Artificial Intelligence

Adobe acquires SEO tech business Semrush; brands want to know what AI search engines think of them; and the LGBTQ community is an under-targeted audience.

When it comes to complex techniques like media mix modeling, the field is awash with false promises about the benefits that AI can offer.

There’s no magic bullet for AI search optimization; how kids’ media monetizes outside of YouTube; and hey, whatever happened to the TikTok ban?

With its latest funding, Agentio plans to expand its team and to establish creator marketing as part of every advertiser’s media plan.

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

Google on Wednesday announced the full availability of its new agentic AI tools, called Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor.

AI tools are – for better or worse – infiltrating every step of the advertising journey, from creative and planning to execution and measurement. At the same time, some consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical as they question the authenticity and human touch of the content they encounter. “There is a lot of negative backlash against AI-generated content […]

Jeff Cohen, Skai’s new chief business development officer, unpacks why the smartest retailers and brands are already connecting the data dots and rethinking their playbooks for the AI era, even though the shopping bots aren’t quite there yet.

The real challenge is drawing a clear line between the AI-generated content that adds value and the kind that erodes trust and leads to significantly lower ad effectiveness.

AI is bringing accountability to ad tech’s murky middle, helping brands like EssilorLuxottica cut out bots, bad bids and wasted spend before a single impression runs.

Dentsu is for sale; Associated Press is scraping its own archives; and AI is infiltrating newsrooms.

Traffic-starved publishers are hopeful that their long-undervalued audience data will fuel advertising’s automated future – if only they can finally wrest control of the industry narrative away from ad tech middlemen.

Meta is profiting from fraudulent ads; LLMs are taking advantage of SaaS pricing policies; and agencies aren’t going under… yet.

The Trade Desk is going after Amazon; Facebook creators are going after Meta; and everybody’s going after Warner Bros. Discovery.

Artificial intelligence has become marketing’s favorite headline. Every platform, publisher and technology partner now promises “AI-powered” solutions that will make campaigns smarter, faster and cheaper.

Meta’s Q3 earnings saw increased growth in its ad business and continued the conversation on superintelligence.

Tony Stubblebine became CEO of Medium in 2022 and turned the struggling, loss-making platform profitable by cutting costs, improving content quality and refusing to rely on advertising.

My Marketing Pro has set out to automate the entire marketing process, from brainstorm to launch, via conversations with an agent.

Procter & Gamble is spending less on ads; OpenAI is spending more on ads; and guess which side of the scale Mondelez is falling on?

Marketing often gets unfairly pegged as a cost center. But that wouldn’t happen if marketers had access to better measurement that gave them clarity on what truly drives business growth, argues Henry Innis, CEO and co-founder of MMM platform Mutinex.

Wouldn’t it be great to enact standards rather than talk about them?; Amazon wants to go fully automated; and revenue doesn’t seem to drop like search traffic does.

As the pendulum swings hard toward 1:1 personalization, a critical question emerges: Just because we can personalize every interaction, does it mean we should?

Walmart’s AI shopping deal with ChatGPT might ding its retail media biz; the MRC shares updates on which platforms won and lost accreditation; and kids’ sports streaming is becoming a real media channel.

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

Cloudflare restricts how bots can scrape content; TiVo’s customer base stays loyal, even as TiVo leaves the DVR business; and Nestlé announces a stark reduction in headcount.

As AI sweeps the tech landscape, new startups continue to emerge. Here are seven former ad tech execs’ thoughts on best AI practices and starting their own companies.

Anne Coghlan, co-founder and COO of Scope3, on why cutting carbon in ad tech isn’t just about saving the planet; it’s about eliminating inefficiency and financial waste at the same time. Plus: Using AI to automate and optimize digital media buying at the impression level.

Apple TV is losing its plus; Agentic AI is ruining the ad tech equilibrium; and Google insists that search is still solid.

Advertisers are still having a lot of the same brand-safety problems today as he did years ago – and it’s pretty damned frustrating.

The fate of the open web will be decided on who controls the data that drives monetization and the AI that determines distribution. Google controls both, and proposed remedies to its ad tech monopoly do not address this imbalance.