Artificial Intelligence

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

AppLovin has Axon, and now Unity has Vector AI, which was made generally available to all Unity advertisers and developers on Wednesday.

DDM reported 1% Q1 revenue growth, citing traffic downturns Google’s AI search results and soft advertising demand due to tariff-induced uncertainty.

Why did Walmart buy Vizio? What happens when a CTV campaign turns on the S&P500+? Is Google losing its search engine edge?

Atlas Technology Group’s Brian Andersen shares insights on investment trends in the ad tech market and how AI is changing the M&A landscape.

Transparency has become the currency of credibility in advertising. Larger holding companies and black box AI platforms must recognize that their opaque practices are no longer sustainable.

FreeWheel thinks the best way to simplify streaming video is by fostering more direct connections between buyers and sellers.

AI is being embedded in tools, tagged in decks and tossed into internal sprints. But for agencies, publishers, brands and platforms, there’s still no shared definition of success.

Outcomes measurement company EDO is no stranger to large data sets. So I sat down with Kevin in March to learn how he thinks AI will continue to transform programmatic CTV advertising. 

Shopify checkout might be coming to ChatGPT; private equity builds a French ad tech stack; and how Meta turning off news in Canada is affecting news access ahead of this month’s election.

Earlier this year, Pinterest conducted reviews of five potential ad tech acquisitions. Plus, what do LLMs think is the best retail media tech for retailers, and why? 

Agencies around the globe weigh in on principal-based buying; live sports are king, but new sports like F1 are having trouble gaining traction; and Adobe gets roasted by Bluesky’s artist community.

AI isn’t something a marketer “does.” It’s not a singular action or task, and there is no AI easy button. And so AI researcher and consultant Cecilia Dones tries to “get underneath” the reasons behind why marketers want to integrate AI into their businesses.

Here are three areas that marketing technology professionals must handle successfully to get the most out of their AI applications.

Proof keeps piling up that gen AI makes marketing creatives lazy; Google stops serving ads to parked domains, prompting questions as to why those domains were ever monetized; and a resurgent David’s Bridal thinks it can reach profitability this year.

The creative on Snapchat has evolved a lot since those puking rainbow filters. On Tuesday, Snap released sponsored AI lenses, a new generative AI ad format that users can interact with.

After six months of pilot testing with The Trade Desk, Spotify launched its ad exchange on Wednesday and added new supply and demand partners to the mix.

The Google PMax whisperer releases his latest annual report; publishers brace for more disruptions from Google search updates; and stolen content is the least of Wikipedia’s gen AI concerns.

Does AI kill authenticity? Or is it just another evolution of content creation? And does it even matter? After all, consumers say they care about authenticity, but their actions don’t always match their words.

No punches pulled in another Senate hearing on Big Tech’s excesses; Nielsen’s lawsuits accusing competitors of IP infringement keep getting dismissed; and investors grow wary of Reddit’s closeness to Google.

Meta introduces new ad placements, promo opportunities and AI prompts; an influencer campaign prompts right-wing influencers to oppose RFK Jr.’s soda crackdown; and transcription platform Otter launches an AI assistant.

The process of setting up curated private marketplaces for bespoke audiences and vetting what inventory gets included can be incredibly time-consuming for agency teams.

Oracle’s TikTok bid is a warmed-over Project Texas; Amazon’s ads biz has its sights set on Google; and gen AI search is a good traffic source for retailers, but bad for news pubs.

Omnicom and IPG have both received additional information requests from the FTC about their merger. Plus, publishers don’t know how AI overviews fit into their referral traffic.

Scope3’s new agentic AI platform can automatically filter out inventory that’s considered a high climate risk, including made-for-advertising content.

AI and machine learning services have come a long way in the past couple years, and these changes have introduced a whole new vocabulary for marketers trying to get a handle on how products like PMax work.

AI-equipped consumer products keep failing; why the newsletter boom might be nothing but spam; and retaliatory tariffs hit America where it hurts.

Now that Teads and Outbrain are one, the vision, explained CEO David Kostman when the deal was first announced, is to become an “end-to-end, full-funnel platform for the open internet.” But what does that mean in plain English?

What exactly are joint business partnerships? Plus, AI chatbot responses may be susceptible to Russian propaganda.

What does it take to serve midsize brand clients? How is AI transforming media buying? And why, for the love of god, is measurement still so messed up? Mediastruction CEO and Founding Partner Marilois Snowman has a few thoughts.