Agents, Not Ads.

Agentic AI intelligence for advertising executives

57 stories · Updated throughout the day

Dollar Shave Club’s bet: AI makes agencies optional, not obsolete

Dollar Shave Club is shifting 90% of its advertising production in-house and using AI to automate the remaining 10%, signaling how agentic AI is reshaping agency relationships and advertising workflows. The brand's strategy demonstrates how AI agents can handle routine advertising tasks, potentially reducing reliance on traditional agency services while raising questions about the future role of human creatives and strategists.

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How to build a Hermes Agent-style workflow

This article explores optimizing agentic AI workflows by reducing unnecessary data inputs while maintaining performance—a key consideration for advertising martech implementations. The approach could improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness of agentic AI systems used in ad tech for targeting, optimization, and campaign management.

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Fifty Launches AI Audience Interface for Brands

Fifty launched AudienceAI Assistant, an AI-powered interface that helps brands and agencies leverage proprietary audience data to optimize media and marketing decisions. The solution appears designed to enable more intelligent, faster decision-making in audience targeting and media planning through agentic AI capabilities.

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Wondering if Agentic Advertising Works for APAC? Take a Look at Indie Agencies

PubMatic's APAC advertising solutions leader examines how independent agencies in the Asia-Pacific region are adopting and leading implementation of agentic advertising solutions. The article provides insights into practical agentic AI deployment across the advertising ecosystem in a key growth market.

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Zeta’s Athena Turns Marketers From Cessna Pilots Into Stealth Bomber Crews

Zeta introduced Athena, an agentic AI platform designed to help marketers maximize underutilized marketing software by automating complex workflows and feature discovery. The platform positions agentic AI as a solution to the enterprise software adoption problem, enabling marketers to leverage fuller capabilities of their existing marketing tools.

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Experian & Alliance of Independent Agencies Launch Indie Intelligence Council

Experian and the Alliance of Independent Agencies have launched the Indie Intelligence Council, an invite-only community helping independent agencies navigate AI, data, identity, and martech. The initiative addresses how agencies can leverage these technologies to adapt to industry changes and improve operations.

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Agentic AI and the Evolution of Ad Sales

ADvendio's CTO explores how agentic AI is transforming ad sales and overcoming automation challenges in the complex ad tech ecosystem. The piece examines the evolution of AI adoption across advertising and its impact on automating traditionally manual ad sales processes.

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More AI agents won’t fix advertising

Clinch AI's CEO argues that simply deploying more AI agents won't solve advertising's core challenges around speed, efficiency, and performance. The piece cautions that in fragmented ad tech systems, additional autonomous agents can paradoxically create more noise rather than improve outcomes.

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Salesforce pushes agentic marketing from planning to pipeline

Salesforce has launched marketing agents capable of automating key functions including lead qualification, content creation, campaign execution, and cross-channel performance optimization. This represents a significant expansion of agentic AI applications across the marketing technology stack, from strategic planning through revenue pipeline management.

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AI agents can’t help if they can’t see your marketing data by Optmyzr

Optmyzr discusses how Model Context Protocol (MCP) enables AI agents to access marketing data and move beyond analysis to take action on live ad accounts. The article highlights that while data access is critical for agentic AI, proper guardrails and platform controls are necessary to manage the operational and security risks of agents directly interfacing with active advertising accounts.

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Thrad Launches Four Native Ad Formats for LLM & AI Conversation Environments

Thrad has launched four native ad formats specifically designed for LLM and AI conversation environments, moving away from retrofitted display formats. This represents a significant infrastructure play for agentic AI advertising, enabling brands to reach consumers within AI-powered conversational interfaces rather than traditional web properties.

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Inside the messy middle of January Digital agency’s AI adoption

January Digital's CEO discusses the tension between AI's promised efficiency gains and messy real-world implementation in agency operations, questioning whether AI actually accelerates work, scales creative output, and reduces costs. The article explores how digital agencies are grappling with practical AI adoption challenges amid industry-wide debate over ROI and effectiveness.

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How automation and AI is reshaping the traditional upfront marketplace

The traditional TV upfront marketplace is being transformed by programmatic automation and AI agents, requiring media buyers to adapt their strategies. The shift represents a fundamental change in how buyers and sellers negotiate and transact for premium inventory.

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StatSocial’s New AI Tool Digital Twins Is Helping Shepherd To Pressure-Test Audience Insights

StatSocial has launched Digital Twins, an AI tool that creates synthetic audiences for pressure-testing and validating consumer insights without traditional recruitment costs. The tool helps agencies like Shepherd rapidly model niche audience segments for clients, addressing the challenge of researching hard-to-reach consumer groups.

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Advertising Doesn’t Need More Tools – It Needs Better Workflows

Independent agencies face pressure to match holding company capabilities across omnichannel campaigns, audience intelligence, and measurement. The article argues the solution lies in optimizing workflows rather than adding more tools, suggesting agentic AI could streamline agency operations and enable smaller firms to compete effectively.

