Oh great, Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot is getting more ads

Prepare to see to more ads within Bing’s AI chatbot.

On Wednesday, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate VP announced new goals to drive traffic and revenue to publishers through Bing and Edge. Ideas the tech company is exploring include links to more articles from a publisher when you hover over a link to that publisher, as well as a “rich caption” of licensed content from Microsoft partners next to chat answers.

An example of where a “hover experience” might show up in Bing chat.
Credit: Microsoft

Since Microsoft launched the new Bing in February, it has grown to over 100 million daily active users. It was only a matter of time until it began monetizing its newfound popularity. To be clear, Bing already includes ads in some of its responses. For example, if you search “iPhone 14” it will show you a product listing linked to its shopping tab. But the announcement means efforts to drive traffic and increase revenue to publishers is definitely ramping up.

Mehdi didn’t give much detail beyond that, saying the conversations with publishers and partner brands are “early days.” So, we don’t know how many ads we’ll start seeing, or when. But we do know that it’s coming and that Bing chat’s ad-free (or ad-sparse) days are numbered. Enjoy it while it lasts.