In a way, this was inevitable. AI companies need revenue, and the cost of serving close to a billion users is staggering. The infrastructure, compute, and power demands are immense. Monetization isn’t optional anymore. It’s critical.
OpenAI has reportedly said its AI infrastructure burn could reach around US$17 billion in 2026. Subscriptions, both consumer and enterprise, won’t be enough to cover that on their own. That will be case for most players who will adapt from current revenue models ( see infographic).
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sources: respective websites, media reports
That’s where advertising enters the picture.
AI tools have aggregated massive audiences, and those users are revealing far more intent than they ever did through traditional search. The queries are detailed, specific, and often transactional. From a brand’s perspective, this is gold. If a product can appear directly inside a relevant AI response, the odds of conversion increase dramatically.
It’s easy to imagine a scramble for the first ad placement, much like bidding for the top slot on search engines today.
AI companies insist they won’t share user queries with brands. In practice, though, some degree of targeting feels inevitable. Even if the exact query isn’t shared, ads can be ring-fenced or contextually matched, similar to how Google AdSense works today. Leaving that kind of money on the table would be hard to justify.
OpenAI also says users will be able to turn off personalization. Take that with a pinch of salt. Even on search engines, ads can remain eerily accurate with personalization and location supposedly disabled. Sometimes uncomfortably so. There’s little reason to believe AI-powered search will behave very differently.
That, of course, opens up serious questions around privacy, data use, and consent. But that’s a separate debate.
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