The Surprising Advertising Strategy AI Companies Are Investing in to Stand Out |
The AI race may be digital, but the frontlines of its marketing wars are in the real world.
BY MARTY SWANT, FREELANCE WRITER
A ChatGPT billboard in Mumbai, India. Photo: Getty Images
From the streets of New York City to the Las Vegas skyline, AI companies are taking their message offline in a scramble to sell something harder to code: trust.
Between October 2024 and October 2025, fewer than a dozen top AI companies poured more than $300 million into advertising in a race to stand out, according to the ad-tracking firm MediaRadar. Salesforce has committed nearly $77 million to marketing Agentforce. Microsoft spent at least $59 million on Copilot. Google spent nearly $17 million on Gemini. And while Anthropic spent $14.8 million marketing Claude, OpenAI spent nearly double that on ChatGPT: $30 million.
Most of that spending still lives online, but some of this fall’s most visible moves have been out of home—like billboards, subway takeovers, and airport screens. While those placements still account for a small share of total ad spend, they offer a revealing window into how AI startups and giants alike are trying to define themselves amid the clutter. In October alone, OpenAI spent $2.2 million on outdoor ads to promote ChatGPT, up from $870,000 in September, according to MediaRadar.
Some companies are pushing beyond traditional billboards into real-world activations. This summer, IBM staged a large-scale activation in Madison Square Park during the U.S. Open to highlight its Watsonx platform and partnership with the U.S. Tennis Association. This fall, Google showcased its Gemini platform with a Sphere takeover during the F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas.
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AI companies of all sizes are experimenting. The startup Cursor, an AI coding platform, has been hosting pop-up “Cafe Cursor” events for coders in cities around the world, while Anthropic drew big crowds and went viral online for its New York City café this fall by offering free “thinking” caps branded with its Claude........