Snapchat's new AI ads slide into your DMs as branded chatbots
Snapchat has launched a new ad format that puts branded AI chatbots directly inside your messages. Called AI Sponsored Snaps, the feature lets companies deploy conversational agents in the Chat tab — and Experian is the first brand live in the alpha, offering advice on credit scores, savings, loans, and credit cards. For anyone who uses Snapchat regularly, this means sponsored bots could soon appear alongside messages from your friends.
The format
AI Sponsored Snaps look like regular chat threads but carry a small "Ad" label. Open one, and you're talking to a brand's AI agent rather than a person. Experian's bot, for instance, walks users through money management questions and nudges them toward financial products. Snap describes it as "conversational advertising" — the AI doesn't just display an ad, it holds a dialogue and steers users toward purchases.
The pitch to advertisers is backed by early data. According to the Snap newsroom, the existing Sponsored Snaps format already delivers 22% more conversions at 20% lower cost per action. Snap also reports that more than 950 billion chats were sent on the platform in Q1 2026, and over 500 million users have messaged its My AI chatbot since it launched in 2023.
Snapchat's AI Sponsored Snaps place branded chatbot agents directly in the Chat tab, marked with a small 'Ad' label.
The catch
Experian's involvement puts this squarely in sensitive territory. A chatbot recommending specific loans or credit cards to teenagers raises obvious questions — and Snapchat's AI history doesn't help. The FTC referred My AI to the Department of Justice in January 2025 over child safety concerns, following reports that the chatbot gave unsafe guidance to minors in 2023. A compliance order tied to an earlier Snap settlement runs through 2034, per Maginative's FTC coverage.
The "Ad" disclosure label is also thin. UK regulators have already questioned Snap's risk assessments around minors, and the ASA's rules on AI-generated advertising are still catching up. Whether a light-gray "Ad" tag satisfies those standards for a bot selling financial products is an open question.
What's next
No wider US or UK rollout date has been announced. The alpha is limited to Experian, and Snap hasn't disclosed what compliance guardrails the financial advice bot operates under. Rival general-purpose chatbots like Gemini or Claude already answer money questions without a sales agenda — which means Snap will need to convince users these branded agents offer something extra, not just a commercial angle on help they can get elsewhere.
