Expert: GPT Ad Launch Marks Break in Old Ad Market Model

On January 16, 2026, OpenAI officially announced the start of testing advertising in ChatGPT. The launch is scheduled for the coming weeks and will be available only to users in the US.

"I've been saying for years that neural networks will inevitably and quite harshly change the advertising, PR, and media market. For a long time, this was perceived as a forecast or talk about the future. But when OpenAI publicly announced the launch of advertising models inside GPT, it became clear: the market has entered an active transformation phase. This is no longer theory or experiment, but a confirmed signal of the breakdown of old advertising structures," Chernokoz noted.

According to her, the key difference in the new model is that advertising stops being an external element and is embedded in the dialogue with the user.

"If previously advertising existed separately — as banners, native integrations, or links — now it becomes part of the dialogue. The user doesn't click on the ad but asks questions, clarifies, compares, and receives answers in the logic of communicating with AI. This is a fundamentally different level of influence on choice and perception," she emphasized.

Under these conditions, classic advertising models based on reach, impressions, and clicks are starting to lose effectiveness. "Models focused on external traffic are working worse in reality where the user stays within one interface and doesn't feel the need to leave it. This is a direct consequence of changing user behavior," Chernokoz explained.

She noted that such processes have been accounted for in media market practices for several years. "We initially proceeded from the market moving away from fragmented placements and manual operations to a single environment that considers the entire cycle — from business tasks and info hooks to analytics, distribution, and effectiveness evaluation. OpenAI's current solutions only confirm the correctness of this direction," the expert said.

Chernokoz separately pointed out consequences for professions.

"Segments built on routine are under pressure: media buying, manual placement management, standard PR mailings, mechanical work with info hooks. AI already performs these functions faster and cheaper. This is an unpleasant but objective fact," she noted.

However, according to her, it's not about the "death of advertising" or "end of PR." "There's a shift in focus: from placement to meaning, from reach to interpretation, from quantity of publications to how a brand or person is read and interpreted by AI. This is especially sensitive for PR, as neural networks increasingly become the main reputation filter," Chernokoz emphasized.

In her assessment, in the new environment, winners are not those with bigger budgets, but those who understand AI logic. "Dialog models partially lower the entry barrier and give a chance to small business and new brands, but this window of opportunity will be short — the market will quickly restructure and professionalize again," she believes.

"The key point to fix: GPT and similar systems are no longer a tool or channel, but a new environment for advertising, PR, and media. Attempts to simply transfer old models into it will be ineffective. The question today is not whether we like it, but whether we're ready for systemic restructuring, because ignoring this reality is a direct path to dropping out of the market in the coming years," Chernokoz summarized.