
AI-search monetization was anticipated early: Microsoft had shown Bing’s chatbot to ad agencies with paid-link plans, then explored cited ad formats and revenue sharing with contributing partners. This coverage shows that the question has shifted from whether chat interfaces can carry ads to how advertisers can make those placements relevant.
Google and Microsoft are bringing advertising into AI search experiences as users raise concerns about the usefulness of paid recommendations. That puts the quality and disclosure of commercial answers at the center of the product experience, not merely the results page.
First-order effects
- Advertisers must adapt targeting and creative for conversational AI-search placements, where a recommendation can be presented within an answer rather than alongside a list of links.
- Microsoft and Google face an immediate product trade-off: adding monetization to AI answers while preserving users’ perception that the response is useful and trustworthy.
Second-order effects
- Ad formats are likely to move toward clearer attribution and contextual relevance, building on Microsoft’s earlier experiments with citations and partner revenue sharing.
- Publishers and other content partners have a stronger interest in how their material is cited, compensated, or used when an AI answer also contains commercial placements.
Third-order effects
- If AI answers become a meaningful discovery surface, search advertising may shift from bidding for clicks to competing for inclusion in the answer or recommendation itself.
- The durability of this model will depend on whether platforms can distinguish useful commercial context from paid influence; weak disclosure or relevance could push users toward alternative search tools and constrain adoption.
The trend: AI search is turning answer generation into a new advertising surface, forcing platforms to balance conversational utility, attribution, and monetization.