Ad Tech Briefing: AI is changing programmatic buying faster than who controls it
As more decisions become automated, the value of a control depends on whether publishers can see its effects.
This Ad Tech Briefing explores the rapid rise of AI in programmatic advertising, highlighting the debate over control and oversight. A recent survey found that 86% of 50 European digital advertising industry professionals use AI for marketing, with 59% utilizing it for programmatic optimization and 55% for media planning and strategy.
However, only 38% reported using agentic buying and selling. The survey also revealed that larger organizations tend to have more advanced AI systems than smaller ones, while ad tech respondents reported greater autonomy than agencies and advertisers. Despite the widespread use of AI, only 36% of respondents had agentic systems in everyday use, with many opting for human oversight or partial collaboration.
Performance evaluations were mixed, with respondents rating AI in current ad operations at an average of 2.76 out of five. The buying stack remains a mix of in-house and third-party tools, with AI integrated into both ad platforms and separate systems. The crucial issue remains the question of who controls the buying decisions made by these AI agents, as well as who can inspect and take responsibility for their actions.
Publisher control is also coming under scrutiny, as Google's recent pricing rules return publishers' ability to set price floors for specific programmatic bidders, similar to the unified pricing rules introduced in 2019. The broader debate around AI's role in ad tech continues to evolve, with publishers and platforms grappling with the balance between innovation and control.
Written by urgent.news from Digiday's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
