Advertising in AI assistants: the platforms, the formats and who can buy today

Sponsored placements now exist inside or around most of the major AI assistants. What does not exist is a single, settled market. Each surface has its own buying route, its own restrictions, and its own degree of maturity, and the picture changes month to month. One platform on this list shut its ad programme entirely this year while another opened self-serve.

This is a practical map of where an advertiser can actually spend money in or around AI assistants as of mid-2026: what is live, what is limited, and how each placement is bought. Treat it as a snapshot of a fast-moving landscape rather than settled fact.

The surfaces, compared

Surface	Status (mid-2026)	How you buy
ChatGPT (OpenAI)	Live, early rollout; limited countries, free and Go tiers only, restricted categories	OpenAI’s self-serve Ads Manager (with an approval period) or partner platforms with early access
Google AI Overviews	Live and widely rolled out	Standard Google Ads campaigns using AI-powered targeting: broad match, Performance Max, AI Max or Shopping
Google AI Mode	Live and expanding; ads centred on the US and English-language queries	Same eligibility as AI Overviews; no direct targeting of the surface
Microsoft Copilot	Live for search and shopping ads; Copilot-native formats in earlier stages	Microsoft Advertising; existing Search and Performance Max campaigns qualify
Perplexity	Ad programme discontinued in early 2026	No buy route; the platform is subscription-only
DSP route	Early access; limited pilots	Demand-side platforms with early-access programmes for AI-assistant inventory, bought alongside conventional programmatic

Six lines, and three different realities: two surfaces you can buy today through normal accounts, two that are genuinely early, and one you cannot buy at all.

ChatGPT: open, but narrow

OpenAI moved from an invite-only beta to a self-serve Ads Manager in the first half of 2026, so any advertiser can now apply, wait out an approval period and buy placements on clicks or impressions. The constraints matter as much as the access: ads serve only to users on the free and lower-priced tiers, availability is centred on a handful of English-speaking markets, and sensitive categories, including finance, healthcare, legal and political, are restricted or unavailable. Alongside self-serve, a small group of partner platforms has early access to the same inventory, which is how programmatic buyers reach it without a standalone account.

We have covered this surface in depth: the mechanics of how placements are selected and priced in how advertising inside ChatGPT actually works, and a more sceptical read of the early numbers in what the early ChatGPT Ads data shows.

Google: the easiest eligibility, the thinnest visibility

Google’s AI surfaces are the most accessible entry point because there is nothing new to buy. Ads from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are already eligible to serve in AI Overviews, and increasingly in AI Mode, provided the account runs at least one of Google’s AI-powered targeting options: broad match, Performance Max, AI Max or Shopping. There is no toggle to target the AI surfaces directly, and Google reports almost nothing about how ads perform there in isolation.

That combination, easy eligibility and near-zero surface-level reporting, is examined properly in ads in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, including the persistent myth that AI Max is required. It is not.

Microsoft Copilot: search ads first, native formats emerging

Microsoft’s approach mirrors Google’s: ads from existing Microsoft Advertising campaigns, including Performance Max, can already appear beneath Copilot’s responses, clearly labelled as sponsored. On top of that, Microsoft has announced Copilot-specific formats, including richer, interactive placements designed for conversational context. Those native formats appear to be in earlier stages of rollout, so we would treat them as limited availability and confirm access case by case rather than plan around them.

For advertisers already running Microsoft Advertising, Copilot exposure is largely a by-product of campaigns they should be running anyway, which makes it a low-friction surface to be present on while the native formats mature.

Perplexity: the honest entry on the list

Perplexity belongs in this roundup precisely because you cannot buy it. The company tested sponsored follow-up questions and related sponsored placements through 2024 and 2025, then discontinued the programme in early 2026 and moved to a subscription-first model, on the argument that ads erode trust in an answer engine. Whatever you make of the reasoning, the practical position is clear: there is no ad product, no waitlist, and no route to paid placement. If Perplexity’s audience matters to a brand, the only lever available is organic, being among the sources its answers cite.

It is also a useful caution for the whole category. These surfaces are young enough that an entire platform can exit advertising between one quarterly plan and the next.

The DSP route: one buy across assistants and everything else

The final route is programmatic. A small number of demand-side platforms have joined early-access and pilot programmes for AI-assistant inventory, ChatGPT included, letting advertisers buy those placements from the same platform that runs their display, video, connected TV and audio. For teams that already buy programmatically, this is often the most practical door in: one workflow, one measurement frame, and AI-assistant placements planned as a channel within a media strategy rather than an experiment off to one side. Access is limited and the same category restrictions apply, so eligibility still has to be confirmed before budget moves.

How buying here differs from search

Whatever the surface, three differences from search advertising hold. First, placement is selected from conversational context: a model reads the meaning of what someone is asking and decides whether an ad fits, so relevance is the primary lever and creative quality carries more of the performance load. Second, there are no keyword auctions in the traditional sense; you describe where your offer belongs and the system does the matching, which removes a control search buyers are used to holding. Third, measurement is immature everywhere: native reporting is sparse on every one of these surfaces, and conversion measurement ranges from partial to absent.

What advertisers should do now

Three moves are worth making while the landscape settles. Get measurement in place first, because none of these platforms will do it for you: disciplined UTM tagging, clean analytics events and conversion tracking that isolates AI-surface traffic. Prepare the brand’s machine-readable layer, the structured, extractable pages that both ad systems and assistants read, since the same clarity that helps an ad land helps an answer cite you. And if AI-assistant placement belongs in the plan, secure access early through a DSP programme or a direct route, because early access tends to mean less crowded auctions and more learning time.

One distinction should govern the budget: paid placement is not the same as being the answer. Ads rent a slot beside the response; being cited or recommended organically is the separate, compounding discipline of AI search visibility, and it keeps working when the spend stops. The strongest position in 2026 runs both, weighted to what each can currently prove.

Where Morris McLane fits

Morris McLane runs paid media through a demand-side platform we operate directly, including its early-access programme for AI-assistant inventory, alongside conventional programmatic, connected TV and audio — the surface this guide maps is sold as ChatGPT advertising, run as a managed channel. That means AI-assistant placements are planned, bought and measured inside one paid media programme, with our own measurement layer over each platform’s thin reporting, and honest eligibility checks before any budget is committed. The full picture of the channel is on our AI advertising capability page, and if you are weighing where AI-assistant placement fits in a plan, start a conversation.

The short version

As of mid-2026 an advertiser can buy placement in ChatGPT (self-serve or via partners, with limited availability), in Microsoft Copilot (through existing Microsoft Advertising campaigns), and in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode (through AI-powered targeting in a normal account), or reach AI-assistant inventory through a DSP early-access programme. Perplexity cannot be bought at all. Every surface shares the same character: conversational selection instead of keyword auctions, thin reporting, and fast change. Bring your own measurement, prepare your machine-readable layer, secure access early, and run paid placement alongside the organic AI visibility that compounds.