“With a lot of brands, their mission is endemic to the fortune. When you connect the two emotions, there’s a harmonious relationship between the brand message and the fortune,” Williams said.

However, OpenFortune also rejects about 60% of brand approaches, according to Porat. Some—such as a QSR chain—would not be a good fit for a placement in a rival Asian restaurant, he explained. 

Breaking open the cookie

Beyond their big ambition of diverting Super Bowl ad budgets, OpenFortune’s leaders are also changing the fortune cookie itself. They have recently started using AI chatbot ChatGPT to write many fortunes, which has “opened doors,” said Porat. 

AI presents an opportunity to add variety to fortune cookie messages, he explained: “Fortunes went from being about your future to just statements–probably 85% of them are statements and 15% are actual fortunes. We’re flipping that, with 80% that are true fortunes about what’s going to happen in your future.” 

ChatGPT will play a “significant role” within the company going forward, though Porat added: “It’s not taking over. It’s amplifying and making the experience better. We still need to guide it … Now we can generate so many fortunes about your actual future, which will make people excited.”

This will also improve consumers’ engagement with the brands that choose to advertise in cookies, he added. 

Over the next few months, OpenFortune also plans to unveil “the first change to the fortune cookie experience in a century,” said Porat, who would only reveal that the innovation has been in development for two years. 

As if he just cracked open a cookie himself, he is buoyant about the potential for both brands and customers. “We have the keys to people being optimistic about the future,” he said.