Marissa Mayer, known for her leadership in the early days of Google Search and as the former CEO of Yahoo, has shared her perspective on how online advertising could evolve with the rise of AI tools. Currently the CEO of Sunshine, a company developing apps to simplify tasks like sharing photos and organizing contacts, Mayer’s insights into advertising trends remain highly relevant.
Speaking at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit in San Francisco, Mayer addressed how advertisers might adapt to shifting consumer expectations in the AI era. She suggested that advertisers will need to provide more detailed data to ensure AI-generated answers meet users’ increasingly precise demands.
As an example, she revisited an early concept from Google Search: concert ticket advertisements. In the past, search results featuring ads for concert tickets were seen as beneficial because they directly addressed what users wanted — not general articles about the event, but actual tickets for purchase.
Mayer envisions that AI will take this a step further. For instance, when users ask about concert tickets through an AI tool, they may expect a comprehensive answer that includes seat locations, pricing, and availability, all synthesized into a single response. To meet these expectations, advertisers will likely need to collaborate closely with platforms like Google to integrate detailed inventory data into search results.
When asked whether companies like StubHub or Ticketmaster would be willing to share such granular data, Mayer pointed to the evolution of search ads over the last decade. She noted that advertisers today are already sharing more detailed information, such as inventory specifics, and this trend is likely to continue.
This concept also opens the door to potential business opportunities for AI-focused companies like OpenAI and Perplexity. These platforms could explore partnerships where advertisers sponsor answers to specific types of user queries, especially when those answers align directly with user intent.
As the operational costs of AI increase, companies in this space will likely need to explore such revenue models to sustain their services. Mayer’s insights suggest that deeper collaboration between advertisers and AI platforms could play a key role in shaping the future of online advertising.
