OpenAI Gets Serious About ChatGPT Ads, Hires Former Meta Exec

Travel was a major category in Meta’s ad business, and OpenAI just hired one of the executives who helped run it: Dave Dugan, the former vice president of global clients and agencies at Meta, will run global ad solutions for OpenAI.

His first priority will be turning ChatGPT ads from a test feature to a commercial-ready product, without disrupting the user experience, he said on LinkedIn.

Dugan’s appointment is the first time OpenAI has placed a senior, agency-facing ad-sales executive in a named leadership position, the same type of role that, at Meta and Google, was the primary commercial interface for travel’s biggest ad spenders, including OTAs and airlines.

For travel brand