The AI advertising landscape

This chapter maps who sells advertising inside AI assistants, how large those assistants are, what has launched and when, and which of those products a UAE business can buy today. The headline finding is that the market moved from announcement to scale within a year: OpenAI announced ChatGPT ads on 16 January 2026, reported more than 100,000 advertisers and more than 1.2 billion weekly users by 21 October 2026, and lists the United Arab Emirates as available for self-service Ads Manager as read on 28 October 2026. Most other AI ad products, including ads inside Google AI Overviews, remain unavailable or unconfirmed for the UAE.

In brief

• ChatGPT Ads went from a US test on 9 February 2026 to 89 countries on 21 October 2026; the UAE is listed "Available" for self-service Ads Manager, read 28 October 2026 (TechCrunch, Sarah Perez; OpenAI). Listing confirms account access, not category approval (OpenAI; OpenAI Help Center).
• OpenAI reported a USD 1 billion annualised ad revenue run rate in under 200 days (31 August 2026), up from more than USD 100 million on 26 March 2026, within six weeks of launch.
• Reported reach is large but measured differently: ChatGPT over 1.2 billion weekly users (October 2026), Google AI Mode over 1 billion monthly active users and the Gemini app 950 million (Q2 2026), Meta AI more than 1 billion monthly users (October 2025).
• Ads within Google AI Overviews run in 12 countries in English only; the UAE and Arabic are not listed, read 28 October 2026. Ads above or below AI Overviews can run in all 200+ markets where the feature operates, and AI Overviews are live in the UAE and in Arabic (Google Ads Help; Google Search Help).
• Google AI Mode ads ran "in the US only, so far" in August 2026 according to Adthena; no source places them in the UAE.
• Perplexity, an early mover with ads from November 2024, stopped accepting new advertisers in 2025 and was reported by the FT in February 2026 to be winding down advertising by the end of 2026 (PPC Land; MediaPost).
• Meta uses Meta AI chats to personalise ads on its apps from 16 December 2025; the UK, EU and South Korea are excluded; no ads inside Meta AI were reported as of Q2 2026.
• In the UAE, ChatGPT took 80.99% of AI chatbot share in September 2026, but Google held 93.47% of search engine share and chatgpt.com was the 3rd most visited site with 27.73 million visits (StatCounter; Semrush).
• No UAE ChatGPT ad spend total, UAE inventory estimate or UAE cost benchmark exists in any source reviewed for this edition (see Gaps).

Separate the surfaces before comparing them

AI advertising includes several different activities. An advertiser can buy a placement in a conversational experience, run ordinary search campaigns that may appear around an AI summary, use AI to manage existing ads, or improve content that may be cited organically. These activities need different budgets, expectations and reporting. A single line labelled "AI results" in a media plan would conceal those differences.

The distinction matters most for Google. AI Overviews, the AI summary at the top of some Google results, are live in the UAE and support Arabic. Ordinary Search, Shopping, Performance Max and App ads can appear above or below them in all 200+ markets where AI Overviews operate (Google Ads Help). Ads placed inside the summary itself are a different product, limited to 12 English-language countries that do not include the UAE (Google Ads Help). A UAE advertiser running Search campaigns is therefore already buying the "around the AI answer" surface, but not the "inside the AI answer" surface (Google).

Table 2.1 sets out each surface with the evidence available for this edition and how ONS treats it in UAE planning.

ONS reading For a UAE business in October 2026 there is one AI-native paid surface that can be bought directly through self-service: ChatGPT Ads. Google's AI surfaces are reached today through ordinary search campaigns placed around AI Overviews, not inside them. Every other product in Table 2.1 is either unavailable, US-only or unconfirmed for the UAE. Proposals and media plans should name the exact surface and say which column of this table it sits in.

How many people use AI assistants

Platform reach figures are the most quoted numbers in this market and the least comparable. Each company chooses its own measure: OpenAI reports weekly users, Google and Meta report monthly users, Microsoft reports total users across commercial and consumer products, and Amazon reports customers who used Rufus over a year. Table 2.2 lists the latest figure found for each, with its measure and date.

