OpenAI is pushing ChatGPT ads further into India. This time, it is doing it with Razorpay.
Razorpay has teamed up with OpenAI to help Indian businesses run ad campaigns inside ChatGPT. Its Engage platform will help brands set up product catalogues, organise product feeds, launch campaigns and track results.
Some well-known names are already on board. Tanishq, Tata Neu, Fastrack, Traya and Shaadi.com are among the first brands testing ChatGPT Ads through this partnership.
This matters because it brings two fast-growing things together: conversational AI and performance marketing. For Indian advertisers, it could be a new channel that works quite differently from search ads or social media ads.
ChatGPT Ads Are Growing Fast in India
ChatGPT advertising has grown quickly in 2026. OpenAI had already opened self-service access in India, so eligible businesses can create campaigns on their own through Ads Manager.
The Razorpay deal gives advertisers one more way in. Businesses using Razorpay Engage can get help with product data, campaign setup and measurement, instead of handling everything alone. That is especially handy for ecommerce companies with big catalogues.
India is also just one part of OpenAI’s wider plan to expand ChatGPT Ads around the world.
What Razorpay Engage Will Do
Razorpay Engage is a growth marketing platform built around payments. Under this partnership, it will help businesses get their advertising data ready for ChatGPT. Brands will be able to:
- Prepare product catalogues
- Structure product feeds
- Launch campaigns
- Track performance
Clean and accurate business data matters a lot for AI-driven ads. A typical product feed has things like:
- Product name and description
- Image
- Price and availability
- Category
- Landing page
When this information is well organised, ad systems can understand the products better and match them to what people are actually asking about.
Why Product Feeds Matter
For ecommerce brands, product feeds could turn out to be one of the most important parts of ChatGPT Ads.
Traditional ads usually start with a keyword, an audience or a campaign setup. Conversational ads work differently. Think about the questions people ask ChatGPT:
- “What is a good smartwatch for everyday fitness?”
- “Which skincare product could work for dry skin?”
- “What are some good anniversary gifts?”
- “Which laptop is good for design work?”
These are not simple keywords. They carry context like a problem, a budget, a preference or a specific situation. A well-structured catalogue helps the system work out which products fit that conversation. That is why feed quality may matter more and more.
Big Indian Brands Are Already In
The early brands show that advertisers are taking ChatGPT Ads seriously.
Tanishq and Fastrack sell products where people like to see and compare before buying. Tata Neu is a wider digital commerce ecosystem. Traya sells in a category where people do a lot of research first. Shaadi.com is a service where users often have detailed questions and preferences.
Together, these brands could give us useful early examples of how ads perform in a conversational setting. They also suggest ChatGPT Ads will not stay limited to one industry. Retail, ecommerce, services and consumer brands could all find a use for it.
How It Differs From Search Ads
Each ad platform catches people at a different moment:
- Google Search Ads start when someone types a query.
- Meta Ads reach people while they scroll through social content.
- Amazon Ads reach people who are already shopping.
ChatGPT is a different setup. People explain what they want in full sentences. They ask follow-up questions, compare options and describe their needs. Some keep chatting for several messages before they decide anything.
That gives a much richer view of intent than a short search query. For advertisers, it means the strategy may need to change. Instead of only asking “Which keyword should we target?”, brands may need to ask:
- What questions do customers ask before buying?
- What problem does our product solve?
- What helps a customer choose us?
- At what point in a conversation is our offer actually useful?
This could grow into a whole new area within performance marketing.
Built Around Decision-Making
OpenAI says ChatGPT ads are meant to reach people while they are exploring options, comparing choices and making decisions.
That is the real opportunity. It is not about dropping another banner in front of someone. It is about showing up when a person is trying to figure out what to do next. Someone comparing phone specs, planning a holiday, choosing furniture materials or looking at business software is already close to a decision.
Ads that appear at these moments could shape what a person considers, even before they open a search engine or a shopping marketplace.
Ads Stay Separate From Answers
OpenAI says ads in ChatGPT are clearly labelled and kept separate from the answers ChatGPT gives. Ads do not decide what ChatGPT says. OpenAI also says advertisers cannot see users’ private conversations.
This separation will be important for keeping user trust as ads become more common on AI platforms.
For advertisers, it also means that a paid placement is not the same as being mentioned naturally in an AI answer. These could become two separate goals: paid AI visibility and organic AI visibility.
AEO and GEO Will Matter Too
As ChatGPT Ads grow, interest in Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) will probably grow with it.
AEO is about making your information easy for answer engines to understand and present. GEO is wider. It is about improving your brand’s visibility across generative AI platforms.
A business could show up organically because its content is useful and trustworthy. It could also show up through a paid placement. This is much like how companies mix SEO and PPC today. In future, brands may combine AEO, GEO, AI commerce optimisation, ChatGPT Ads, traditional SEO and search ads into one broader AI visibility plan.
The Payments Data Angle
Razorpay’s role makes this deal interesting. It is best known for payments, but Razorpay Engage focuses on growth marketing and customer engagement. That lets it link marketing activity with what people actually buy.
