September 18, 2026 · Daily Radar
It's very easy to brush this off with "it's a test in America, what's it got to do with us." That's what I did when I first read it. Then, once I got into the details, I realized the real story isn't America: it's what happens after someone clicks an ad.
On September 16, OpenAI launched a pilot called "Sponsored Agents" for ChatGPT ads. When a user taps an ad, they aren't sent off to a website; inside the conversation, a brand agent clearly labeled "sponsored" takes over, answers questions, and when things get serious, hands the user off to the brand's own page or lead form. The ad's final stop is no longer a page; it's a conversation.
Quick answer: On September 16, 2026, OpenAI launched the "Sponsored Agents" pilot in ChatGPT ads, where the brand's own agent takes over the conversation; for now it's US-only and limited to selected advertisers. You can't buy this format from Turkey today, but this is where customers' expectation of meeting a chat on your site is being shaped. What to do: write down the answers you give to the first questions people ask on your site.
According to the coverage of the announcement (Unite.AI, Angi's press release), the mechanics work like this: an ad appears in ChatGPT, the user taps it, and a conversation starts "with a clearly labeled agent sponsored by the business." The agent answers follow-up questions in the same window, and when the user is ready, they move on to the business's website.
The known names: Angi (home services; its sponsored agent lets homeowners talk through project details and get connected with local pros), Wayfair (a small-scale test), Newegg, Best Buy, Lowe's and VistaPrint. The same day, HubSpot was announced as ChatGPT Ads' first CRM partner. There's an app on the Shopify side too: it launched in the US on September 3, with September 23 given as the date outside the US.
On the ad tool side, there are three more new features: building campaigns in natural language, ad copy and image suggestions from the landing page, and context-based headline adaptation with automatic translation (opt-in). There's also an incentive for new advertisers: "spend $500, get $500 in credit."
There are things we don't know, too, and quite a few of them. How conversation data will be used hasn't been disclosed. How often the agent will show up in a conversation, and in which conversations it will be triggered, isn't clear. Neither is how performance measurement will be reported. Nothing has been published about when Turkey will be added to the list, and I'm not going to guess.
Advertising has had a rote formula for a long time: the ad grabs attention, the landing page persuades. This format moves the second half into the conversation too. In other words, the thing doing the persuading is no longer your page; it's a model speaking on your behalf.
That has two consequences. First, the sentences coming out of the agent's mouth become brand sentences; a wrong price, wrong stock information or a wrong promise is your mistake. Second, the handoff moment (where the user moves to the site or the form) remains the only measurable point, and everything that drops off there disappears silently. In Angi's case, that handoff is a service request flow. "What's your handoff point?" is a question you need an answer to.
There's also this: it's a pilot. Wayfair said it's testing at a small scale, with guardrails around accuracy, transparency and handoff to service [C]. When I read that sentence, I think: even big brands aren't switching this on without controls. You shouldn't either.
And I think it's being overhyped a bit. Some of the coverage has a "ChatGPT is now an ad platform, brands are becoming the product" tone. But it's worth remembering that the format is being tested in a single country, with a few dozen advertisers. Whether the format will catch on, or whether users will get tired of talking to ad agents, isn't clear yet.
| Classic ad flow | Sponsored Agents flow | |
|---|---|---|
| After the click | Landing page | Conversation with a sponsored agent |
| What does the persuading | Page copy and design | The agent's answers |
| Handoff point | Form / call / cart | Moving from the conversation to the site |
| Measurement | Page analytics | Not disclosed |
| Status in Turkey | In existing channels | None, US pilot |
The "Not disclosed" cell in the table isn't a gap; it's the pilot itself. Growing your budget before the measurement rules are written is like getting into a taxi with no meter: maybe it'll be cheap, maybe not, you can't know. If I were you, I'd watch during the first few months. I'd see whether Angi or Wayfair share a results number; the sources so far don't include one.
In Turkey: One more note from Turkey's perspective. Here, customers already shop through chat; for most small businesses, the sales line is a WhatsApp or Instagram DM inbox. So the idea of "a conversation after the ad" doesn't feel foreign. What feels foreign is a model running that conversation, and who does the handoff and how. That's really the core question: at some point the conversation will pass to a person; do you know what that person will have in hand at that moment?
The one thing to do today: Write down the ten questions customers first send you or call you about, and note the correct answer to each in two sentences. You can do this without buying anything. The agent, the chatbot and your sales team will all work from these ten answers; without this list, none of them will work properly.
| News | Why people are talking about it | Who it concerns |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify's ChatGPT Ads app, September 23 outside the US | It launched in the US on September 3; an international date was given | E-commerce brands → ChatGPT advertising |
| HubSpot is ChatGPT Ads' first CRM partner (September 16) | People coming from ads flowing into the CRM | Teams using a CRM → CRM management |
| Click attribution on Meta now counts only link clicks | Since March 2026, conversions look lower in Ads Manager; billing isn't affected | Meta advertisers → Meta ads |
| Meta Business Agent (worldwide since June 3) | An agent that answers customer questions and qualifies leads on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger | People selling through DMs → AI assistant |
| The Sora 2 API shuts down on September 24 | No new model is recommended in its place | People building video production workflows → our post |
No. Right now it's a pilot in the US with selected advertisers. No date or list has been announced for Turkey.
No. A sponsored agent appears inside ChatGPT after an ad and is labeled "sponsored." The chatbot on your site runs on your page, under your control. Behind both is the same thing: the right answers to the questions.
Writing down the answers to frequently asked questions. Setting up an agent, or waiting to see, is the decision after that.
If you want to see how customer conversations are handled on your side after an ad, take a look at our AI live assistant service, and for the ad side, check out our ChatGPT advertising page. I also explained step by step how a standard ChatGPT ad is set up today in the how to advertise on ChatGPT guide. To see where your site stands today: START YOUR FREE ANALYSIS
Note: The OpenAI-related details are based on the news reports and press release listed above, not on OpenAI's own announcement page.
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