The short version

Ben Thompson predicted on January 1, 2024: “Contrary to Silicon Valley's prevalent aversion to advertising culture, Thompson firmly believes that advertising is the most effective way for AI to generate revenue, especially for companies like OpenAI that possess massive traffic but lack a commercial closed loop.” Verdict: Partially right. By mid-2026, consumer AI products are indeed increasingly leveraging advertising-linked monetization…

Prediction by

Ben Thompson

On January 1, 2024

“Contrary to Silicon Valley's prevalent aversion to advertising culture, Thompson firmly believes that advertising is the most effective way for AI to generate revenue, especially for companies like OpenAI that possess massive traffic but lack a commercial closed loop.”

Follow-up

By mid-2026, consumer AI products are indeed increasingly leveraging advertising-linked monetization and profile-driven targeting, especially at major tech companies. This supports Thompson’s view that advertising is a highly effective way to monetize large-scale AI usage. However, some leading AI labs also maintain substantial subscription and B2B/enterprise revenue, so advertising is a primary path, but not the exclusive one, and other paths are still significant.

From the High Caliber AI network — see the AI for PR module in the course.