AI Ads Have Arrived in Southeast Asia. Here's Who Can Run Them.

Key takeaways

• AI ads (paid placements inside AI assistants and AI-generated answers) are now live in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
• Nobody has years of experience on these platforms yet, so hiring for the platform name won't work.
• Four existing profiles transfer well: feed and marketplace specialists, measurement specialists, signal-led performance marketers and conversational copywriters.
• For most teams in SEA, the best order is: upskill in Q4, bring in a partner if you're stretched, and hire in H1 2027 once you have data.
• Add a line for AI-platform media to your 2027 headcount plan now, while budgets are being set.

Late last month, ads inside ChatGPT went live across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It's the newest example of something bigger: ads showing up inside AI tools, where more and more people go to research, compare and shop.

For marketing leaders, the first question is usually "should we test it?" The second, which tends to arrive about a week later, is "who's going to run it?"

That second question is the one we can help with. And the answer is more reassuring than you might think.

What are AI ads?

AI ads are paid placements that appear inside AI tools: chat assistants, AI-generated search answers and, more recently, image generation results. Instead of matching an ad to a keyword typed into a search box, the platform matches it to the context of a conversation.

Someone asking an AI assistant for laptop recommendations under a certain budget, for example, might see a clearly labelled, relevant product listing next to the answer.

For advertisers, that means reaching people at the moment they're actively researching and comparing. For hiring managers, it means a new channel that someone on the team needs to own.

Where are AI ads available in Southeast Asia?

On 23 September 2026, ChatGPT ads launched in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan, bringing the platform to more than 60 countries. Advertisers can buy through a self-serve Ads Manager or through managed partnerships, including dentsu, Havas Media, Omnicom Media, Publicis Groupe and WPP. Shopee was named as an early strategic partner in the region.

The channel has scaled quickly. OpenAI says its ads business passed a US$1 billion annualised run rate in under 200 days, and it has since added visual ad formats alongside a long list of measurement partners.

Other platforms are moving in the same direction, with ads appearing alongside AI-generated answers in search. The platform names will keep changing. The skills needed to run them are far more stable, and that's what this guide focuses on.

Why hiring for "AI ads experience" won't work

Every new channel arrives with a job spec nobody can match. It happened with TikTok, with retail media and with CTV: "3+ years' experience" on a platform that's been live for a few weeks.

A spec like that either attracts nobody, or attracts people who are better at interviews than at the job. Neither helps you hit Q1 targets.

The fix is the same every time. Stop hiring for the platform name and start hiring for the work. Look at what these formats actually ask of a team (product data, measurement, algorithm inputs and copy that works in a conversation) and the skill set is very familiar.

What skills do you need to run AI ads?

In our experience placing performance and AdTech talent across SEA, four profiles transfer especially well.

1. Feed and catalogue specialists

Why they fit: AI ad formats are increasingly product-led. The quality of your product data (titles, images, pricing, availability) decides whether your ads get matched to the right conversations.

Where to find them: marketplace teams running Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia or TikTok Shop ads, ecommerce and retail media teams, and Google Shopping specialists. In SEA, this is one of the deepest talent pools we work with.

A good interview question: "Tell me about a time you improved performance by fixing the feed rather than the bid."

2. Measurement and analytics specialists

Why they fit: with any new channel, budget holders want proof before they scale. AI ad platforms are launching with established measurement partners such as AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch and Singular, plus DoubleVerify and IAS for brand safety. People who already work with these tools speak the language.

Where to find them: app growth teams, agency analytics teams and CTV measurement specialists.

A good interview question: "How would you prove a new channel drove incremental sales, not just clicks?"

3. Signal-led performance marketers

Why they fit: Search Engine Land describes the new PPC skill set as moving "from keyword manager to system optimiser": deciding which signals to feed the algorithm rather than micromanaging bids. The marketers who made that shift during the Performance Max years will pick this up quickly.

Where to find them: paid search and paid social teams with strong results on automated campaign types.

A good interview question: "Which signals did you feed the algorithm on your best campaign, and how did you decide?"

4. Copywriters who can hold a conversation

Why they fit: some new formats open into a chat rather than a landing page. Writing an ad that works inside a conversation is its own craft.

Where to find them: performance creative teams, CRM and chatbot copywriters, and social copywriters with a testing background.

A good interview question: "Rewrite this headline as the opening line of a genuinely helpful conversation."

None of these people will have the new channel on their CV yet. All of them can be running confident tests within a quarter.