Latest reported users, millions, global. Measures differ: ChatGPT weekly; Google and Meta monthly; Copilot total users; Rufus customers over 2025. Figures stated as 'more than' or 'over' are plotted at the stated floor.

Source: Dataconomy on Google I/O, 12 Jun 2026; OpenAI, 21 Oct 2026; Alphabet Q2 2026 remarks, 22 Jul 2026; TechCrunch, 23 Jul 2025 and 29 Jan 2026; Meta Newsroom, 1 Oct 2025; Modern Retail, 30 Apr 2026

Three cautions apply before any of these figures enters a UAE plan. First, a weekly user count and a monthly user count cannot be ranked against each other: the same person counted once a month by Google may be counted four times a month by a weekly measure, or not at all. Second, the ChatGPT figure includes users who will never see an ad: ads show only to logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans, and Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise are ad-free (OpenAI). OpenAI does not publish the share of weekly users on Free and Go (see Gaps). Third, all of these are global figures. None is a UAE audience.

The trajectory matters as much as the level. OpenAI said "more than 1 billion" weekly users on 31 August 2026 and "over 1.2 billion" on 21 October 2026. The Gemini app went from 450 million monthly active users in July 2025 to more than 750 million in February 2026 and 950 million at Q2 2026 (TechCrunch, Jul 2025; TechCrunch). Google AI Mode went from more than 100 million monthly active users in the US and India in July 2025 to more than 1 billion globally by Q2 2026, after expanding globally in October 2025.

Share of AI traffic is shifting accordingly. Similarweb's global web traffic data show ChatGPT's share of generative AI web traffic falling from about 76% to about 53% between June 2025 and May 2026, while Gemini rose from under 9% to about 27% to 28% and Claude from about 2% to about 9%; the category averaged 9.5 billion monthly web visits, up 70% year on year. These are web visit shares.

The UAE picture

UAE-specific usage data come from traffic panels and surveys, not from the platforms. StatCounter's AI chatbot share for the UAE in September 2026, which measures page views and referrals rather than people, puts ChatGPT far ahead of other assistants.

AI chatbot market share by page views and referrals, %, UAE, September 2026 (StatCounter network; not user counts)

Source: StatCounter, AI chatbot market share United Arab Emirates, Sep 2026

The same data source shows how small chatbot referral traffic remains next to search. Google held 93.47% of UAE search engine share in September 2026, with Bing at 3.96% (StatCounter). In StatCounter's direct Google versus ChatGPT comparison, Google held 99.57% and ChatGPT 0.43% across all platforms, and 99.94% against 0.06% on mobile. That comparison measures referral traffic sent to other websites, not how many people use each product. Measured by visits to the sites themselves, Semrush ranked chatgpt.com 3rd in the UAE in September 2026 with 27.73 million visits, behind google.com (258.97 million) and youtube.com (141.16 million) and ahead of facebook.com (27.52 million) and instagram.com (24.76 million). claude.ai ranked 17th with 5.17 million visits and bing.com 18th with 4.8 million.

Microsoft's AI Diffusion Report, which models the share of people aged 15 to 64 who used any generative AI product, puts the UAE at the top of its leaderboard: 73.3% in Q2 2026, ahead of Singapore at 64.3%, against a global figure of 18.8%. The earlier trend points are 59.4% in H1 2025 (global 15.1%), 64.0% in H2 2025 and 70.1% in Q1 2026 (global 17.8%) (Microsoft). Chapter 05 covers the UAE audience in detail.

What it means for marketersUAE residents use AI assistants heavily and mostly use ChatGPT, but Google search still carries the overwhelming majority of referral traffic to business websites (StatCounter, 2026). AI assistant advertising is an addition to search, not yet a replacement for it.