Advertisers want to know what happens after the click. A campaign may bring in traffic, but the real questions are:
- Did the user buy?
- What was the order value?
- Did the customer come back?
- Was the campaign profitable?
- Which customers brought the most value?
Connecting ads with payment data can help answer these. That is why payments-led marketing platforms may become more relevant as AI advertising develops.
More Focused on Performance
ChatGPT Ads are moving beyond simple brand exposure. OpenAI has launched a self-service Ads Manager where advertisers can create campaigns, set budgets, pick goals and measure results. Ads can be added one by one or uploaded in bulk, and advertisers can review performance and make changes.
OpenAI has also improved its measurement tools and added more advanced ad formats during 2026. All of this makes the platform more useful to performance marketers, who need real results and not just awareness.
A Big Chance for Ecommerce
Ecommerce businesses may find this partnership especially interesting. Online retailers already keep structured product catalogues for Google Shopping, Meta catalogue ads, Amazon, marketplaces and affiliate platforms. ChatGPT Ads gives them one more place to use that same product data.
But the setting is different. Instead of finding products through search results or social feeds, customers may find them while asking an AI assistant for advice. The customer journey could look like this:
Conversation → Discovery → Comparison → Consideration → Product visit → Purchase
Marketers will need to figure out how much these AI conversations influence the journey.
Good Feeds Could Be a Real Edge
If AI ads depend more on structured product data, feed optimisation could become a key marketing skill. Brands should make sure their product information is:
- Accurate
- Detailed
- Easy to understand
- Updated often
- Consistent with the landing page
Titles should describe the item clearly. Descriptions should explain the main features. Prices and stock status should always be current. Images should show the product properly. And the landing page should give a smooth experience after the click.
This sounds a lot like regular shopping-feed work. The difference is that AI systems may put even more weight on context and meaning. The better an AI understands a product, the better the chance it matches that product to the right situation.
A New Kind of High-Intent Advertising
The biggest advantage of conversational ads may be intent. A social media user could be scrolling with no plan. A search user might type just two or three words. A ChatGPT user may spend several minutes explaining exactly what they need.
Take this example: “I need comfortable office shoes that I can wear for long hours, but I don’t want something that looks like a sports shoe.”
That one message tells you the product type, the use, the comfort need, the style preference and even a likely objection. An AI platform can read all of these signals together. In time, advertisers may be able to reach people based on this richer intent and not just keyword matching.
Google, Meta and Amazon Have a New Rival
ChatGPT Ads put OpenAI in more direct competition with the big ad platforms. Google leads in search ads. Meta has huge social ad inventory. Amazon has strong shopping and purchase data. ChatGPT adds something new: conversation.
Each one captures a different stage of customer behaviour. Google captures search intent, Meta captures interests and social behaviour, Amazon captures shopping activity, and ChatGPT captures detailed conversational intent. Advertisers may end up splitting budgets across all four based on their goals. For performance marketers, that means both a new opportunity and more complexity.
What Indian Advertisers Should Do Now
Businesses that want to try ChatGPT Ads should first get the basics right.
- Fix conversion tracking. Know which actions really matter. For ecommerce, that means purchases, revenue, average order value, add-to-cart events and checkout activity. For lead generation, it means form submissions, calls, consultation bookings, qualified leads and sales.
- Improve product feeds if you run an ecommerce store.
- Research the questions customers ask before they buy.
- Treat ChatGPT Ads as part of a bigger mix, not a replacement for Google, Meta or Amazon ads.
An Opportunity for Agencies
This partnership could also open doors for agencies. Clients will start asking:
- Should we advertise on ChatGPT?
- How much budget should we test?
- How should we structure campaigns?
- How do we measure conversions?
- How should we optimise product feeds?
- How does this compare with Google Ads?
Agencies that understand conversational advertising early could get a head start. But they should avoid the hype. ChatGPT Ads should be judged like any other performance channel, by looking at cost, traffic quality, conversions, revenue, customer acquisition cost, return on ad spend and customer lifetime value.
The technology is new, but the marketing maths is the same.
AI Advertising in India Is Entering a New Phase
The Razorpay deal is about more than one more integration. It shows that AI advertising is building its own ecosystem, with ad platforms, technology partners, product feeds, measurement tools, commerce integrations, agencies, advertisers and optimisation tools.
Search and social ads took years to reach this point. AI advertising is moving much faster.
Final Thoughts
OpenAI’s partnership with Razorpay gives Indian brands another way into the fast-growing ChatGPT ads ecosystem. Razorpay Engage will help businesses organise catalogues, prepare feeds, launch campaigns and track results. Big brands are already taking part, and OpenAI keeps improving ChatGPT Ads with better measurement, new ad formats and wider availability.
The biggest change for marketers may be the setting itself. People now use AI tools not just to look things up, but to compare products, understand their options and decide what to buy. That means ads may show up earlier in the decision process.
Digital marketing in the future may be about more than ranking for keywords or targeting audiences. Brands may also have to earn their place inside conversations.
For Indian advertisers, this is another clear sign that conversational advertising is moving from a test to a serious performance channel.
