Consumers are drowning in irrelevant advertising, but AI is helping marketers identify high-intent moments where ads feel additive rather than disruptive, particularly when shoppers are completing purchases online.

"The big challenge is that consumers are over inundated with irrelevant content," said Ashley Firmstone, senior vice president of Rokt ads at Rokt, on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers." "When it doesn't feel additive to what someone is doing or it doesn't feel true to who that person is, it can be disruptive."

The conversation explored how AI-powered relevance is reshaping digital advertising strategy, with particular focus on the "transaction moment, "the point when consumers shift from browsing to buying.

Two forces driving ad fatigue

The problem stems from both volume and relevance, according to our analyst Nate Elliott

Consumers face more ads than ever because they're spending more time with media and each minute includes more advertising than before. But sheer volume isn't the only issue.

"You don't hear people complain about ads that show them something they want to see or give them an offer on a product they're thinking of buying," Elliott said. "You hear them complain when it has nothing to do with them when it's the wrong ad at the wrong point in time."

Rokt has identified the transaction moment as a particularly effective time to reach consumers with relevant offers.

"When a customer goes from browsing online to 'what am I going to buy, they've actually added the item to their cart and they switch almost psychologically into a mode where they're highly engaged," Firmstone explained. "They're focused on what they're purchasing, and they want things in those moments that feel additive to that purchase."

AI's role in real-time personalization

AI has been central to optimizing the transaction moment for over a decade, but recent advances have accelerated capabilities.

"How are we learning about the customer in that moment? How are we making decisions in real time? Humans just can't do what AI can do using the contextual relevancy of that customer and what they're purchasing," said Firmstone. "AI helps unlock that… it's just getting faster, smarter, more predictable."

The technology stitches together multiple data points, the customer's current purchase, past behavior, and brand targeting parameters, to make split-second decisions about which offers to present.

Despite predictions about AI agents making purchases on behalf of consumers, the transaction moment will remain important for brands.

"I think initially people were worried how quick the transaction was going to go into the LLMs," Firmstone said. "I think it's going to be a long time before consumers truly trust LLMs to make those purchases on their behalf."

The psychology of shopping

Part of what preserves the transaction moment is that consumers enjoy certain aspects of shopping and aren't eager to outsource them.

"There are parts of the shopping that we do as human beings that are more laundry and dishes. I don't want to know when the milk is running out or when the paper towels are running out," Elliott said. "But so much of what we buy, including a lot of the higher value things that we buy, that's closer to the art and the writing. That's closer to the thing that people really enjoy."

Booking a trip with a spouse or securing concert tickets for friends represents experiences consumers want to control themselves, creating an emotional engagement that makes them more receptive to relevant offers during the transaction.

Firmstone recommended marketers develop strategies for agentic commerce while maintaining focus on customer loyalty and high-intent moments.

"You want to think about high intent moments where you have true customer data. You understand the longevity, the LTV, the incrementality of those customers," she said. "Acquiring customers is going to be crucial because of that loyalty factor."

Elliott emphasized the importance of maintaining control over customer relationships as AI platforms become marketing channels, drawing parallels to how brands lost organic reach on Facebook after investing millions building fan lists.

"Make sure that you're not giving up control of that customer relationship," Elliott said. "The loyalty, the relationship, the established relationship that these companies have with their customers is incredibly important."

Listen to the full episode.

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