Taboola, the content-recommendation platform, is launching a groundbreaking generative AI-powered chat assistant called Abby designed to revolutionize how small and medium-sized businesses create advertising campaigns. The tool, built on OpenAI’s GPT-4o and trained on years of Taboola’s advertising campaign data, aims to democratize digital advertising by making it accessible to business owners without marketing expertise.
Abby functions as an interactive advertising consultant, allowing business owners to simply describe their goals in plain language. For example, a florist could input: “I own a florist and I want more people to come to my site to buy flowers.” Through conversational exchanges, Abby can rapidly generate complete ad campaigns across Taboola’s extensive publisher network and automatically select optimal images. This eliminates the need for advertisers to understand complex marketing terminology like CPAs (cost per acquisition) or CPCs (cost per click).
Taboola CEO Adam Singolda explained that the tool addresses a critical market gap. Many small businesses have exhausted their budgets on Google and Facebook not because these platforms lack effectiveness, but because they become prohibitively expensive and these businesses don’t know how to access alternatives on the open web. Abby is designed to solve this onboarding challenge and eventually evolve into a full-fledged account manager for client retention.
The company, which reported $428 million in revenue and a $4 million net loss in Q2, currently serves approximately 18,000 advertiser clients and reaches nearly 600 million daily active users through partnerships with major publishers including BBC, CBS, Yahoo, Apple News, and Business Insider. Currently, only one-third of Taboola’s advertisers use its self-serve platform, indicating significant growth potential.
Taboola joins an increasingly competitive landscape where Big Tech giants like Google and Meta have already deployed AI-powered advertising solutions (Performance Max and Advantage Plus), and major advertising holding companies like Omnicom, WPP, and Publicis are investing millions in AI technology. However, industry analyst Andrew Lipsman expressed skepticism, noting that generative AI adoption among consumers remains limited and that changing advertiser behavior, particularly among SMBs where advertising isn’t a core competency, faces significant inertia challenges.
Key Quotes
They want alternatives. They’ve maxed out Google and Facebook, not because their threshold for margin is tapped, but the way most spend on Google and Facebook, they will spend, and spend, and spend, and they stop because it gets expensive. They don’t spend on the open web because they don’t know for the life of them who to go to or how to do so.
Taboola CEO Adam Singolda explained the core problem Abby aims to solve—small businesses are locked into expensive Google and Facebook advertising not by choice, but because they lack knowledge about alternatives on the open web.
I don’t see generative AI tools as likely to drive near-term adoption of new ad platforms among SMBs. Even a theoretically more intuitive UI still requires a behavior change from advertisers, and inertia is a powerful force — especially among SMBs where advertising isn’t a core competency.
Industry analyst Andrew Lipsman, a self-described generative AI skeptic, cautioned that despite technological improvements, changing small business behavior remains a significant challenge that could limit Abby’s near-term impact.
Our Take
Taboola’s Abby represents an intriguing test case for practical AI application in business services. While the technology is impressive—leveraging GPT-4o and proprietary campaign data—the real question is whether conversational AI can overcome decades of established advertising habits.
The timing is particularly interesting. As AI tool fatigue sets in and adoption rates lag behind hype, Taboola must prove that AI simplification actually translates to business action. The company’s existing relationships with 18,000 advertisers and 600 million daily users provide a built-in testing ground, but converting only one-third to self-serve suggests friction points that AI alone may not solve.
What’s most compelling is the strategic positioning against Google and Meta’s duopoly. If Abby succeeds, it won’t be because of superior AI—it will be because it solved a genuine pain point: helping overwhelmed small business owners access untapped advertising inventory. This human-centered approach to AI deployment, rather than technology-first thinking, may ultimately determine success.
Why This Matters
This launch represents a critical inflection point in the democratization of digital advertising through AI. As Google and Meta increasingly dominate digital ad spending, Taboola’s AI-powered approach could reshape competitive dynamics by lowering barriers to entry for small businesses seeking alternatives to the duopoly.
The significance extends beyond Taboola itself—it exemplifies how generative AI is transforming professional services that previously required specialized expertise. By converting complex marketing processes into conversational interfaces, AI tools like Abby could fundamentally alter how millions of small businesses approach digital marketing.
However, the skepticism from industry analysts highlights a broader challenge facing AI adoption: the gap between technological capability and actual user behavior change. Success will depend not just on AI sophistication, but on whether small businesses—already stretched thin—will embrace new platforms and workflows. This tension between AI innovation and practical adoption will likely define the next phase of AI’s business impact across industries.
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