Prepare to See More Ads on Microsoft’s AI-Powered Bing Chat

It was only a matter of time: More ads are coming to the AI-powered Bing as Microsoft tries to monetize the chatbot service. 

In a blog post(Opens in a new window), Microsoft says it recently met with some of its ad partners on “exploring ideas” to distribute their content on the ChatGPT-powered Bing. The goal is to do so in “meaningful” ways to drive traffic and revenue. 

The company now says it’s working to place a “rich caption” of ad content next to Bing Chat answers. “We’re also exploring placing ads in the chat experience to share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response,” Microsoft added. 

The company didn’t share what this will look like, but on some answers for Bing Chat, you can already find large ads flying underneath the generated response.  

(Credit: Bing)

In addition, Microsoft has been incorporating ads into Bing Chat when your mouse cursor hovers over the cited sources for an answer. The ensuing pop-up will show you a link to the cited source, along with links to relevant ads. 

(Credit: Bing)

To better feature third-party websites cited in an answer, Microsoft plans on expanding the hover experience to “display more links from that publisher giving the user more ways to engage and driving more traffic to the publisher’s website.” 

(Credit: Bing)

The big question is whether Microsoft can find ways to successfully serve up ads on the AI-powered chat service, akin to a traditional search engine. The company’s blog post notes that ads essentially fund the internet, making services such as search engines free. The problem is that Microsoft’s Bing Chat streamlines the whole search process by breaking down the numerous results and summing them up in an easy-to-read article. 

The approach, while convenient to the user, risks killing the traditional search engine model, denying traffic to both ads and online publishers. However, Microsoft is trying to reassure partners that the company is working on ways to keep the ecosystem whole. 

“First, we want to drive more traffic to publishers in this new world of search,” the company says. “It is a top goal for us, and we measure success in part by how much traffic we are sending from the new Bing/Edge. Second, we want to increase revenue to publishers.” 

The company’s initial efforts to do so seem to be working, according to Microsoft, although it refrained from giving hard numbers. “Based on our data from the preview, we are driving more traffic from all types of users. We have brought more people to Bing/Edge for new scenarios like chat and we are seeing increased usage.”

Time will tell if Microsoft can balance all these elements together, without alienating users with too many intrusive ads. For now, the AI-powered Bing Chat remains in preview mode, and requires users to sign up via a waitlist.