ChatGPT has been building out an advertising product, including automated bidding and platform targeting. Whether a Kolkata SME should care depends less on the platform and more on where your customers currently are.
What is being built
Advertising inside AI assistants places sponsored results alongside AI-generated answers, with automated bidding and targeting controls similar in shape to existing search advertising. It is an emerging channel: the audience is real and growing, but the tooling, reporting and measurement are considerably less mature than Google Ads.
The honest assessment for a small business
For most SMEs in Kolkata, this is something to watch rather than something to budget for yet. Three reasons:
- Volume. The number of people in your specific catchment asking an AI assistant for your kind of service is currently small compared with Google.
- Measurement. New ad platforms almost always launch with weaker conversion tracking than established ones, and spending without reliable measurement is how budgets disappear.
- Opportunity cost. If your Google Business Profile is half complete and your website is slow, those are worth more than an experimental channel.
Who should pay closer attention
Businesses selling something researched at length before purchase, particularly B2B, professional services and technical products, where buyers genuinely do use AI assistants to build shortlists. If that describes you, a small controlled test is defensible once measurement is in place.
The more useful move right now
Rather than buying placement in AI answers, make yourself findable in them organically. That means clear, accurate, well-structured information about what you do and where you do it, consistent business details, and content that answers real questions. It costs less, it does not stop when you stop paying, and it is work you need to do regardless.
That is what our AI SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation service covers, and we say plainly on that page that nobody can guarantee a place in an AI answer, including us.
Frequently asked questions
Should small businesses advertise inside AI assistants yet?
For most Kolkata SMEs, not yet. The number of people in your specific catchment asking an AI assistant for your kind of service is still small, and new ad platforms typically launch with weaker conversion tracking than established ones.
Who should consider it now?
Businesses selling something researched at length before purchase, particularly B2B, professional services and technical products, where buyers genuinely do use AI assistants to build shortlists. Even then, only once conversion measurement is working properly.
What is the better use of the same budget?
Making yourself findable in AI answers organically: accurate and well-structured information, consistent business details, and content that answers real questions. It does not stop when you stop paying, and it is work you need to do anyway.
Talk to a Kolkata digital marketing specialist
Tell us what you sell and who you sell it to. We will tell you honestly whether we can help, what it would involve, and roughly what it costs.
