"Ads in chatbots are becoming standard practice, and advertisers and AI companies are scrambling to determine how to make the most out of this new format. They need to deliver relevant, contextual ads that don't feel invasive or overly repetitive and fit into the chatbot's interface while still being clearly distinct from the organic chat responses. Since LLMs are a mostly untested channel, though, the ones choosing to introduce ads don't have much data to influence their strategy."
"Luzia, an AI assistant mainly used in Latin America, struggled to monetize through traditional networks like Google Ads. Google had the largest inventory and was easy to integrate, but the ads were better suited for the platforms they were originally designed for, such as search or gaming, said Natalia Solano Gutierrez, Luzia's head of product. Luzia wanted ads that were specifically designed for an AI chat interface, said Gutierrez, rather than a format "optimized for another experience.""
"It found a solution in generative AI ad network Koah, which launched in 2025 to help AI publishers (i.e., chatbots) monetize by deploying relevant ads designed for chatbot interfaces. Strategic thinking Luzia launched in 2023 as a chatbot within WhatsApp, linked to a phone number like a human contact would be. It incorporated ads in the app after about a year, and while the team determined that there was "an appetite" for ads, it needed a better targeting strategy, said Gutierrez."
Chatbots are incorporating ads and advertisers and AI companies are experimenting with formats that deliver relevant, contextual, noninvasive, and distinct placements. Large language models remain a mostly untested ad channel with limited data for monetization strategy. Luzia, an AI assistant in Latin America, found Google Ads poorly suited because those ads were optimized for search or gaming instead of chat. Luzia selected Koah, a generative AI ad network launched in 2025 to provide chat-native ad units and help chatbots monetize. Luzia's early monetization included WhatsApp integration and scraped product listings before moving to in-app experiments and Koah's flexible targeting and ad elements.
Read at AdExchanger
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]