Artificial Intelligence

Morgan Stanley downgrades The Trade Desk; Warner Bros. Discovery and Nielsen announce a new deal; and brands aren’t sold on virtual influencers.

Meta is rolling out Reels trending ads, value rules beyond just conversions, upgrades to Threads and pixel-free landing page optimization.

Incubeta announced its acquisition of RocketSource, a consultancy that helps advertisers understand what drives customer behavior using data science and predictive analytics.

Comscore’s new AI-based initiative allows data providers to convert ID-based datasets into ID-free audience segments, helping advertisers target audiences with improved accuracy and privacy.

We spoke to a score of ad tech leaders to uncover seven competencies essential for the success of the next generation of ad tech leadership.

Google’s search antitrust trial ends with a whimper; the pitfalls of agency-owned SSPs; Perplexity axes its ads business; and brands are still building big-ticket metaverse experiences.

Pause ads are going programmatic, as connected TV ad buying becomes more automated. Plus: how publishers are proposing to be compensated by AI companies – and the odds that they’ll receive what they are asking for.

TTD turns its back on SSPs; scientists are finding a home on Bluesky; and a hacker used Anthropic’s Claude to plan a cybercriminal operation.

Straddling the line between content creator and content-conscious mother offers a fresh perspective on the importance of media literacy and advertisers’ role in the online ecosystem. 

In an era marked by generative AI, algorithmic optimization and an obsession with outcomes, cloud infrastructure has become a competitive differentiator.

Former Meta employee files a complaint regarding the company’s illegal business practices; virtual AI salespeople are hosting 24/7 livestreams; and Google SPN advertisers will now receive a list of URLs where their ads appeared.

IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur didn’t mince his words when declaring unauthorized generative AI scraping of publisher content “theft, full stop.”

Bluefish helps advertisers track and optimize how they show up in an LLM’s search results. Its latest funding will expand its team and product suite.

Web publishers are seeing revenue and traffic evaporate thanks to AI searches; LG Ads is finally preparing to go public; and women’s dating safety app Tea has some shady marketing practices.

Wondercraft’s new tool generates and revises audio content via natural language prompting, without the need for advanced technical skills.

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Walmart Connect’s deal with The Trade Desk isn’t so exclusive anymore; Amazon is competing with everyone except publishers; and Meta’s chatbots don’t exactly inspire confidence in the company’s ability to deliver effective AI tools.

Human-made content will remain the most important source of information for consumers online. And our appreciation for human expression will only grow as we experience derivative outputs created by AI models.

Paul Longo, GM of AI in ads at Microsoft Advertising, breaks down what it means to bring ads into conversational experiences and how AI-powered tools are changing the way advertisers work. Plus: Microsoft may be shutting down the Xandr DSP next year, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft is getting out of the ad tech game.

Almost a decade ago, running multiple retargeters across the same user base was a recipe for inefficiency. But the landscape shifted, and the data makes that clear.

People Inc. – the former Dotdash Meredith – is fighting on multiple fronts to keep its business growing as Google Search declines precipitously as a source of referral traffic.

Google’s former SSP practices are the legal gift that keeps giving; Perplexity has been disregarding robots.txt files; and ads prop up a large chunk of the US economy.

Coinbase is getting into ads; Etsy can’t rely on search ads for very long; and Zuckerberg wants to buy AI companies.

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Meta is making a massive investment in AI because “we have a conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do,” Mark Zuckerberg told investors.

DSPs are building tools to bypass SSPs, and SSPs are trying to cut out the buy side. But the real question in the noise is whether the technology improves effectiveness, says Kara Puccinelli, chief customer officer at Nexxen, which just so happens to describe itself as an end-to-end platform.

FC Barcelona is giving the beautiful game an AI-powered upgrade.

Reddit is surging with advertiser demand; not everyone is Substack material; and Trump released his AI Action Plan.

Ad agency hold cos have broadcasted their earnings. As AI and acquisitions transform their businesses, there are clear winners and losers. With media as a strong spot, we discuss the paradox of “transparent nontransparency.”

Carat is using “people-powered” AI to build agents that understand how to best reach specific audience personas.