AI is supposed to simplify marketing tasks, not add layers of complexity.
Yet, as agencies and brands accelerate AI adoption, they often face a tangled web of disconnected systems.
“Simplicity, governance and interoperability are key,” Gary Guarnaccia, Bayer’s head of investment for ad tech, told AdExchanger. “The last thing marketers need is more complexity or closed systems.”
To be fair, agentic AI has helped cut down on repetitive work and enables increased scale. But the connective tissue between agents has been missing, said Grant Parker, president of Mediaocean-owned ad tech platform Innovid.
On Tuesday, Innovid launched an open orchestration layer that connects data and tech throughout the advertising process. The tool, called Innovid Orchestrator, aims to break down the fragmentation and silos between marketing systems.
Innovid is also expanding its set of AI agents, which help automate basic advertising activities, including ad creation, delivery, measurement and optimization.
Opening new doors
Campaigns typically demand a lot of manual effort and human oversight, Guarnaccia said, from creative production to asset management to performance analysis.
The hope is that an orchestration layer can speed up campaign execution and reduce unnecessary human oversight. Parker compared it to a big Lego baseplate where advertisers can build individual agents and connect them down the line.
(Before making the Lego analogy, Parker initially described the layer as “like a sandbox,” but that quickly got confusing for obvious reasons.)
Advertisers can design each step they want to include in the campaign-building process and specify exactly how the AI agents should interact with each other and with outside systems.
For instance, said Parker, an advertiser might connect an agent that generates new content with another that devises a delivery plan so that when new content is ready, that agent immediately has access to it. The advertiser could also add a step to notify a human when the creative is ready for review.
Notably, advertisers can embed their brand guidelines and legal restrictions regarding asset generation directly into the process, which is a major draw for Bayer and other companies working in regulated industries with strict privacy regulations.
Building Connections
Advertisers that use the orchestration layer can also use Innovid’s agents, which perform tasks ranging from determining what types of creative drive the best outcomes to translating media plans into delivery-ready blueprints. But buyers also have the option to use their own agents if they prefer.
Either way, Innovid is trying to drive home the same point, Parker said, which is that no matter how advanced individual agents are, advertisers will end up stuck if there’s no way to connect them.
It’s this connective tissue that will “add unique, incremental value,” Guarnaccia said, including faster insights and improved automation. Bayer has no interest in “just using AI for the sake of it,” he added.
But lots of companies that are using AI for the sake of it will soon come to realize that just having the tools in place isn’t enough if those tools don’t know how to work together.
“Agents are going to feel really cool for a second,” said Parker, “and then you’re gonna be like, wait a second, my creative and my media still don’t talk to each other. And that’s the critical thing.”
