AI driven advertising is steadily growing in popularity, with over half (55%) of marketers now using AI for audience segmentation and targeting. As adoption increases, AI-enabled ad platforms are becoming more effective at delivering the precision marketers are demanding, helping reduce wasted ad spend while improving targeting accuracy and campaign performance.
In this blog post we discuss four ways AI driven advertising is changing the sector and helping to fuel advertising at scale.
1. AI is the bread and butter of programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising relies heavily on AI for the management of the real-time-bidding (RTB) process, which involves advertisers bidding for ad space over real-time auctions. Ad platforms use predictive machine learning models to algorithmically adjust ad placements and predict campaign outcomes based on predetermined performance indicators.
These machine learning models process billions of data points to identify data patterns, prime ad inventory, ad space, and ad formats. As Suraj Nambiar, National Media Head of Tonic Worldwide explains, “AI/ML algorithms can analyze large amounts of data and make data-driven decisions faster and more accurately than humans.” Capabilities that make both audience segmentation and the media buying process vastly more efficient.
This shift from manual optimization to AI-led decision-making is already shaping how modern adtech businesses are built. For example, Vibe recently raised $50 million in Series B funding, an investment used to accelerate the development of its AI-driven advertising platform, with a focus on automation, data intelligence, and capabilities for brands. Its own proprietary technology is used to target ads based on behavioural data, to deliver mass profit in the same way that brands like Google do. The platform’s trajectory underscores how AI-driven automation is now central to achieving the scale, speed, and efficiency that modern programmatic advertising is currently demanding.
2. AI makes it possible to personalize at scale
Personalized advertising uses insights into customer preferences and demographics to improve advertising relevance. Machine learning in advertising makes personalization achievable at scale by working through vast data sets to analyze the type of content that is most likely to attract the attention of an advertiser’s target audience.
This capability is particularly critical in highly regulated industries, where personalization must be both precise and compliant. In 2025 a healthcare adtech firm, DeepIntent, secured an $637 million investment from Vitruvian Partners for its AI product development. DeepIntent is a demand-side platform which helps healthcare brands, like AstraZeneca, better target verified patients and healthcare providers. The technology drives business outcomes by connecting customers with brands and ensures compliance and brand safety, which is vital in the healthcare sector.
Beyond niche or regulated sectors, AI-led personalization is also becoming the default operating model for mass-market advertising platforms.
Meta, for example, is building its advertising products around AI. Meta’s Advantage+ offers an AI and automation-first environment, in which manual input is only used for fine-tuning. Despite some vocal concerns around the level of control companies must hand over to Meta, advertisers are finding Advantage+ to significantly boost campaign performance.
3. AI reduces reliance on third-party data
With third-party data under attack, and pressure from consumers for improved personal security standards, ad platforms must find ways to achieve audience segmentation and personalization without traditional cross-site tracking. AI and machine learning in advertising is helping bridge the gap by delivering privacy-compliant targeting, using contextual data in place of third-party data.
Advertising AI allows publishers to serve ads that align with the content on a particular page that matches with the interests of their target customers. And by analyzing text, video, and image content across pages, advertising AI can also help to optimize ad placement and achieve high-impact campaigns, demonstrating how brands can maintain relevance and performance even as third-party tracking evolves.
4. Gen AI, agentic AI and ad tech
Generative AI was the first real step toward AI-driven tools in advertising. Early adoption focused on ad production, like the generation of copy or iterative and creative variations on a theme. Generative AI marked early efforts of using the technology to reduce manual work and expedite the production of ad assets. Now, it’s used more strategically and embedded across workflows. In 2026, nearly 40% of video assets are expected to be created using generative AI, almost double that of 2024.
The momentum driven by generative AI laid the groundwork for more complex evolution in advertising. The market began to recognize the potential for AI to act as an autonomous agent and in late 2025, the technology began to move from experimentation to implementation.
The advertising industry is now moving towards standardized practices for agentic AI platforms. These are autonomous AI systems that can plan, act upon, and optimize campaigns with very little human supervision, meaning fewer resources required for the manual management and setting of campaigns. The Ad Context Protocol (ACP) represents the first open standard for agentic agents, ensuring that advertisers, DSPs, SSPs, and publishers can connect as their agentic systems evolve in the market.
The ACP works as a common language for agent-to-platform communication, agent-to-buyer communication, and even agent-to-agent communication (two agents talking to each other). Without an open standard, this marketplace becomes complex and highly fragmented, although an open does also require industry adoption. Many CEOs, like Anonymised’s Mattia Fosci, are “100% behind it”, but stress the industry must prioritize “long-term strategic outcomes over short-term tactical goals.”
Peter Mason, CEO of illuma, describes how AI agents may not just transact faster, but also negotiate more intelligently. He explains that “the real differentiation will sit in the logic each agent brings to it. If agents can reason using richer contextual signals, attention metrics or outcome data, rather than just price floors, we may finally see more transparent, performance-driven trading emerge.”
When it comes to agentic AI in ad tech, advertisers should be preparing their advantage. Agents must act via a system of logic, and if the system is flawed, agents will not be able to act intelligently in the market. Winners in the agentic AI marketplace won’t simply follow the ACP, they’ll offer a point of differentiation, propelling decisions that are aligned with business goals and offer a strategic advantage.
AI driven advertising is here to stay
The advertising sector is fully embracing AI and AI-driven advertising is fast becoming mainstream.
Mark Read, Chief Executive of WPP has declared advertising AI technology as “fundamental” to the company’s future.
As AI systems become more autonomous, particularly in areas such as optimization and decisioning, questions around governance and control are increasingly important. While there is still concern, this reflects the growing maturity and impact of AI systems rather than resistance to their adoption. Recent studies from Apollo Research and Anthropic, highlight the importance of strong oversight as AI autonomy grows, strengthening the need for open standards like the ACP and other standardized governance frameworks. Despite worries about autonomy, the enthusiasm for, and uptake of, AI and machine learning in advertising strong.
AI for advertising is already the rocket-fuel behind programmatic offerings. And it looks like further developments in advertising AI and machine learning in advertising could be the key to a successful transition to first-party data once the cookie finally crumbles.
The future of AI in advertising is truly exciting.
And there’s no doubt that there’s more innovation in sight.
For more information about our work with companies in the adtech space, take a look at our industry page.
