An AI agent in an ad
still speaks for
the business

An ad that opens an AI agent puts a conversation between the ad and the website. The person asks questions, and an agent answers on the business’s behalf inside the ad platform, before anyone reaches the business’s own pages. Under OpenAI’s published terms, the business answers for what that agent says and does, even when OpenAI builds it (OpenAI Ad Tools Terms).

For a US business, neither OpenAI’s format nor Google’s is open yet. OpenAI’s Sponsored Agents are a limited alpha test with select US advertisers, and OpenAI’s Help Center says it is not accepting early access requests, although a separate OpenAI form, offered with HubSpot, registers interest for future testing. Google announced Business Agent for Leads for Search on May 20, 2026, and has published no US availability.

Meta is the one to check now. It said in October 2025 that eligible US businesses could put its business agent on Facebook and Instagram ads, and Digital Traction found nothing newer from Meta on agents in ads. For OpenAI and Google, that leaves time to prepare, and the preparation is the same whichever platform opens first.

What happens after someone clicks

OpenAI’s Help Center describes Sponsored Agents as a way to chat with “an AI representative of a business” in ChatGPT. After seeing an ad, a person can start a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent, ask follow-up questions and follow a link to the business’s website. OpenAI says the conversation is separate from ChatGPT’s own answers and from the person’s own chat (OpenAI’s announcement).

What the business sees afterward is less clear. OpenAI’s Help Center page on ads in ChatGPT says an advertiser messaged through an ad sees only the messages sent to it directly, with no access to the person’s chats, chat history, memories or personal details. The page does not name Sponsored Agents or say how the business sees those messages.

The business might not build the agent itself. OpenAI’s terms cover the case where OpenAI “creates, configures, or makes available a Sponsored Agent on your behalf,” and OpenAI’s Advertiser API overview does not mention agents. OpenAI has published no tool for a business to build one.

Google’s format answers from the website. Google says a person can click “Chat” in the ad “instead of filling out a static form” and get answers “based on your website” (Google’s announcement). Its product page says the agent captures lead data when the team is offline and filters prospects against the business’s criteria. Digital Traction’s reading is that the website becomes the agent’s script: an outdated price or policy page is what it could repeat. The same pages can already supply part of the text of ordinary Google Search ads, as Your website now writes part of your Google ads sets out.

What the platform terms make the business answer for

The business is deemed the builder, even when OpenAI builds it

OpenAI’s Ad Tools Terms, published August 24, 2026, say that when OpenAI builds or configures a Sponsored Agent for a business, the business is “deemed the builder of the Sponsored Agent” and remains “responsible for the Sponsored Agent, its content, configurations, Actions, and Output as if you had created it yourself.” For indemnification, a claim about the agent counts as a claim about an ad.

The business also answers for the “Ad Materials” the agent uses, which include pricing, availability information, website content, business logic, “sales or support scripts” and “tone or brand guidelines.” The prices, scripts and website content the business supplies for the agent count as its material under the contract.

The Advertising Terms (updated August 25, 2026) add to this. Section 5.3 makes the advertiser solely responsible for each campaign, including “other outputs (including AI-generated outputs),” and has it promise compliance with the law on “truthfulness and substantiation of claims.” The Service Terms, which the Ad Tools Terms apply when OpenAI creates, configures or makes available an agent for a business, make the builder solely responsible for a GPT’s content and for Output based on it. They also give OpenAI a broad, irrevocable license to a shared GPT, and do not say how that license applies to an agent OpenAI built.

The terms assign interaction data to OpenAI

Section 5.1 of the Advertising Terms says that, as between the parties, the advertiser keeps its rights in its ads and “OpenAI owns all rights in the Advertising Services and OpenAI Data.” OpenAI Data includes “all data relating to end users’ interactions with OpenAI products and services,” and any reporting the business receives is OpenAI Data too, usable “only to measure the frequency, reach, or effectiveness of a Campaign.” Campaign materials also go to OpenAI for developing, providing and improving its and its affiliates’ products.

The terms never name Sponsored Agent conversations. Digital Traction’s reading is that the ownership clause likely covers them unless a pilot agreement says otherwise, so rights to the conversation and to any lead data are worth asking for in writing.

The alpha may fall under a beta clause

Section 8.5 says “OPENAI WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH BETA SERVICES,” and beta services include anything identified as alpha, which is how the Help Center describes Sponsored Agents. Digital Traction’s reading is that the clause applies unless a pilot agreement says otherwise. OpenAI can also change the terms by posting an update, with at least thirty days’ notice of material changes, subject to exceptions (section 11.3). Its ad policies (version 1.6, updated September 10, 2026) contain no rules written for agents.

Google puts review on the advertiser

Google’s notice of new Google Ads terms, effective July 1, 2026, says they “reinforce your responsibility to ensure you have the rights to your inputs and continued obligation to review, approve, or remove all campaigns and ad assets generated automatically by Google Ads features.” Google’s US advertising terms, in force since July 1, 2026, say “Customer is solely responsible for all: (i) Ads” and that the customer stays solely responsible for ads that automated features generate on its behalf. Neither names Business Agent for Leads.

