A report from The Information outlined a number of avenues OpenAI is looking at for ad formats in ChatGPT. The main one that is reportedly being thrown around at the AI company is to show sponsored content within the AI responses given by ChatGPT.

The Information wrote that OpenAI's "AI models could prioritize sponsored content to ensure it shows up in ChatGPT responses." ChatGPT could give "sponsored information preferential treatment in responses to users' ChatGPT queries."

"In recent weeks, ad mockups have included displaying sponsored information in a sidebar to the main ChatGPT response window, according to the person who has seen them. Employees have also discussed showing a disclosure saying that the results include sponsored results, said the person familiar with the discussions," it goes on to say.

Another option is to not show the ad or sponsored content immediately but later on in the conversation. The Information wrote, "ads that show up only once a user's conversation has progressed in a certain direction. One ad mockup showed display ads as a secondary step in ChatGPT once a user has expressed interest in finding more information rather than in the initial ChatGPT response, said the person who saw the mockup."

"As ChatGPT becomes more capable and widely used, we're looking at ways to continue offering more intelligence to everyone. As part of this, we're exploring what ads in our product could look like. People have a trusted relationship with ChatGPT, and any approach would be designed to respect that trust," said an OpenAI spokesperson told The Information.

Glenn Gabe wrote on X, "Yep, here come the ads and maybe *new* types of ads? Like giving "preferential treatment" to sponsored parts of the answer? Oof..."

Truth is, we really don't know what ads we might see on ChatGPT. I am not sure sponsored content is the best approach. I guess time will tell.

Forum discussion at X.

OpenAI has added local knowledge panels to the ChatGPT results. When you ask for local information and then click on a business name, ChatGPT will load a local knowledge panel on the right side. There is some suspicion that ChatGPT is pulling this from Google directly but I am not 100% sure.

Greg Sterling from Nearmedia told me this is new and he posted about it on LinkedIn and the Nearmedia site. Greg wrote, "We just saw it appear yesterday for the first time and it's probably post ChatGPT 5.0. It doesn't come up automatically even for branded queries. You need to click on a company name link in the main results or on the map."

I was able to replicate this as well, for my company, it is showing the outside of the previous office building my company was based at, about 20 years ago. And this is at a different address than the building my company is at now:

Here is Greg's example:

"Below is an example of what it looks like; and they appear to be available across multiple verticals. These Panels are being dynamically generated using first and third party data sources," Greg added.

Brad Brewer, interestingly enough, posted on LinkedIn that "OpenAI Local mirrors your Google Business Profile. I changed the URL in GBP and it updated instantly in ChatGPT."

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

OpenAI announced shopping research within ChatGPT, "a new experience in ChatGPT that does the research for you to help you find the right products," as OpenAI put it. This is clearly OpenAI's response to Google's AI Mode and Gemini 3 shopping experiences.

ChatGPT can now help you research the right product for you. OpenAI wrote, "it asks smart clarifying questions, researches deeply across the internet, reviews quality sources, and builds on ChatGPT's understanding of you from past conversations and your ChatGPT memory to deliver a personalized buyer's guide in minutes."

Shopping research is starting to roll out now on mobile and web for logged-in ChatGPT users on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. OpenAI will make it "nearly" unlimited usage available to all plans through the holidays.

Here is a video of how it works:

Back in April, OpenAI first brought shopping search to ChatGPT and then last month introduced Agentic Commerce Protocol to help automate buying through ChatGPT. This is the next level of making shopping better within ChatGPT.

To use it, ask ChatGPT a shopping question and ChatGPT will suggest shopping research automatically. Tap it to begin, or you can also select 'shopping research' from the (+) menu. After a few minutes, ChatGPT will give you a "personalized buyer's guide with the top products, key differences, tradeoffs, and up-to-date information from reliable retailers." "It's a clear summary that normally would take a lot of comparing, reading, and checking on your own," the AI company wrote.

How does it work? This is what OpenAI wrote:

Shopping research is powered by a version of GPT''5 mini trained with reinforcement learning specifically for shopping tasks. We trained it to read trusted sites, cite reliable sources, and synthesize information across many sources to produce high-quality product research. We also designed it to be an interactive experience that could update and refine its research in real time'"incorporating new constraints and adjusting to feedback on user product preferences'"resulting in a response that feels both well-researched and personalized.

This doesn't sound good for affiliate sites, as Glenn Gabe wrote on X. "Alarms are going off at affiliate sites now. And wait, it "reviews quality scores."

Shopping research asks smart clarifying questions, researches deeply across the internet, reviews quality sources, and builds on ChatGPT's understanding of you from past conversations and memory to deliver a personalized buyer's guide in minutes. https://t.co/UZ37Sa0yOJ

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 24, 2025

Shopping research does the heavy lifting, searching across the internet for prices, availability, reviews, specs, and images'"surfacing options as it goes. pic.twitter.com/uWRzxpPwOw

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 24, 2025

To help with holiday shopping, we're making usage for shopping research in ChatGPT nearly unlimited for all plans through the holidays.

Because it's great at finding gifts, too. pic.twitter.com/xvgJp6UcZZ

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 24, 2025

Forum discussion at X.