Snapchat’s moving to monetize its new “My AI” chatbot option, via a new partnership with Microsoft that will see sponsored links inserted into relevant My AI responses in the app.

Snapchat recently previewed the new My AI ads at its 2023 Beauty Summit, explaining that the process will essentially match keywords to relevant promotions within My AI responses. For example, a query that includes the term “haircare” might trigger product a promotion for such in the chat stream.

As explained by Snapchat:

“Powered by Microsoft's Advertising’s Ads for Chat API, Sponsored Links connect our community with partners relevant to their conversation, while helping partners reach Snapchatters at the moment they have indicated potential interest in their offering.”

Snap says that Microsoft Ads clients in the U.S. and selected markets will now be able to engage with Snapchatters through My AI “to seamlessly deliver links that are relevant to the conversation”.

Which could be intrusive, depending on how they’re handled, though from an intent perspective, for brands, they could also be very valuable.

Snap says that over 150 million people have submitted over 10 billion messages to My AI, making it one of the most widely used consumer chatbots available. And when you also consider that many of these queries would be brand or product related in some way, they could be strong indicators of interest, especially if marketers are able to customize their outreach based on specific queries, or the depth of queries in a certain area.

Imagine if a user asked My AI about the best soaps for sensitive skin, the best cars for long road trips, the best clothes for hiking. From there, the user might dig deeper on each, with further qualifying queries, which would provide a heap of targeting data, potentially facilitating very specific promotions and offers in the app.

Snap hasn’t provided any insight into the types of queries that users are submitting in this context. But you can imagine that My AI could drive significantly better ad responses based on such.

Right now, however, the project is in its early stages. Snap says that it’s currently working with several partners to enhance its My AI experience, both for users and businesses, which will see new elements and processes added over time.

But it could be a valuable complement, especially as apps lose more of this contextual data through evolving privacy shifts.