Hi [First Name],
Welcome to the fourth issue of Linda & AI — one practical AI idea, every Tuesday.
This week: something you can learn about today, and a story worth paying attention to.
🤖 The number that opened the Microsoft AI Learning Summit
80% of the global workforce reports lacking the time or energy to meet the demands placed on them. That is not a new problem. What is new is that AI is starting to separate the professionals finding a way through from those falling further behind.
🎞️ The framework worth knowing
The summit described AI adoption in three levels. Most professionals are at level one — which is fine, as long as you know where to go next.
📰 Story worth watching
On 5 May, OpenAI launched a self-serve advertising platform inside ChatGPT. Any business in the US can now buy ad space that appears directly beneath ChatGPT's answers, targeted to the conversation's intent. If you ask ChatGPT to recommend a project management tool, you may now see a sponsored result alongside the organic answer.
The numbers behind this are significant. OpenAI is targeting $2.5 billion in ad revenue this year alone, and $100 billion annually by 2030. In the first six weeks of the pilot, it reportedly made over $100 million from US advertisers.
Why does this matter to you as a professional? Two reasons.
First, if your organisation uses ChatGPT's free tier, you will start seeing ads. Paid tiers (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) are ad-free — so this may accelerate the case for upgrading. Second, and more interesting: this marks the moment AI tools stop being neutral advisors and start being advertising platforms. The answers ChatGPT gives you remain independent — OpenAI has been emphatic that ads do not influence responses. But the ecosystem around those answers is changing fast. Read the story here.
That's it for this week.
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See you next Tuesday, Linda