ChatGPT ads: what is actually left for agencies

WPP and Omnicom have been named the first agency partners for ChatGPT Ads in India, expected to support brands across strategy, creative, measurement, brand safety and campaign execution. The arrangement is not exclusive. OpenAI has made clear that the two are only its first agency partners in India and that the model is non-exclusive, with more agencies expected to be added. Nothing in the reporting says either group paid for the position or that anyone was excluded, and no figures on agency fees are given.

The question arises because self-serve access opens on 4 September with daily budgets starting at Rs 725, a floor low enough that a brand does not need an intermediary in order to buy.

Gowthaman Ragothaman, media, advertising and marketing veteran and founder of Saptharushi, puts the case against agency advantage bluntly: “If they are going to go the self-serve platform route, I don’t see this as a major agency differentiator because it will be for everybody.” That is worth sitting with rather than arguing past. Partner status on a self-serve platform is a head start on learning, not a moat.

The counter-arguments are about craft rather than access. Gopa Menon, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at theblurr, says: “For agencies, the job shifts from traditional keyword bidding to intent mapping and conversational creative strategy.” Akshay Mathur, Founder and CEO of Unpromptd, says: “Running ads inside conversational interfaces requires a different planning approach than buying inventory on social or display.”

For a brand the honest question is not whether to use an agency but which parts of this actually need one. Opening an account, setting a daily budget and pointing a campaign at a landing page is a task now, not a service. Intent mapping is not. Working out which questions your buyers are really asking, in their own words, and which of those your product genuinely answers, is research that needs a view across a category rather than a view of one brand. Conversational creative is the same problem in a different form, because copy that reads as a plausible next step after an assistant’s answer is a different craft from a scroll-stopping social asset. Split the work on that line. Pay for the parts that need the category view, and run the buying in-house.