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Ogury startet SONA für agentische Zielgruppenplanung und -aktivierung

Ogury has launched SONA, an agentic AI solution designed to bridge the gap between audience planning and activation in digital media buying. The platform uses agent-based technology to improve targeting and audience activation strategies throughout the media planning process.

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Crossmedia’s AI Is Built to Free Planners From Excel Hell

Crossmedia is deploying AI to automate manual media planning and buying processes that currently rely on disconnected spreadsheets, aiming to create an integrated ecosystem that reduces grunt work for planners and buyers. The solution directly addresses legacy workflow inefficiencies across the media planning function.

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Beet@20: Doug Rozen of Cadent Warns AI Won’t Replace You, but AI Experts Might

Doug Rozen of Cadent discusses AI's impact on advertising, warning that while AI won't replace professionals, AI experts will become critical hires. The commentary touches on ad frequency optimization and streaming ad effectiveness, key areas where agentic AI is reshaping how advertisers manage campaigns and audience exposure.

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The AI paradox: Marketers trust AI to buy media, not build brands

Marketers show a trust paradox with AI, readily adopting agentic tools for media buying and campaign optimization while remaining skeptical of AI-generated creative and brand-building strategies. The article explores how advertising executives are leveraging automated decision-making for programmatic functions but hesitating to rely on AI for strategic creative work.

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Omnicom’s ‘fewer middlemen’ push is reaching publishers – just not their P&Ls

Omnicom is implementing a "fewer middlemen" strategy that is changing how its agencies interact with publishers, potentially streamlining the ad buying process and reducing intermediaries in the supply chain. This operational restructuring could have implications for how programmatic and direct deals are negotiated, though financial impacts on publisher P&Ls remain unclear.

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Future of Marketing Briefing: OpenAI is working with Skai to bring retail and commerce advertisers into ChatGPT

OpenAI is partnering with Skai to enable retail and commerce advertisers to access ChatGPT inventory through existing advertising infrastructure. This integration allows advertisers to leverage agentic AI capabilities within ChatGPT while maintaining familiar ad tech workflows, similar to OpenAI's previous Criteo partnership.

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AI agents are exposing martech’s weak point

A new API report card reveals significant integration gaps in martech platforms that are becoming apparent as marketers increasingly deploy AI agents for automation and workflows. The findings highlight critical weaknesses in how martech systems connect and interoperate, which directly impact the ability to build effective agentic AI solutions across marketing stacks.

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Kargo Announces Integration with ChatGPT Advertising (ANZ)

Kargo, an ad tech platform, announced an integration with ChatGPT Advertising, positioning itself as a technology partner in OpenAI's commercial ecosystem. This integration enables agentic AI capabilities for creative optimization and ad orchestration across premium digital surfaces, combining AI-driven creative and contextual intelligence with programmatic advertising infrastructure.

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Google Enters The Ecommerce Wars; Big Brother Is Listening (Maybe)

Google is positioning itself in ecommerce using agentic AI capabilities, while Cox Media Group settles allegations over misrepresenting an AI-powered ad product. The article explores how agentic AI is reshaping ecommerce strategy and highlights regulatory scrutiny around AI ad tech claims.

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Ad Tech Briefing: Agencies reposition for the agentic era

Advertising agencies are restructuring their operations and technology stacks to prepare for agentic AI adoption, with key debates emerging around infrastructure choices, system interoperability, and who controls autonomous agent workflows. The article explores how agencies are positioning themselves to leverage agentic AI while managing vendor relationships and operational governance.

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Thrad & Cursor Host First Ad Tech Hackathon on Agentic Commerce Infrastructure

Thrad and Cursor are hosting a hackathon focused on building infrastructure for agentic commerce, with over 150 developers and founders developing solutions for AI agents to handle commercial workflows including media buying and negotiations. This event directly addresses the technical foundations needed for autonomous agents to operate within advertising and commerce ecosystems.

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Autonomous Ad Buying Just Ain’t Ready Yet; A CMO By Any Other Name

WPP Media's Emily Lai discusses the limitations of autonomous AI-powered ad buying, noting that 80-90% of campaigns are too complex for AI to handle independently. The article explores the current state of agentic AI in programmatic advertising and where human oversight remains necessary.

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Agencies are moving closer to supply, and it’s reshaping the programmatic middle layer

Holding company agencies are adopting containerization to gain greater control over programmatic infrastructure, moving closer to supply-side operations and reshaping the traditional middle layer of the ad tech stack. This structural shift reflects agencies' strategic move to consolidate capabilities and reduce dependence on third-party platforms in programmatic buying and selling.

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The Upfronts: Day 3

Coverage of the 2026 Upfronts' final day, highlighting NFL rights deals, AI ad-tech pitches, and industry consolidation shaping the competitive landscape. The article captures key announcements and strategic positioning from major players during the annual upfront marketplace event.

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Your campaigns span 12 channels. Why does it feel like 12 jobs? by AdPlus

AdPlus examines the operational complexity of managing campaigns across multiple channels and how fragmented tools impact performance marketers. The article addresses pain points in cross-channel ad operations that agentic AI solutions could potentially streamline and optimize.