How to write a job brief for an AI ads role

The brief we expect to see over the next few months reads something like:

"Performance Marketing Manager. 3+ years' ChatGPT ads experience. Based in Singapore."

The brief that will actually find the right person reads differently:

"Performance marketer to lead testing on AI ad platforms across SEA. Strong background in feed-based or marketplace advertising, comfortable with incrementality testing, and confident briefing creative for new formats. This is a build role: you'll set up the channel, define how we measure it and recommend whether we scale it."

The second brief attracts people who have done the work. It also sells the opportunity, which matters, because the strongest candidates usually already have jobs and need a reason to move.

Should you upskill, partner or hire?

There's no single right answer, but here's how we'd approach it for most teams in the region right now.

Upskill first. Best for teams with a strong paid search or marketplace lead and some Q4 budget. Give that person a test budget, a timeframe and a simple success measure agreed upfront. It's the fastest, lowest-cost way to learn whether the channel works for your category. Just protect their time, so the test gets real attention.

Partner if you're stretched. Best for teams already at capacity, or those wanting to launch across several markets at once. Agencies and specialist partners can get you live quickly. Ask for a proper handover and shared dashboards, not just a monthly report, so the learning stays in-house.

Hire when the data says so. Best for teams where Q4 results show clear return, or where AI media is a strategic priority for 2027. Brief the role around the skills above and you'll find strong people in weeks, not months. If you're hiring for several roles at once, an embedded recruitment model can be more cost-effective than briefing each role separately.

Where to find AI ads talent in Southeast Asia

The talent exists across the region. It just sits under different job titles.

Singapore has a strong pool of regional performance leads and measurement specialists, often in platform, agency and regional brand roles.

The Philippines and Malaysia offer excellent performance media execution talent, much of it already working in offshore hubs for regional and global teams. If you're building AI media capability offshore, start with the right offshore team lead.

Indonesia and Vietnam have deep marketplace and ecommerce advertising experience, which maps closely to product-led AI ad formats.

This also builds on a trend we flagged earlier this year: AI-fluent performance strategists were already the most requested role on our list of the 5 most requested roles in AdTech and performance media for H2 2026.

The talent market is on your side

After a year of restructuring across tech and media, there is strong, experienced performance talent in the market. And the chance to build a brand-new channel from scratch is a compelling pitch. It's career-defining experience that's hard to get anywhere else.

That gives hiring teams a real advantage right now, if the role is framed around the opportunity rather than a checklist. If this is your first hire after a period of change, our guide to making your first post-restructure hire work is a useful companion read.

What this means for your 2027 headcount plan

• Add a line for AI-platform media, even if it's half a role. Budgets are being set now, and adding it in February usually means waiting until 2028.
• Brief around skills: feeds, measurement, signal design and conversational copy.
• Look at adjacent talent pools: retail media, marketplace ads, app growth and CTV measurement.
• Give your test an owner. A small budget with a clear owner will teach you more than a big one nobody has time for.

AI ads in Southeast Asia: quick answers

Are ChatGPT ads available in the Philippines and Singapore?
Yes. ChatGPT ads launched on 23 September 2026 in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan. Advertisers can buy through self-serve tools or managed partners.

Do I need to hire a dedicated AI ads specialist?
Not yet, for most teams. Start by upskilling a strong paid search or marketplace specialist and running a focused test. Hire a dedicated role once the results justify it.

What background is best for running AI ads?
Feed-based or marketplace advertising experience combined with solid measurement skills. Performance marketers who have worked well with automated campaign types also adapt quickly.

How long does it take a performance marketer to get up to speed on AI ads?
An experienced performance marketer with the right foundations can usually be running confident tests within a quarter.

Which team should own AI ads?
Wherever your strongest feed and measurement skills sit. For product-led businesses, that's often ecommerce or marketplace. For others, it's usually paid search.

New channels reward the teams that move early and hire smart. You don't need to find a unicorn. You may just need to look at the people you already know a little differently.

Sources

• OpenAI, ChatGPT Ads expands to Southeast Asia and Taiwan, September 2026
• TechCrunch, OpenAI launches visual ads that appear alongside image generation results, October 2026
• Search Engine Land, The new PPC skill set: From keyword manager to system optimizer, 2026

If you're sitting with any of these questions right now:

→ How can I streamline my processes and cost base across recruitment?
→ How can I motivate my current and future team in 2027?
→ How should my team be structured across markets and offshore hubs?

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