Artificial Intelligence

Content aggregators are winning while actual journalism suffers; users say they hate Meta bringing ads to WhatsApp, but Meta’s research says otherwise.

Economic uncertainty provides the perfect scenario for demonstrating marketing’s essential role in driving growth, resilience and adaptability. Here are actionable strategies CMOs can take to thrive amid market volatility.

YouTube finds new ways to crack down in ad-blockers; the Better Business Bureau takes swipes at AI marketing; and Gen Z only trusts digital-native brands.

If journalists don’t decide the best use of AI in journalism, then AI firms will decide for them, says Christian Broughton, CEO of The Independent,

The past two decades have left publishers struggling to effectively compete with “easy buttons” from tech giants and UGC behemoths. The ad tech industry must proactively support publishers with solutions tailored to their needs.

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

Meta changes up its strategy for tackling improper AI advertising; ICE is proving bad for business; and agencies are worried about their jobs.

On Thursday, French AI start-up Olyzon (pronounced “all eyes on” – more on that in a bit) announced $5 million in additional seed funding led by US-based venture capital firm Cassius Capital.

Open Intelligence is WPP’s Media’s new solution to help advertisers make sense of their data and use it in more ways, with a longer-term goal of decentralizing data.

Marketing Cloud Next is designed to automate manual tasks and bring enhanced personalization to customers’ communications with brands through the use of agentic AI.

AGI is Meta’s latest pipe dream; the Nerds Gummy Clusters blueprint for ROAS; and how the gen AI vibe shift could pave the way for “vibe targeting.”

Expect to see more AI-generated ads on the Amazon website going forward. On Tuesday, Amazon announced the US release of its AI-powered video generator tool after nine months of beta testing. It also rolled out an updated version of the image generator first announced in 2023.

For proof of the uncertainty facing marketers in 2025, look no further than the industry’s ping-ponging projections for ad spending. WPP Media’s revised forecast is just the most recent example.

Kepler’s new tool, Kip AIR, was created in response to the rise of AI shoppers. Now, brands need to tailor their marketing not just to humans but to AI.

Sigma, MiQ’s new AI-powered ad platform, gives advertisers better analytics and attempts to unify the fragmented data landscape.

Meta updated its ad platform Wednesday with AI-based buying improvements. Is the company on track to be fully automated with AI by the end of next year?

IAB Tech Lab to highlight the industry’s favorite CTV ad formats; how agentic AI could transform ad agency practices; and the Trump tariffs trigger an uptick in false “Made in America” claims.

Meta introduced a set of new features Wednesday that gives advertisers more granular metrics for how they value traffic and ad campaign conversions .

Classify is entering a crowded space of AI-powered contextual curation offerings. But the company is already teasing some high-profile integrations thanks to its network of well-connected advisors.

Angelina Eng, a 30-year industry veteran who serves as the IAB’s vice president of measurement, addressability and data center, has been swimming in the ocean of digital advertising from the very beginning.

Programmatic promised clarity: automation, efficiency and measurable outcomes. What we got instead is complexity dressed up as optimization: a stack of acronyms performing trust theater.

Michael Komasinski, Criteo’s newly-minted CEO, shares his vision for the company – and swears that Criteo doesn’t regret its huge investment in testing the Chrome Privacy Sandbox.

As AI agents begin to mediate everything from search to purchase, marketers are being forced to confront the reality that they must treat machines as customers.

YouTube is winning the CTV race by not just focusing on TV; ads threaten the gen AI user experience; and sports still brings brands incremental reach.

Sports sponsorships can play well for small brands; Perplexity was first to AI search ads, but advertisers waited for Google; and GroupM officially rebrands to WPP Media.

Viant is on an M&A tear, with two acquisitions – IRIS.TV followed by lockr – in less than six months. Although the rationale behind these deals might be obvious to ad tech insiders, Wall Street investors speak a different language, one that Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook has become fluent in as the leader of a publicly traded company.

Magnite’s SpringServe deal illustrates why SSPs need a video ad server; Google grapples with AI search’s impact on publisher traffic; and Anthropic’s AI assistant is a law enforcement snitch.

Although furniture brand James & James was hitting its own aggressive revenue targets while primarily spending on search and social ads – the facts told a different story.

CTV ad platform MNTN has gone public; last week, the FTC dismissed a lawsuit brought against PepsiCo; the new US budget bill might ban state regulation of AI.

Recorded live on the Programmatic IO stage in Las Vegas, the editorial team recaps the trends that dominated our conference: marketers adopting AI and finding truth through measurement.