The news: The Trade Desk’s latest update to buy- and sell-side platform Kokai, titled Zuma, aims to deepen its AI features and simplify the advertiser experience, the company announced last week. The update targets issues with Kokai’s user interface and workflows, AI assistant capabilities, and measurement.

• Kokai Zuma streamlines the platform’s interface and gives buyers more tailored ways to navigate campaigns based on their needs.
• Buyers will also get more visibility into the potential impact of bulk campaign changes.
• Updated troubleshooting capabilities will make it easier to identify and resolve campaign issues.
• TTD’s Koa, its AI engine and assistant, is entering a closed beta phase as an interface where buyers can ask questions and access specialized AI agents.

Why it matters: The update could address what has so far been a rocky rollout for Kokai.

• Kokai launched after TTD shifted away from its former programmatic ad system Solimar, a change that caused widespread concern among agencies. Buyers cited bugs including failed launches, missing audiences, and broken integrations.
• Agencies also noted that Kokai was less stable and more complex than Solimar, causing significant workflow friction.

Kokai’s complexity has become a liability as Meta, Google, and other competitors lean into AI-powered automation. TTD is facing pressure from these walled gardens with integrated ad tech stacks and data that Kokai hasn’t matched.

That competitive gap is becoming more consequential as advertisers direct more spending toward walled gardens, while open web programmatic growth remains sluggish. The pressure on TTD is also showing up in its performance, with rocky Q2 results and a stock price that has fallen 80% over the last year.