The race to monetise AI-powered media is becoming more competitive. Demand-side platform StackAdapt has removed the minimum spend commitment previously required for advertisers looking to run campaigns within ChatGPT. The move follows a similar decision by rival Criteo, signalling growing competition among ad-tech players seeking a larger share of OpenAI’s emerging advertising ecosystem.
The change lowers the barrier to entry for brands and agencies that may have been hesitant to test advertising opportunities within AI-driven environments due to upfront budget requirements. AI Inventory Is Becoming More Accessible The significance of the move extends beyond pricing. Minimum spend commitments have traditionally acted as a filter, limiting access to larger advertisers with substantial experimentation budgets. By removing these thresholds, platforms are effectively inviting a broader range of advertisers to test, learn and optimise campaigns within AI-native environments. As competition among ad-tech intermediaries increases, access to AI inventory could become less about budget size and more about campaign performance and relevance. The result is a familiar pattern: when new media channels mature, entry costs tend to fall while optimisation capabilities become the differentiator. Why Indian Advertisers Should Watch Closely For Indian brands and agencies, the development offers an early glimpse into how AI media buying may evolve. Many marketers remain in exploratory mode when it comes to advertising around generative AI experiences. Lower spending barriers make experimentation more feasible for mid-sized brands, startups and independent agencies that previously lacked the budgets required for early-stage testing. It also signals the emergence of a new media planning category where conversational interfaces become advertising surfaces rather than simply consumer tools. Our insight The story is not that ChatGPT advertising is becoming cheaper. It is that access is becoming broader. In emerging media channels, wider participation often arrives just before scale.