Takin’ over the world… one ad at a time. Snap's chatbot probably isn’t in the category of AI that has experts anxious over humanity’s demise, but the app still has big plans for “My AI.” 150M Snap users have exchanged billions of messages with the feed-pinned bot, and Snap’s hoping it can mine the data to revive its flailing ad biz. Last quarter Snap reported its first sales decline ever (ads = 99% of its revenue).
MyByeBye: When My AI debuted in April, users were… not smitten. Frustrated that the bot couldn’t be removed, users blasted the app with one-star reviews — leading to an average US App Store rating of 1.7.
Target acquired: Boss Evan Spiegel said the bot could improve ad targeting, which the company has struggled with ever since Apple's privacy overhaul.
Sponsored chat: Snap started testing advertiser links in My AI convos (picture: chatting about travel plans, and then My AI dropping a link for cruise tickets).
Adpocalyspe not now?… Despite fears that AI-powered search could mean the end of sponsored links as we know them, the ad industry is embracing the tech. Ads have found their way into Microsoft's ChatGPT-fueled Bing search, and the company is exploring AI tools that could predict an ad’s performance. Meta has started letting advertisers try out its genAI ad products. Amazon's building out a team to create AI ad apps, and Google recently launched AI tools that aim to help marketers with placements.
Monetizing too early is a risk… Infusing ads into AI chatbots and search engines runs the risk of losing users’ trust before it's been gained. But given the staggering costs of running AI servers, the risk may be necessary — unless companies can get users to pay for another subscription, like the $20/month ChatGPT Plus.