• by Tanya Gazdik , February 12, 2026

Starting this month, Target and Williams Sonoma will be among the first companies to work with OpenAI to test contextual advertising in ChatGPT.

Sponsored, contextual and labeled ads from Target and from its Roundel retail media business partners will appear alongside users’ shopping conversations in ChatGPT, “helping them discover products, deals and inspiration that meet what they’re seeking at that moment,” according to a Target blog post.  

“As an early pilot program partner, Roundel is unlocking the opportunity for brand partners to show up in relevant moments beyond traditional media placements — and benefit from the learnings around user behavior,” according to Target.

Ads are served based on keywords in a guest’s ChatGPT prompt.

“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,” according to Chain Store Age. “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.”

Williams-Sonoma says it is also leveraging the Salesforce Agentforce 360 Platform to build and deploy agentic AI bots intended to bolster customer service and enhance shopper experiences.

“OpenAI’s decision to bring ads to ChatGPT has sowed consternation among some users and served as marketing fodder for rivals with a stance against the monetization tactic,” according to Marketing Dive. “Several other brands and agencies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise in ChatGPT as its base surpasses 800 million weekly active users. WPP Media earlier this week said clients including Adobe, Audible, Ford and Mazda would participate in the ads pilot.”

Target emphasized in the blog post that its advertising won’t influence the chatbot’s responses.

“Target said that online traffic driven to its site by ChatGPT is already growing 40% monthly on average, making advertising through the service a natural next step,” according to Marketing Dive. “Separately, it launched a dedicated Target app experience in ChatGPT last November as part of its bigger bets on AI and agentic commerce. Target in January also partnered with Google’s Gemini AI on similar shopping capabilities.”