Advertising revenue and advertiser numbers

OpenAI's advertising business grew faster than most forecasts expected. It passed USD 100 million in annualised revenue within six weeks, disclosed on 26 March 2026 during the closed pilot (PPC Land). On 31 August 2026 OpenAI announced a "USD 1 billion annualized revenue run rate in under 200 days". Press coverage derived roughly USD 83 million a month from that figure; OpenAI published no monthly figure (PPC Land). OpenAI's Colin Fleming, via Adweek, said ad revenue had risen more than 25% since the start of August 2026 (The Next Web, Ana Maria Constantin).

OpenAI's own targets are reported inconsistently. The Information reported that OpenAI told investors it expects USD 2.4 billion of ad revenue in 2026 and USD 11 billion in 2027 (The Decoder, Maximilian Schreiner). Axios reported a 2026 aim of USD 2.5 billion and USD 100 billion by 2030. The two 2026 figures differ: the first is an investor projection, the second a reported goal. For context, eMarketer forecasts total US AI chatbot ad spending of USD 5.41 billion in 2030, a US-only forecast that is far below OpenAI's reported global 2030 goal.

Advertiser counts are similarly mixed. Different sources count different things: advertisers that have ever run a campaign, unique advertisers seen in one week, or US-only advertisers in one month. Table 2.3 keeps each count with its definition.

OpenAI also says CPC and outcome-optimised bidding account for most campaigns and that small and medium businesses are "a material share of the business", without giving percentages. More than 50 technology and measurement partners were connected by 31 August 2026 (OpenAI).

The mix of advertisers has shifted. Sensor Tower's estimate of US ChatGPT ad spend by category shows shopping and retail falling from 37% to 21% of spend between April and August 2026, while financial services rose from 2% to 13% and travel from 5% to 11%. The top US advertiser over a 30-day window was Booking.com, with over 50 million impressions and more than 700 creatives (Sensor Tower). These are US figures. Several of the growing categories, including financial services and health, are restricted or not allowed for UAE advertisers under OpenAI's current eligibility table, so the US mix is not a guide to UAE competition.

Share of US ChatGPT ad spend by category, %, April 2026 vs August 2026 (Sensor Tower estimate; US only; categories shown do not sum to 100)

Source: PPC Land on Sensor Tower, 3 Sep 2026

Revenue context at the other platforms

The established platforms do not break out AI assistant ad revenue. Alphabet reported Search and Other revenue up 17% year on year in Q2 2026 and said AI Mode is "driving an incremental increase in Search queries overall" (Google). Microsoft's total advertising revenue passed USD 20 billion over the 12 months reported in May 2025, with search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs up 21% in its fiscal Q3 2025 (PPC Land). Meta reported an Advantage+ annual run rate of over USD 75 billion in Q2 2026 and a Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp and Messenger serving more than 1 million businesses weekly, with no statement about ads inside Meta AI (Nasdaq). Amazon said Rufus drove nearly USD 12 billion of incremental annualised sales (Modern Retail). Perplexity's annualised revenue was reported at about USD 200 million when the FT reported it was winding down ads (Campaign, 2026).

No public data. No platform publishes AI assistant ad revenue for the UAE, the GCC or MENA, and no research firm has published a UAE AI advertising market size. Searched: OpenAI posts, Al Bayan MENA briefing, eMarketer, Sensor Tower, Similarweb, Adthena. A future edition should look for a GCC breakdown from OpenAI's EMEA team or a regional ad-spend tracker.

ChatGPT Ads: a dated timeline

OpenAI's advertising product changed almost every month in 2026. Table 2.4 lists the dated events found in sources. Where sources give different dates for the same event, both are shown.

The MENA dates need careful reading. OpenAI's own post dates self-serve opening for "the Middle East and North Africa" to 31 August 2026 but names no country. On 6 September an agency in Saudi Arabia found the UAE and Saudi Arabia absent from the list; an archived copy of 17 September included them; and PPC Land found the 15 MENA markets listed on 24 September without a public activation date. No OpenAI post names the UAE. The best supported reading is that the UAE appeared on the self-service list between 6 and 17 September 2026, and it is listed as "Available" in the help-centre page read on 28 October 2026.