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The latest AI-powered martech news and releases

Pacvue is developing AI assistants that integrate live retail media data directly into chat interfaces, replacing manual spreadsheet processes and breaking down data silos. This agentic AI application streamlines retail media workflows and data accessibility for advertisers and agencies managing campaigns across retail platforms.

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Why Is Ad Intelligence Still Built For A Pre-AI World?

The advertising industry has abundant data on competitor spend and campaign performance but lacks the AI-driven tools needed to translate that data into better decision-making. The article argues that ad intelligence platforms must evolve beyond pre-AI architectures to leverage agentic AI for competitive analysis and strategic optimization.

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Can retail media networks survive the shift to agentic commerce?

The article examines how agentic AI shopping agents are disrupting traditional retail media networks and questions whether RMNs can adapt to an agentic commerce environment. It explores the strategic implications of autonomous AI agents handling purchasing decisions and their impact on how brands can reach and influence consumers through retail channels.

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These AI Agents Want To Handle All The Annoying Parts Of Media Buying

AI agents are being deployed to automate the manual, time-consuming aspects of programmatic media buying operations, including data management, report reconciliation, QA checks, and client communication. These tools aim to handle repetitive backend tasks that remain largely manual despite advances in automated bidding technology.

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Richer contextual signals in the bidstream help agencies and publishers alike

Seedtag discusses how enhanced contextual signals in the programmatic bidstream are improving decision-making for both agencies and publishers. The article examines how combining identity-based and contextual data creates better targeting and buying outcomes in programmatic environments.

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Channel Factory’s Nico Greco: Brand Safety Rules were ‘Designed for Human Authors,’ not AI-Generated Content

Channel Factory's CRO argues that traditional brand safety tools and guidelines were built for human-created content and are inadequate for the volume and sophistication of AI-generated material flooding digital environments. The article highlights a critical gap in brand safety infrastructure that advertising platforms and agencies must address as agentic AI content creation scales.

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Inside The Trade Desk’s Claude-powered campaign agent

The Trade Desk is leveraging Anthropic's Claude LLM to power a campaign agent that automates campaign building and optimization. This represents a direct application of agentic AI to programmatic advertising operations, with potential implications for DSP functionality and campaign management workflows.

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Publicis Buys LiveRamp in $2.5 Billion Push Into AI-Driven Advertising

Publicis Groupe is acquiring LiveRamp for $2.5 billion to strengthen its capabilities in AI-driven advertising and data collaboration technology. The deal positions the agency holding company to leverage LiveRamp's identity resolution and data platforms to enhance agentic AI applications across campaign targeting, optimization, and marketing operations.

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CMOs Have To Be More Tech-Enabled Than Ever – And So Do Their Agencies

Advertising agencies are increasingly deploying AI-powered platforms to automate and optimize key functions including creative testing, audience targeting, and campaign planning. The article highlights how CMOs and their agencies must develop greater technical sophistication to leverage these AI tools effectively across the advertising ecosystem.

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Future of Marketing Briefing: The brands winning at AI started with process not tech

The article argues that successful brands implementing AI in marketing prioritize process optimization over technology adoption itself, positioning agentic AI as a distraction from foundational strategic work. It focuses on how marketing leaders should approach AI transformation by first establishing proper workflows and organizational structures before deploying AI agents.

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Marketers put up guardrails as AI agents reshape programmatic buying

Marketers are implementing governance frameworks and safety measures as AI agents increasingly automate programmatic buying decisions. The focus is on maintaining human oversight, transparency, and control over autonomous AI-driven bidding and targeting strategies.

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The art of doing more with less: The new marketing operations stack

This article discusses how marketing operations teams can optimize their technology stacks by moving from managing multiple disconnected tools to orchestrating integrated outcomes using AI. It addresses the practical challenge of 'AI spaghetti mess' that emerges when organizations adopt numerous AI tools without strategic coordination.

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Thrad Names Roger Dunn CCO as FMCG Brands Eye AI Conversation Advertising

Thrad, an AI-native advertising infrastructure platform, has appointed Roger Dunn as CCO to drive adoption among FMCG brands. Dunn brings experience from Diageo leading retail media and performance marketing, positioning Thrad to expand its agentic AI conversation advertising capabilities in the consumer goods sector.

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The state of agentic advertising

A State of the Industry Report examining agentic advertising adoption across publishers, advertisers, and agencies, covering investment levels, organizational readiness, implementation barriers, and business impact. The report positions agentic AI as the latest optimization approach transforming media buying and selling operations.

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TikTok launches MCP server to let AI agents run campaigns

TikTok has launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI agents to autonomously manage and run advertising campaigns on its platform. This development directly integrates agentic AI capabilities into TikTok's advertising infrastructure, allowing for automated campaign orchestration and optimization.

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Smartly’s Laura Desmond: Marketers Need ‘New Creative System’ for AI’s Volume Explosion

Smartly's Laura Desmond discusses how AI-driven creative production will dramatically increase content volume and velocity, requiring marketers to develop new management systems for handling thousands of creative variations. The piece addresses how agencies and martech platforms must adapt their workflows to manage AI-generated creative at scale for advertising campaigns.

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