Meta’s terms for AI ad creative do not name the agent

Meta’s Ad Creative Generative AI Terms cover its AI tools for ad creative and say “You are responsible for Ad Content” and that the advertiser is “solely responsible for evaluating the Output,” but they do not name its business agent, and no Meta page read says which terms govern the agent in ads.

One gap runs through all of this. A chatbot on a business’s own website is one the business chooses and configures. A sponsored agent may be built and run by the platform, yet OpenAI’s terms still put what it says on the business. No page Digital Traction read addresses that gap, so the written terms of a pilot carry the weight.

What US law already says

The terms settle who answers to the platform. Who answers to the customer is a separate question, and US law already covers much of it:

• The FTC’s advertising guide for small businesses: “Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive; Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and Advertisements cannot be unfair.” The page does not mention AI
• Utah Code section 13-77-102 says it is not a defense to a consumer protection violation that generative AI “made the violative statement” or “undertook the violative act”
• California’s Civil Code section 1714.46, in force since January 1, 2026, says a defendant who “developed, modified, or used” AI may not argue that “the artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm”
• California’s bot disclosure law makes it unlawful to use a bot to mislead a person in California about its artificial identity in order to encourage a sale, and spares a business from liability under it if it discloses, in a way that is “clear, conspicuous,” that it is a bot. OpenAI labels the conversation; no source read says whether a platform’s label counts as the business’s own disclosure

Digital Traction found no US court decision on whether a business answers for its chatbot’s statements. The nearest rulings are outside the US and appear in the source notes as illustrations, not US law. None of this is legal advice; the terms of a specific pilot are a question for counsel.

What an agent may do, as published

The published lists differ by platform:

• OpenAI: answers and follow-ups, then a link to the business’s website. The Ad Tools Terms list Actions among what the business answers for, and the Service Terms define an “Action” as “Any API, website, or service that interacts with a GPT,” so Digital Traction reads the terms as allowing for more, but no booking, purchase or handoff to a person is published for Sponsored Agents
• Google: Business Agent for Leads answers from the website, filters prospects and captures lead data. Google’s organic Merchant Center agent, not an ad, adds a support handoff and a preview during setup
• Meta: its Business Agent can answer questions, recommend products from a catalog, book appointments, qualify leads, bring in a team member when the business decides, and close sales. Meta said in October 2025 that eligible US businesses could set it up on Facebook and Instagram ads (Meta for Business)
• Snap: AI Sponsored Snaps let brands bring their own AI agents into Chat. Snap said in April 2026 it was preparing an alpha, and its Support Center says the chatbot is provided and managed by the advertiser, which is responsible for its behavior and responses. No market or terms are stated

A practical way to scope any of these is to list the actions an agent could take: answer, clarify, recommend, quote, book, buy, hand off to a person, refuse. Under OpenAI’s terms, every action the agent can take is the business’s to answer for.

What is not published yet

As of September 25, 2026, OpenAI has published none of the following for Sponsored Agents:

• Who writes and approves the agent’s instructions
• Any review step or test tool
• Whether the business receives transcripts or leads, and in what form
• What the agent’s reporting shows
• How it is billed
• Whether a sale after the agent’s link can be matched to the ad
• Any pilot terms beyond the public ones

For Business Agent for Leads, Google has published no US availability, eligibility, lead contents, delivery, billing, reporting or agent terms. The note on how Business Agent for Leads changes what a lead is covers what that means for conversion tracking.

What to prepare before any pilot

None of this needs access to start. Before agreeing to a pilot, a business needs five things in hand:

1. The facts an agent may state: prices, availability, eligibility and policies, each with an owner and a last-checked date. OpenAI’s terms count pricing and website content as the business’s material, and Google’s agent answers from the website, so outdated pages come first
2. The claims it stands behind, each with its evidence. The FTC expects evidence behind advertising claims, and OpenAI’s terms have the advertiser promise compliance with the law on substantiating them
3. The actions it may take, each from the list above marked allowed or not, plus what it says when a request falls outside the list
4. Test conversations, including the hard cases: a question about the price of the service, a request the business does not handle, a regulated topic and a request for a person. Meta publishes a test step and Google’s Merchant Center agent a preview; OpenAI has published neither
5. The written terms to ask for, set out below

The terms to ask for, each tied to a point above:

• Review and approval of the agent’s setup before launch and after every change
• Access to the conversation logs
• Rights to conversation and lead data, set against section 5.1
• The scope of the license over materials the business supplies
• How a lead is defined and how it is delivered
• What reporting the business receives
• Whether the beta clause in section 8.5 applies to the pilot
• Notice before the terms change

Everything here was checked on September 25, 2026, and will change. Advertising in AI tracks where each format stands for a US business, ChatGPT ads: what a US business can buy today covers the ads OpenAI sells now, and the future of search puts these formats in context.