• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, Yesterday

Did you really think AI would be ad-free?

The answer, deep down, is a clear “no.” Advertising is the bedrock of the internet, whether you like it or not.  The very first websites pasted print ads on their pages, which set off a multibillion-dollar business humming along quite nicely today. 

This new era of the web is dominated by conversation about AI. Some predict that its ramifications for business, culture and society as a whole may indeed dwarf anything was created when we launched the World Wide Web as a consumer-focused channel.  I tend to agree with that basic idea, but who was planning to pay for all this new engagement? 

Advertising is the way the internet is monetized -- from display ads to paid search to video.  Ads are the currency that covers costs and creates viable businesses all over the web.  There are instances when people will pay for technology and services, but the universe of paid vs. free users is dramatically different. 

That’s the simple reason why Google never launched a paid version of search.  It’s easier to become a noun, a verb, or the fabric of the culture when you open up your solution for everyone to use.   I can “Google” anything because it’s free.  If everyone had to subscribe to a search engine, far less people would use it.

Ads will be on your AI browser.  Affiliate links will be used to monetize recommendations within your Answer Engine Optimization.  Voice AI will use those same affiliate links, and will likely have some intermittent audio ads that interject when the primary UI shifts away from a screen and text. 

Some of these solutions may offer an ad-free model for a paid subscription, but the vast majority of users will always prefer free with mild interruptions.

It should be noted that people like Sam Altman always proclaim their disdain for advertising early in their journeys, but then someone shows them a business forecast, and things change quickly.  If you run a large public company, you will eventually realize the money you are leaving behind.  

Advertising is not a shady business. It may actually be the most upfront and honest business that exists.  There is a fair exchange of value from one side to the other.  You get the content, services and solutions you want, and the brands get the chance to sway your opinion and encourage you to buy their products. 

I will say that whatever model you see employed by ChatGPT and other LLMs over the next year will likely not be where they end up in five years.  The first pass will be an educated guess based on what came before, but the end product will be revised based on performance. 

Even what becomes the basic measure of performance will be interesting, because the age-old measure of clickthroughs will likely not survive this era of the business.  Outcome metrics for these new forms of advertising will likely measure up-funnel more and consist of factors like awareness and intent, because these are lagging metrics that can be influenced by advertising without that direct measurement of clicks, which may be the dying currency of advertising.

All that being said, you should expect to see ads displayed in these new AI formats over the coming months. It’s just the next evolutionary wave of what works on the web.