PubMatic has signed a deal with startup Kontext to place advertising inside AI chatbot conversations through programmatic auctions.

Under the partnership, PubMatic will connect its sell-side platform to Kontext's technology, letting publishers and advertisers transact inventory that appears within conversational AI interfaces. Instead of static banner placements, ads will be selected in real time by auction as chatbots generate responses.

What does the deal cover?

The arrangement covers the injection of ads into AI chatbot sessions via automated, programmatic auctions. Kontext supplies the format; PubMatic supplies the demand and transaction infrastructure it already operates across the open web.

For PubMatic, the deal extends its auction business into a new surface: conversational AI. For Kontext, it provides access to programmatic demand that a young startup would struggle to aggregate on its own.

Who uses it?

The intended participants are the usual programmatic parties. Publishers seeking monetization for AI-driven experiences, and advertisers looking to reach users inside chatbot interfaces, form the two sides of the auction. ADWEEK first reported the agreement.

Why does this matter?

Chatbots are absorbing query traffic that once flowed to search results pages — the inventory that funded much of the open web's advertising. Every shift of user attention from a results page to a chat window removes impressions that publishers previously sold.

Kontext's pitch, backed by PubMatic's infrastructure, is to rebuild that economic chain inside the conversation itself. Whether advertisers will pay comparable rates for ads placed inside AI-generated answers remains an open question. No pricing figures, launch dates, or named publisher partners were disclosed in the announcement.

The deal signals that sell-side infrastructure players intend to treat AI chat as sellable inventory rather than a threat to it. Execution details — fill rates, formats, brand-safety controls — will determine whether auctions inside chatbots become a real revenue line or an experiment.