Self-service

Self-service is like using an ATM instead of talking to a bank teller — instead of going through a company representative, you handle everything yourself just by using the screen. Take advertising as an example: normally you'd have to consult a sales rep or work through an agency to build a campaign. But once self-service opens up, an advertiser can just log in, set a budget, write the ad copy, and turn the campaign on directly.

This matters because it lowers the barrier to entry. Services that require a dedicated staff member tend to only be accessible to large companies, but once self-service tools exist, small shops and individual business owners can use the same services. As a result, the number of users and the overall scale of revenue often grow together.

In the article, OpenAI is described as opening up "self-service access that lets advertisers build campaigns directly inside ChatGPT without going through an agency" in India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Here, self-service isn't the name of a specific technology — it refers to a way of using the product where things get done directly on-screen, without a human intermediary.