{"id":8604,"date":"2026-07-16T19:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbes.co.il\/e\/?p=8604"},"modified":"2026-07-16T19:22:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:22:00","slug":"welcome-to-the-age-of-ai-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbes.co.il\/e\/welcome-to-the-age-of-ai-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the age of AI advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Days before Tal Shoham announced that his AI monetization startup Velocity had closed a $27 million Seed round, an independent tracker put a number on something the industry had only been speculating about: ChatGPT ads were showing up in roughly 26.5% of all replies globally, and 49% of replies in the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Shoham, that timing is the proof of concept for his newest company and a sign of the latest change in the AI era. \u201cChatGPT, of course, has added ads now, which is amazing for us and for the industry, because it\u2019s like a north star that everybody looks at,\u201d Shoham told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He co-founded Velocity alongside Amir Shaked and Nimrod Zuta, all three of whom are former senior executives at ironSource and Unity. The company is building what it calls a growth infrastructure layer for AI-native applications: an ad network, a mediation and auction system, and a \u201cconversation intelligence\u201d layer that turns chatbot dialogue into structured, privacy-safe intent signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, it\u2019s helping bring adverts to your favourite AI agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The round was led by NFX and Red Dot Capital Partners, with participation from Stardom Ventures, Corner Ventures, and Transcend, alongside a roster of gaming and ad-tech angels, including former ironSource co-founder Omer Kaplan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n