LAS VEGAS – Adam Singolda sees consumer behavior shifting faster than most media companies expected. Large language models such as ChatGPT are becoming a daily interface for information, he said, but the experience remains uneven across platforms. Some LLMs are ad free, others are ad-supported, while the open web sits largely outside those walled gardens.
Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at CES 2026, the Taboola founder and chief executive said this gap led to the launch of Deeper Dive, a product designed to bring LLM-style interaction directly onto publisher sites. Singolda compared the moment to the rise of site search after Google’s early growth, when users began to expect search functionality everywhere they went.
He said LLMs will become a default way people engage with journalism, from local news to national brands they trust. Deeper Dive aims to give publishers a free AI interface that supports relevant advertising tied to user queries, creating a new revenue stream at a time when traditional search traffic is expected to decline.
Singolda said the impact of that decline will be uneven. Large publishers with strong direct traffic may weather it better, while smaller sites face more risk. His view is that consumers will still want AI-style answers inside the sites they already visit, and publishers need a way to offer that experience on their own terms.
Turning CTV into a performance channel
Beyond publishing, Singolda said CES conversations were dominated by a single demand from marketers: proof of outcomes from day one. The era of spending at the top of the funnel and hoping for results is fading, he argued.
Taboola is pushing into connected TV with that mindset. The company recently launched a performance-focused CTV offering with Paramount that links TV ads to mid and lower funnel outcomes across the open web. An advertiser might run a TV spot and later reach the same viewer, or similar audiences, with relevant ads across publisher sites, driving measurable conversions.
Singolda said the approach mirrors what advertisers expect from platforms like Google and Meta, but now applied to television. He also pointed to a global integration with LG announced in late 2025, calling it Taboola’s first large-scale TV partnership across hundreds of millions of devices.
Open web’s ‘authenticity graph’
When asked why established publishers remain valuable to advertisers, Singolda described what he calls the open web’s authenticity graph. Search captures consumers at the moment of decision, which is powerful but expensive. Social platforms reflect aspirational identitiess or identity-driven signals that may not match real intent.
Publisher environments, he said, capture something different. They reveal what people are genuinely curious about when researching healthcare, travel, cars or major purchases. Time spent reading articles reflects real consideration, not just interest or impulse.
That mid funnel moment, Singolda argued, is where advertisers can help consumers move toward decisions that matter. In an AI-saturated world, he suggested human-written journalism may become more valuable, not less, likening it to organic food as automation spreads.
Licensing deals aren’t a long-term answer
On the question of content licensing and lawsuits against generative AI firms, Singolda was blunt. He does not see licensing payments as a sustainable business model for most publishers. Large AI platforms are too powerful to fund the open web in any meaningful way, he said, and smaller players lack the scale to make revenue sharing matter.
His advice to publishers was to focus less on legal battles and more on owning the user experience. That means embracing AI, experimenting with LLM interfaces and finding ways to monetize engagement directly on their own properties.
Singolda closed with a call for risk taking. Publishers, he said, should not wait for AI companies to solve their problems. The opportunity lies in building new experiences that keep audiences engaged and generate revenue within the open web itself.
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