OpenAI Gets Serious About ChatGPT Ads, Hires Former Meta Exec
Photo Credit: An OpenAI mockup of what a lodging ad could look like inside a trip planning exchange with ChatGPT. Courtesy of OpenAI
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David Dugan, previously a Meta exec in charge of its largest client and agency relationships, is now tasked with taking ChatGPT from an AI tool with ad experiments to an ad-supported media channel.
Travel was a major category in Meta’s ad business, and OpenAI just hired one of the executives who helped run it: Dave Dugan, the former vice president of global clients and agencies at Meta, will run global ad solutions for OpenAI.
His first priority will be turning ChatGPT ads from a test feature to a commercial-ready product, without disrupting the user experience, he said on LinkedIn.
Dugan's appointment is the first time OpenAI has placed a senior, agency-facing ad-sales executive in a named leadership position, the same type of role that, at Meta and Google, was the primary commercial interface for travel's biggest ad spenders, including OTAs and airlines.
For travel brands, the hire is a sign that ChatGPT may become a channel to plan for, not just a
