Interested in #retailtech? Electronic Shelf Labels? Improving store performance, stustainable, retailing? Come visit our award winning client VusionGroup‘s booth at SMTS Tokyo next week. Booth #2-509.
Register here.
Interested in #retailtech? Electronic Shelf Labels? Improving store performance, stustainable, retailing? Come visit our award winning client VusionGroup‘s booth at SMTS Tokyo next week. Booth #2-509.
Register here.
Survey: 52.3% of Japanese respondents search with generative AI
52.3% of 9,278 respondents aged 15–69 use generative AI, including Google AI Mode, for search (AdverTimes, September 9; fielded August 7–10). The figure was 21.3% in May 2025. 58.7% say an AI recommendation led to a purchase. One survey, one vendor, but the direction is consistent with earlier waves.
For foreign brands in Japan, the AI answer is becoming a purchase touchpoint. Check how ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Mode describe your products in Japanese before Q4.
OpenAI added product carousels to ChatGPT ads, showing several items in a single ad slot.
The format arrived three months after OpenAI let retailers bulk-create product-feed campaigns.
OpenAI’s system decides whether a query returns a single-product ad or a carousel — the advertiser does not choose. For brands in Japan, that moves the work upstream to the product feed. Japanese product names, prices, and stock status decide what appears. Audit the feed before year-end trading.
OpenAI job listings show six ad formats in development: text, image, video, native, conversational, and interactive (DIGIDAY Japan, July 9, 2026). Three ad-format engineering roles cover infrastructure, iOS, and Android. The company spent its first four months building the ad business foundation. For foreign brands in Japan, ChatGPT is becoming a paid channel with formats beyond search-style text. Budget owners should reserve test spend before Japanese inventory opens. Early advertisers set the benchmarks.
