Snapchat’s new ad format makes AI chatbots sound like salespeople

Snapchat is letting brand sponsored chatbots move into the Chat tab

By Sudhanshu Kumar Mangalam Published April 29, 2026

Snapchat — Unsplash

AI chatbots have spent the past few years handling refunds, tracking orders, resetting passwords, answering banking questions, booking appointments, and helping brands trim support teams. Now, Snapchat’s AI Sponsored Snaps suggest their next stop could be sales.

Snap has introduced AI Sponsored Snaps, a new ad format that brings brand-run AI agents into Snapchat Chat. Users can open these ads, ask questions, get suggestions, explore services, and move toward actions such as app installs or purchases without leaving the conversation.

Recommended Videos

For the alpha phase, Snap has partnered with Experian. Its AI Sponsored Snap appears in the Chat tab and opens into a branded screen where users can ask about credit scores, loans, credit cards, and spending habits. Experian’s AI agent then replies like a normal chat, except the conversation is clearly built to guide users toward a brand’s services.

Are ads becoming sales agents now?

This is where things get a little less cheerful. AI chatbots have already shown companies how much work can be moved away from human support teams. AI Sponsored Snaps take that same idea and brings it closer to the sales funnel.

These chats are not just answering random questions. They are meant to help people discover products, understand services, get personalized recommendations, and move closer to a purchase. That sounds a lot like the job of a sales employee, especially in businesses where selling already happens through chats, calls, and guided product explainers.

Could sales teams be next in line?

Ajit Mohan, Snap’s Chief Business Officer, said conversation is becoming “the most valuable real estate in advertising,” with AI helping people discover products and make decisions in real time. That line says a lot about where this is going.

Users who want quick answers may find this useful, but workers may see a less cozy picture. AI Sponsored Snaps may start as an ad format, although the work looks familiar. They talk to customers, clear doubts, offer suggestions, and guide people toward buying. Customer support has already faced this shift. Sales could be next.

Sudhanshu Kumar Mangalam

Contributor

I’ve got about 4 years of experience, mostly covering gaming, PC hardware, and smartphones. In my free time, I like…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Anti-surveillance clothing is getting cheaper, but don’t expect an invisibility cloak

Affordable shirts now claim to confuse facial recognition, although their protection depends heavily on the camera and software watching you

Chart, Plot, Adult

Anti-surveillance clothing is starting to look less like an art-school experiment and more like something you could actually wear outside. Shirts designed to confuse facial recognition systems now cost about as much as ordinary streetwear, although buying one won’t make you disappear.

The Guardian reports that designers are using face-like prints, unusual cuts and infrared lights to interfere with computer vision. These techniques target specific weaknesses, so their success depends on what happens to be watching you.

Emerging Tech

This spinning drone hides in plain sight using a visual illusion

This drone doesn't turn invisible. It tricks your brain into thinking it has.

Phantom Twist

For decades, engineers have chased the dream of an invisible drone. The usual approaches have involved transparent materials, camouflage coatings, or complex optical systems that bend light around an object. Researchers at Northwestern University decided to take a completely different route. Instead of hiding the drone itself, they chose to fool the human eye.

The result is Phantom Twist, an experimental drone that spins so rapidly it almost disappears into the background. It's not technically invisible, but to anyone watching, it looks more like a faint blur than a flying machine.

Emerging Tech

This smart knitted fabric can flip switches, count your steps, and even change shape

Grandma's knitting just entered its Iron Man era

Representative Image

For most of us, knitting brings to mind sweaters, scarves, and perhaps an ambitious grandmother determined to make winter more fashionable. Researchers at Harvard University, however, have a far more futuristic vision. They've transformed ordinary knitted fabric into a programmable material capable of changing shape, acting as an electrical switch, sensing movement, and potentially forming the foundation of tomorrow's wearable technology.

The research, published in Advanced Functional Materials by scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), demonstrates how machine-knitted textiles can "snap" between multiple stable shapes without relying on motors or rigid mechanical parts.