In a recent Digiday feature, Anthony Costanzo, Chief Analytics Officer at Mile Marker Agency, weighed in on OpenAI’s strategic push to bring retail and commerce advertisers into ChatGPT. While OpenAI has publicly suggested that marketers should treat the chatbot as an experimental test channel, its recent backend API deals with platforms like Skai and Criteo tell a different story—one deeply rooted in performance and integrated marketing technologies.

The article explores how OpenAI is bypassing the traditional programmatic ecosystem to meet search buyers exactly where they already work.

How Integrated Marketing Technologies Turn Intent Into Performance

OpenAI is notably departing from the standard playbook used by Google, Meta, and Amazon, all of whom built closed, proprietary ad systems where data stays strictly in-house. Instead, OpenAI is leveraging integrated marketing technologies to open its ecosystem to API partners, bringing ChatGPT inventory directly into the existing workflows of search marketers running campaigns across Amazon or Walmart.

Why does this matter? Because the questions people bring to ChatGPT—like comparing two specific SUVs or researching travel—reveal users who are already deep in the purchase funnel. It represents a high-intent, pay-for-performance moment. Capturing that exact moment requires agile integrated marketing technologies capable of processing those signals without forcing buyers to adopt entirely new, pure-play programmatic platforms.

“The Trade Desk has made programmatic accessible to more companies, but ultimately platforms like Criteo and API partners like Skai make it more accessible to more types of ad buyers – including those that don’t live in pure-play programmatic platforms. For one, search marketers, who may never buy programmatic display or video, can gain access through Criteo and Skai,” said Costanzo.

At Mile Marker, we know that true omnichannel success means optimizing every media dollar to work its hardest, free of walled gardens. OpenAI’s strategy of maintaining control of intent data while seamlessly plugging into integrated marketing technologies like Skai aligns with how we navigate the modern media landscape. 

We don’t rely on any single tool. Through Relay—our universally accessible, proprietary data and tech stack—we combine the best third-party tools, AI, and agentic modeling to compile an agile architecture tailored to your unique business needs. Whether OpenAI’s current open-door approach is a permanent strategy or a temporary fix while they build their own infrastructure, tapping into high-intent audiences will always require nimble, integrated marketing technologies. 

Want to make the latest integrated marketing technologies work for your next growth spurt? Contact Us