On 16 September 2026 OpenAI announced ChatGPT Sponsored Agents, an ad format it is now testing with select advertisers in the United States. After seeing an ad in ChatGPT, a user can choose to start a conversation with an agent sponsored by the advertiser, ask follow-up questions and then follow a link to the business’s website. The same post, titled “Reimagining advertising with AI”, rolled out an Ads Manager plugin for ChatGPT Work, AI-suggested copy and imagery inside Ads Manager, optional AI text customisation with automatic translation, and the first CRM and e-commerce integrations for ChatGPT Ads: HubSpot and Shopify.
Search Engine Land, The Next Web and Search Engine Roundtable reported the announcement the same day. For a business in Europe, the agent format is a preview of where the channel is heading; the Shopify app, which OpenAI says reaches international markets from 23 September, and the HubSpot connection, live now, are the parts that can be used this month.
How Sponsored Agents work in ChatGPT
OpenAI’s own example is a dining table. A shopper sees an ad for it and wants to know whether it fits their room, how many people it seats and how to care for the finish. With Sponsored Agents, in OpenAI’s words, “a user can choose to start a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent in ChatGPT”, explain what matters to them, ask questions and follow a link when they are ready.
Two boundaries are stated explicitly. The conversation with a Sponsored Agent “is distinct from ChatGPT’s independent answers and separate from the original conversation that the user started in ChatGPT”. Search Engine Land adds that OpenAI has previously said advertising does not influence ChatGPT’s answers and that advertisers do not get access to users’ private conversations. What the post does not say is what the sponsored agent runs on, who writes its instructions, how it is priced or what an advertiser sees afterwards. Search Engine Land reports that OpenAI is accepting interest from businesses that want to join future tests, so those details will surface from participants before they appear in documentation.
The timeline behind the format is short. The Next Web notes that in April OpenAI was already hiring ad-tech firms to make ChatGPT ads talk back to users, and that ads moved to cost-per-click pricing later that month. Ads reached 31 European countries in August, and we covered the self-serve opening of ChatGPT Ads in Europe and the $1 billion run rate on 3 September. On 11 September, according to The Next Web, Amazon began letting its advertisers buy ads in ChatGPT in a pilot with OpenAI.
What changes in Ads Manager
The second half of the announcement is about the advertiser’s side of the desk. Three tools are rolling out, per OpenAI’s post:
- An Ads Manager plugin in ChatGPT Work. Advertisers can create, update and analyse campaigns with natural-language prompts, turn a website or a brief into a campaign, read performance and get recommendations on what to do next.
- AI assistance inside Ads Manager. When drafting an ad, the system suggests copy and imagery based on the landing page and the campaign objective. OpenAI stresses that “advertisers remain in control”: suggestions are reviewed and edited before they go into a campaign.
- Opt-in AI text customisation. If enabled, it adapts existing headlines and descriptions to the context of the conversation and automatically translates ad copy into the user’s preferred language.
The last one deserves attention from anyone advertising across languages. It is opt-in, which means the default is that your copy stays as written. Switch it on and the same ad can appear in Polish in Kraków and in German in Vienna without you writing either. OpenAI’s post gives no detail on how the translated variants can be reviewed.
HubSpot and Shopify come first
OpenAI names HubSpot as its first CRM partner and Shopify as its first e-commerce partner for ChatGPT Ads. From 16 September, businesses that manage customers in HubSpot can connect a ChatGPT Ads account, create ads, track performance and follow up on leads inside HubSpot “powered by their HubSpot context”. Search Engine Land notes that OpenAI already offers a broader HubSpot plugin that brings HubSpot data into ChatGPT workflows.
Shopify merchants in the United States get a ChatGPT Ads app in the Shopify App Store from the same day. Products are already connected through Shopify Catalog, so campaigns can start without a separate feed. OpenAI says the app “will be available internationally in markets where ChatGPT Ads are available starting September 23”, which covers the 31 European countries where ads went live in August.
What it means for your business
Treat the agent as a sales conversation you have to script. A Sponsored Agent will answer the questions a shop assistant answers: sizes, compatibility, delivery, returns, care. If that information is not written down somewhere structured, the agent has nothing to work with. The preparation that pays off before the format reaches Europe is the same one we start with in CRM and analytics projects: a single source of product facts, delivery terms and objections, maintained by the people who actually handle customers. The agent test will reward businesses whose answers already exist.
Decide what a conversation is worth before you buy one. Until now a ChatGPT ad was a click, priced per click. An agent conversation sits between the click and the enquiry, and OpenAI has not said how it will be billed. Our advice in paid advertising campaigns is to define the event you pay for in advance: a qualified conversation, a lead in the CRM, a sale. When the pricing arrives, you will know whether it fits.
Use the integrations for measurement first. The HubSpot connection closes a loop that most new channels leave open: the lead and its source in the same system, with follow-up in the same place. The Shopify app does the same for orders. If you already run either platform, connecting ChatGPT Ads there before spending a euro means every test is measurable from day one. That measurement, not the ad format, is what tells you whether ChatGPT belongs in the plan next to Google, whose own AI-driven search ads we looked at in exact and phrase match ads inside AI Mode.
Keep translation under your control until you have checked it. AI text customisation is convenient and, for a business selling into several countries, tempting. Leave it off for the first campaigns, look at how the manual copy performs per market, then enable it for one language you can read and compare.
Watch the labelling and the European rules. OpenAI calls the agent conversation “clearly labeled”. In the EU, ChatGPT is a designated Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act, which brings ad transparency obligations with it, and a conversation that is paid for by a business will need to be recognisable as such. Nothing in the announcement gives a date for Europe, so plan on the Shopify app and HubSpot for this quarter and treat the agents as something to be ready for rather than something to wait for.