Country counts also differ because OpenAI mixes markets where ads are live through its sales team with markets where self-service is open. The published sequence runs from "over 40" countries on 31 August to 63 on the help page on 24 September, "over 60" on 23 September, and 89 on 21 October 2026 (OpenAI; PPC Land).

Number of countries where ChatGPT Ads were available, global, Aug to Oct 2026. The 31 Aug value is OpenAI's 'over 40', plotted at 40 as a floor.

Source: OpenAI, 31 Aug and 21 Oct 2026; PPC Land, 24 Sep 2026

Google, Microsoft, Perplexity, Meta and Amazon: a dated timeline

The other platforms started earlier than OpenAI but have moved more slowly into ads placed inside AI answers. Table 2.5 lists the dated events.

Google

Google extends existing campaign types into AI surfaces rather than selling a new placement. Performance Max, Shopping and broad-match Search campaigns, including AI Max for Search, are eligible for ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode (Google, 2025; Adthena, 2026). There is no AI Mode campaign type and no opt-out, no segmented reporting for ads within AI Overviews, and no ads within AI Overviews for adult, alcohol, gambling, finance, healthcare and politics categories (Adthena, 2026; Google Ads Help). Google says AI Max typically delivers "14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS" on its own 2025 data, a vendor claim rather than an independent benchmark. Chapter 13 covers Google in detail.

Microsoft and Perplexity

Microsoft reports that Copilot ads deliver "73% higher click-through rates", "16% stronger conversion rates" and 33% shorter customer journeys than traditional search, on its own unaudited first-party data from February to May 2025. Microsoft Advertising launched in the UAE in September 2022, but no source states whether Copilot placements serve to UAE users or in Arabic. Perplexity is the only platform that has publicly retreated from ads: it admitted fewer than 0.5% of brands that applied, stopped taking new advertisers, and an executive was quoted as saying "The challenge with advertising is that it makes users suspicious of everything" (Campaign, 2026; MediaPost, 2025). No official Perplexity statement confirming the wind-down was found.

Meta and Amazon

Meta's AI advertising is a targeting change, not a new placement: from 16 December 2025, Meta AI conversations inform ads shown elsewhere on Meta's apps, excluding sensitive topics such as religion, political views and health. Mark Zuckerberg spoke in 2025 of adding "product recommendations or ads" to Meta AI "later down the line", but no in-assistant product had launched as of Q2 2026 (Beebom; Nasdaq). Amazon sells sponsored prompts inside Rufus, billed per click, and says nearly 20% of shoppers who interact with a brand prompt continue the conversation about that brand; general availability is described for the US only (Shopifreaks, 2026; Modern Retail). Amazon DSP advertisers in a select US pilot can extend campaigns into ChatGPT; Amazon DSP is available to UAE advertisers, but the announcement does not confirm ChatGPT inventory for UAE campaigns (tbreak, Abbas Jaffar Ali).

ONS outlook Two directions are visible in the evidence. OpenAI is expanding country by country and format by format, and Google has said publicly that it is testing new AI Mode formats and that an AI Mode format "would transfer successfully to Gemini app". Perplexity has gone the other way. ONS expects UAE access to Google's AI Mode ad formats to arrive later than US access, as happened with ads within AI Overviews, but no date has been published and none should be promised to a client. ONS also expects OpenAI's eligibility rules to keep changing, given seven policy versions between March and September 2026.

A usable market opportunity does not require an invented market size

No reliable UAE ChatGPT ad-spend total, emirate-level inventory estimate or sector cost benchmark was established for this edition. Global product reach must not be relabelled as the UAE addressable advertising audience. The only published market-level performance data for ChatGPT Ads cover nine markets, none in the Middle East, and the Similarweb panel behind them reports no Middle East data (PPC Land). The useful commercial question is whether an eligible business can generate enough suitable enquiries at an acceptable cost.

We recommend building evidence from each client's own operation: current acquisition costs, margins, available appointment or delivery capacity, enquiry objections and conversion lag. These inputs determine how much a test can teach. A small advertiser can make a useful decision without a national market-size estimate if it has a defined offer and reliable sales records. The entry cost is low enough to make that practical: the minimum daily budget for AED-billed accounts is AED 65, and the earlier USD 50,000 test minimum was removed when self-serve launched on 5 May 2026 (OpenAI; OpenAI Help).

