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AI Fail: At first, AI companies such as OpenAI had sworn they would never show advertising on their chatbot-powered online services. Now, everyone is doing the exact opposite. But according to recent research, industry players are unlikely to earn much from the new ad-supported market.
A new market analysis by consulting firm Emarketer casts a very dark shadow over OpenAI's advertising revenue targets. Sam Altman's company started showing ads to ChatGPT users earlier this year in an attempt to finally monetize its LLM-based service. Emarketer's research allegedly confirms that the company's internal advertising targets have been significantly higher than its actual results.
OpenAI said it expects to generate $2.5 billion in advertising revenue by the end of this year, while setting its sights on a massive $100 billion revenue target by 2030. Emarketer's study suggests that OpenAI's advertising revenue could fall 90% short of its 2026 target, and that's just the first piece of bad news in a long series of setbacks for AI companies looking to generate meaningful revenue from advertising.
