Taboola has launched the DeeperDive chatbot on USA Today and The Independent to maximize the AI-driven content engagement and advertising.

Taboola recently announced the release of its new AI-based chatbot, DeeperDive, currently in beta testing on USA Today and The Independent, which Taboola plans to use to take reader engagement to the next level using AI-based question-and-answer conversations. The chatbot answers the reader's questions with the content of trusted sources of journalism and promotes related articles and advertisements.

On the Taboola site, there is a demonstration of DeeperDive on the USA Today home page, which suggests AI-recommended prompts and links straight to articles. The chatbot displays contextually targeted advertisements along with responding to questions, thus making monetization a part of the user experience. Users can interact by highlighting text in the article to create subsequent questions for the chatbot.

Taboola is keen to point out that DeeperDive is more than a chatbot; it is a publisher tool to provide intelligent summaries and ad placements in an interactive and AI-enhanced experience. The chatbot will be visible to only 1% of USA Today readers for quality testing.

The step will see Taboola venturing into the expanding AI chatbot sector as news companies keep testing automation in news distribution. USA Today has already experimented with AI-written content, but not all of its efforts have been met well, such as automated sports reporting.

Taboola is joining the DeepDive chatbot trend, aiming to strike a balance between reader value and new revenue streams within mainstream media.