Eligibility comes before economics. Listing on the availability page certifies that a UAE legal entity can open a self-service account, not that its category or target market is approved (OpenAI). OpenAI states that "A registered or licensed business is not automatically eligible for every advertising category or market" and that an ad "can pass review and still be ineligible to serve in its selected countries". Outside the US, health services are generally prohibited, legal services are prohibited, most financial products are restricted to select approved advertisers or not allowed, individual housing listings are prohibited everywhere, and alcohol, tobacco and gambling are disallowed (OpenAI; OpenAI Help Center). Chapter 06 sets out each sector.

ONS reading For UAE nightlife clients, alcohol and shisha cannot be promoted in any ad on any of these platforms. OpenAI disallows ads that promote alcohol or tobacco, Google does not permit alcohol ads to target the UAE, and UAE media regulation bans direct or indirect promotion of alcohol, tobacco and smoking. ONS does not place shisha in any ad image or video. A UAE business whose core offer sits in a prohibited category should not expect AI assistant advertising to change that.

Compare channels on the same business outcome

Compare ChatGPT, Google and Meta using agreed definitions of a qualified enquiry, a new customer and recognised revenue. Keep platform-specific conversions as diagnostics. If one platform includes view-through credit while another report shows last-click sales, the raw totals are not like-for-like. ChatGPT Ads, for example, offers 7, 14 and 30-day click windows and 0 or 1-day view windows, and its conversion totals may include modelled conversions (OpenAI; OpenAI Help).

Use a channel comparison sheet with media spend, fees, production costs, eligible leads, sales and the time allowed for leads to mature. Keep brand search and remarketing effects visible. A new platform may introduce a customer who returns through another channel; attribution should not be mistaken for proof that one channel alone caused the sale. The vendor performance claims in this chapter, including Microsoft's Copilot figures, Google's AI Max figures and OpenAI's selected advertiser examples, are each measured on the vendor's own terms and cannot be compared with one another.

What this report does not assume

It does not assume that AI will replace Google: in the UAE, Google still held 93.47% of search engine share in September 2026 (StatCounter). It does not assume that conversational users always have higher intent; OpenAI told a MENA briefing that about 20% of ChatGPT conversations globally show clear commercial intent, which leaves most conversations without it (Al Bayan). It does not assume that an early advertiser receives permanently cheaper traffic; reported US CPMs fell from USD 60 at launch to as low as USD 25 within weeks, and prices can move in either direction as more advertisers join (Digiday, Krystal Scanlon, 2026). It does not assume that all B2B buyers use ad-supported ChatGPT plans, since Business and Enterprise plans are ad-free (OpenAI). And it does not assume that UAE residents receive free ChatGPT Plus: that claim was "not confirmed by OpenAI or UAE authorities" (Gulf News; Gulf News, Justin Varghese). These remain business-specific questions to test rather than slogans to use in a proposal.

Gaps in the evidence

No public data. Share of ChatGPT weekly users on the ad-supported Free and Go plans: not published by OpenAI (searched OpenAI posts, Reuters, statistics compilations). UAE or GCC ChatGPT user counts from OpenAI: not published; OpenAI's Signals per-capita data gives no UAE value in its page text. A future edition should request both from OpenAI's EMEA advertising team.

No public data. UAE availability of Google AI Mode ads, Conversational Discovery ads, Business Agent for Leads, Direct Offers and UCP checkout; Copilot ad availability or Arabic Copilot ads in the UAE; Rufus on amazon.ae. Searched Google Ads Help, blog.google, Microsoft Advertising blog, Amazon announcements. A future edition should fetch Google's AI Mode ads help page and Microsoft's Copilot market list directly.

No public data. Exact date the UAE was added to OpenAI's self-service list: no OpenAI source; bounded to 6 to 17 September 2026 by third parties (Digital Applied; Origami). Copilot consumer monthly users: not published.

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