AI chatbots and virtual assistants may soon become a new frontier for digital advertising as Taboola expands its monetization platform beyond publisher websites.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Taboola is expanding its DeeperDive AI platform into an advertising network for large language models (LLMs), chatbots, virtual assistants, and AI agents. The new platform allows third-party AI applications to display sponsored recommendations directly inside AI-generated conversations, with Taboola handling advertiser relationships, targeting, billing, and revenue sharing.
The company says publishers using DeeperDive have already seen increased monetization, and it is now offering the same advertising infrastructure to external AI developers that want to generate revenue without building their own ad platform.
WHY IT MATTERS
As AI increasingly becomes the starting point for search, research, and purchasing decisions, companies are racing to build the business models that will support the AI economy. Taboola’s move signals that conversational AI is evolving from an experimental technology into a commercial advertising channel, similar to how search advertising transformed the web.
WHO BENEFITS
- AI application developers seeking new revenue streams.
- Publishers looking to monetize AI-powered experiences.
- Advertisers gaining access to users with high purchase intent.
- Taboola, by extending its advertising marketplace into conversational AI.
WHO LOSES
- AI platforms that lack a monetization strategy.
- Companies that rely solely on traditional web advertising.
- Advertising networks that fail to adapt to AI-driven user interactions.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
If conversational advertising proves effective, more AI assistants, chatbots, and autonomous agents are likely to incorporate sponsored recommendations into their responses. The next battle in digital advertising may no longer be about websites alone—but about who controls the monetization layer of the AI-powered internet.
