{
  "id": 2071830,
  "title": "Butler/Till extends agentic media buying tests into audio with iHeartMedia",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/butler-till-extends-agentic-media-buying-tests-into-audio-with",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-20T04:01:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Digiday",
    "slug": "digiday",
    "url": "https://digiday.com/media-buying/butler-till-extends-agentic-media-buying-tests-into-audio-with-iheartmedia/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Media agency Butler/Till and iHeartMedia are extending their artificial intelligence (AI) media buying tests to audio platforms, including streaming audio and podcasts, according to sources. The two companies collaborated on a four-week pilot campaign targeting a U.S. agricultural sector client, though the agency declined to disclose the client's name. The AI system deployed two AI agents, one developed by Butler/Till and the other by iHeartMedia, functioning as a matched pair using an MCP server. A human planner supplied the AI agents with a campaign brief, which they then executed on the publisher’s agent. This pilot differed from prior tests due to its utilization of audio inventory and direct agency-publisher interaction, as opposed to previous pilots involving third-party intermediaries like SSP Pubmatic. For further details, readers can visit digiday.com.",
  "summary": "Tests of autonomous media buying tools are spreading into more channels; publishers hope they can make direct buys easier and more attractive to advertisers.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}