The next battle in artificial intelligence may not be over who builds the smartest AI—but who owns the business model behind it.

By Grey Ghost

THE SIGNAL

Taboola’s decision to expand its DeeperDive monetization platform beyond publisher websites represents something much larger than a new advertising product.

It signals the beginning of the commercial infrastructure for the AI internet.

Over the past three decades, digital advertising evolved alongside the web.

Banner ads funded websites.

Search ads funded search engines.

Social ads funded social networks.

Now conversational AI is creating an entirely new digital environment where those traditional models no longer fit.

People are beginning to ask AI instead of search engines.

They ask questions.

Receive recommendations.

Research products.

Compare services.

Eventually, they’ll complete purchases without ever visiting a traditional website.

If AI becomes the new front door to the internet, someone must build the economic engine that pays for it.

Taboola believes advertising can become that engine.

The company is extending the same performance-based marketplace it built for publishers into LLMs, chatbots, virtual assistants, and AI agents—allowing AI platforms to monetize conversations without building their own advertising infrastructure.

The race is no longer just about building better AI.

It’s about building a sustainable AI economy.

WHAT THE MARKET IS MISSING

Much of today’s discussion focuses on foundation models.

GPT.

Claude.

Gemini.

Llama.

The more important question may be:

How will AI generate sustainable revenue?

Training models costs billions of dollars.

Inference requires enormous computing resources.

Without reliable business models, even the most advanced AI systems become expensive research projects.

Advertising has historically financed large portions of the internet because it connects businesses with consumers at moments of intent.

Conversational AI may represent the highest-intent environment yet.

Users aren’t casually scrolling.

They’re actively asking questions.

Planning trips.

Buying homes.

Comparing insurance.

Researching software.

Making financial decisions.

Those moments have enormous commercial value.

Companies that successfully connect conversational intent with relevant recommendations could become the next generation of digital advertising leaders.

The competitive advantage may no longer belong solely to whoever builds the smartest model.

It may belong to whoever builds the smartest marketplace around those models.

FIRST-ORDER EFFECTS

AI applications gain a ready-made monetization platform.

Advertisers gain access to high-intent conversational audiences.

Publishers discover new ways to generate revenue from AI experiences.

Independent AI developers can monetize products without building their own advertising infrastructure.

Competition increases among companies seeking to become the advertising layer of conversational AI.

SECOND-ORDER EFFECTS

As AI assistants become trusted decision-making tools, advertising itself may become conversational rather than interruptive.

Consumers could increasingly discover products through AI recommendations instead of traditional search results.

Marketing budgets may gradually shift from keyword advertising toward conversational intent advertising.

AI agents capable of completing purchases could transform advertising into transaction facilitation, blurring the line between recommendation, commerce, and customer service.

The companies controlling these monetization networks may become as strategically important as today’s search engines and social media platforms.

WINNERS

AI application developers seeking sustainable revenue.

Publishers integrating conversational AI experiences.

Advertisers targeting consumers with high purchase intent.

Businesses building infrastructure for the AI economy.

Consumers receiving more contextual and relevant commercial recommendations.

LOSERS

Companies relying exclusively on traditional display advertising.

AI platforms without long-term monetization strategies.

Advertising networks slow to adapt to conversational interfaces.

Businesses waiting for AI business models to mature before investing.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Taboola is unlikely to be the last company pursuing conversational advertising.

OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Perplexity, Anthropic, and emerging AI startups are all exploring different approaches to monetizing AI interactions.

Over the next several years, the industry is likely to experiment with multiple models:

Advertising.

Subscriptions.

Affiliate commerce.

Transaction fees.

Agent commissions.

Usage-based pricing.

The winners may not be determined by who has the smartest AI—but by who creates the most effective economic ecosystem around it.

Just as search engines reshaped digital advertising over the past two decades, conversational AI could redefine how businesses reach customers across the next decade.

BOTTOM LINE

The first phase of artificial intelligence focused on building increasingly capable models.

The next phase will focus on building profitable businesses around those models.

Taboola’s expansion of DeeperDive suggests the AI economy is entering that next chapter.

As conversational AI becomes a primary gateway to information and commerce, the companies that control how those interactions are monetized may become some of the most influential players in the digital economy.

The AI race is no longer just about intelligence.

It is increasingly about economics.