Target, Williams-Sonoma test ads in ChatGPT
Two well-known retailers are among the first participants in a new advertising pilot program on a next-gen artificial intelligence platform.
Target and Williams-Sonoma are both participating in the OpenAI Ad Pilot Program, which will allow them to test ads in the generative AI model ChatGPT. Following are highlights of each retailer’s ChatGPT advertising activities:
Target
Starting February 2026, Target will be among the first companies to work with OpenAI to test contextual advertising in ChatGPT. Sponsored, contextual and clearly labeled ads from Target and its retail media business Roundel will appear alongside users’ shopping conversations in ChatGPT.
Ads are served based on keywords in a consumer’s ChatGPT prompt to help ensure they are relevant to the conversation. For example, customer asking, “What are some countertop cooking appliances?” may see an ad for an air fryer from a pilot participant embedded in the personalized response. The ad would appear separately and distinctly and not influence the answer provided by ChatGPT.
Target has set a goal of doubling the size of its Roundel media business over the next five years. Roundel currently generates nearly $2 billion of value for Target and saw double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2025.
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According to Target, its traffic from ChatGPT is growing 40% on average each month. The retailer has also enabled mobile shopping in ChatGPT and partnered with Google to help develop the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard for agentic AI-based commerce intended to cover the entire shopping journey from discovery and buying to post-purchase support.
"We believe ads play an important role in continuing to support broad access to AI,” said Asad Awan, ads and monetization lead at OpenAI. “By working closely with partners like Target in this pilot, we’re able to thoughtfully test new ad experiences and learn together to ensure ads are separate and clearly distinct, relevant, and useful while maintaining the trust people place in ChatGPT.”
Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma Inc. will explore how advertising in ChatGPT can reach customers at decision-making moments, helping surface relevant products from its brand portfolio with a secure and transparent customer experience.
The retailer will also work with OpenAI to test and learn from establishing its advertising principles. OpenAI designed the principles to prioritize relevance and usefulness to help ensure ads appearing in ChatGPT are clearly labeled and do not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.
"AI is rapidly enhancing product discovery and becoming an integral part of how consumers make informed purchasing decisions," said Williams-Sonoma Inc. president and CEO Laura Alber. "By collaborating with OpenAI in this early test, we have the opportunity to help develop a new advertising approach — one designed to engage consumers thoughtfully, contextually, and in a manner that aligns with how users expect to interact with information on their platform."
Williams-Sonoma is also leveraging the Salesforce Agentforce 360 Platform to build and deploy agentic AI bots intended to bolster customer service and enhance shopper experiences.
