"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

In-AI Advertising: Better Answers for Users, Big Questions for Society, with ZeroClick's Ryan Hudson

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Sep 3, 2025

Ryan Hudson, Founder and CEO of ZeroClick and former founder of Honey, dives into the world of AI-driven advertising. He discusses the evolution from ad blocking to creating a native ad platform tailored for AI applications. Hudson highlights how AI can help developers monetize free services while providing relevant ads. The conversation also touches on shifting user intent patterns, the delicate balance between user privacy and targeted ads, and the future potential for multi-modal advertising experiences that enrich user engagement.

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INSIGHT

Paid Inference Improves AI Answers

ZeroClick builds a native ad system that offers paid inference-time consideration of advertiser content to fund free AI tiers.
Ryan argues adding paid, contextual results can improve AI answers and sustain a diverse AI developer ecosystem.

ANECDOTE

From Pi AdBlock To ZeroClick

ZeroClick's team previously built Pi AdBlock and a contextual ad system for browsers before pivoting to AI advertising.
That prior work shaped their privacy-forward, in-browser matching approach for AI contexts.

INSIGHT

AI Can Rebuild Publisher Economics

AI monetization can re-create an economic engine for publishers by attributing value to content considered by models.
Ryan sees ad revenue plus subscriptions as a realistic, evolving funding mix for publishers and AI developers.

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Today Ryan Hudson, Founder and CEO of ZeroClick, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss creating advertising infrastructure for AI applications through paid inference-time consideration of advertiser content, examining how to build sustainable monetization for free-tier AI services while learning from the successes and failures of social media's attention economy.

Read the full transcript: ⁠https://storage.aipodcast.ing/transcripts/episode/tcr/00919313-9054-4afb-b08e-2ca84dbdbdda/combined_transcript.html

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ZeroClick's Evolution: Originally creators of Pi Ad Block, they've pivoted from ad blocking to building a native advertising system for AI platforms.
AI Ad Platform Mechanics: Their system matches user queries with relevant advertising information in a contextual way, enabling paid inference time consideration of advertiser content.
Developer Monetization: The platform helps AI developers monetize their free tiers while creating value for both users and advertisers.
Shifting Intent Patterns: User queries in AI systems tend to be more exploratory and "upstream" in the funnel compared to direct search queries on Google.
Multi-modal Potential: While ZeroClick is starting with text, there's future potential for visual advertising that could enhance AI experiences by showing real purchasable products.
Market Void: There's currently a significant gap in the market for AI advertising solutions that ZeroClick is attempting to fill.

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