Adsense For The AI Era: How Ads Are Being Completely Reinvented - Mike Choi

About this episode

**AdSense for AI Is Here | Mike Choi (Co-founder, Koa) on Building the Monetization Layer for the LLM Era**Mike Choi has had one of the more unusual paths to founding an infrastructure company. Korean exchange student in Kansas. iPod jailbreaker. Apple, then Twitter under Elon. Now he's the co-founder of [Koa](https://koalabs.com/), the company everyone's calling "AdSense for AI" — the monetization layer for AI applications. Koa just raised over $20M from Theory Ventures, is already processing **170M+ queries**, and is seeing **5%+ click-through rates** — four to five times what you see in traditional display.In this episode, Mike joins Anthony Enrico to talk about why AI ads are fundamentally different from search and social, why the "user asks for shoes → show shoe ad" thesis turned out to be wrong, and what it actually takes to build the advertising stack for a new computing paradigm.We get into:* Why every major paradigm shift — radio, TV, web, social — has reinvented advertising, and why AI is the next one* What "dynamic ads" actually means: not just generated copy, but generated UI tailored to each user* The banner ad problem: ad blindness, cheapening apps, and why developers hate the old playbook* The naive hypothesis that didn't work — and the consumer psychology gap Koa is still crossing* Why the explosion of vibe-coded apps creates a massive new monetization market (and why inference costs make Koa essential)* What high-consideration products (taxes, student loans, credit cards) reveal about where AI ads actually convert today* Why CTR is the wrong metric — and what Koa optimizes for instead* The "sacred real estate" principle: treating publisher apps with the same craft as the apps themselves* Why the old PM and engineering playbooks are already obsolete in the AI era* The coffee table book Mike's reading for ad inspiration (and why ads used to be art)**Chapters**00:00 — Intro: from Tucson to Kansas to AdSense for AI01:36 — Mike's origin story: jailbroken iPods, Apple, and the path to Koa06:02 — Every paradigm shift reinvents advertising06:46 — The marketing holy grail: an ad tailored just for you08:23 — Static ad vs. Koa: what dynamic personalization actually looks like10:41 — The vibe-coding app explosion and the monetization gap13:42 — Will AI ads create the same noise problem as outbound?16:16 — Will the 5% CTR hold — or commoditize?18:47 — The hardest part of getting Koa off the ground20:45 — The consumer psychology gap nobody's solved yet22:14 — The inflection point that signaled it was time24:24 — Why taxes, student loans, and credit cards convert best25:38 — What's next: dynamic UI and ads as art27:51 — Where Mike goes for inspiration (and the coffee table book he loves)31:46 — Closing thoughts and where to follow**About the guest**Mike Choi is the co-founder of [Koa](https://koalabs.com/), the monetization layer for AI applications — "AdSense for AI." Koa recently raised $20M+ from Theory Ventures and is processing over 170M queries with 5%+ click-through rates. Before Koa, Mike worked at Apple and Twitter (under Elon). Connect with Mike on X/Twitter at @guard_if (the Swift programmers will get it).**About the LeanScale Podcast**The LeanScale Podcast features candid conversations with go-to-market leaders building, scaling, and rethinking revenue operations in the AI era. Hosted by Anthony Enrico, co-founder of [LeanScale](https://www.leanscale.team/).Subscribe for more conversations with operators building the next generation of go-to-market.#AIads #AdTech #AISaaS #Koa #StartupFounders #AIMonetization #LLMs #FutureOfAdvertising