The Trade Desk under the microscope: Q1 revenues rose 12% to $689 million, but audits and agency exits cloud its outlook.

Amazon’s AI ad engine: Q1 ad sales rose 24% to $17.2 billion as automation and first-party data power full-funnel buys.

HubSpot swaps Inbound for Unbound: The rebrand reframes CRM as real-time orchestration across the full customer journey.

OpenAI courts DSPs for ChatGPT ads: A leaked StackAdapt deck shows high CPM pilots as OpenAI leans on adtech partners to prove value.

A $40 million deal folds eyes-on-screen data into Viant’s DSP, letting advertisers transact on attention—not just impressions.

AI agents are set to reshape media buying, but it’s still early days. This year will be about building the infrastructure they’ll need for broad adoption. Early tests suggest they’ll lower costs, improve outcomes, and shake up the ad ecosystem.

The Trade Desk's new Trading Modes bundle costs and AI, aiming to rival walled gardens while keeping manual control.

Publicis tells clients it no longer recommends The Trade Desk as both feel pressure from the rise of walled-garden tech platforms.

Programmatic growth is concentrating inside walled gardens; the Trade Desk remains resilient, but open-web momentum is moderating amid structural and macro pressures.

As commerce media ad spend shifts, clear gaps emerge in buyer maturity and execution. From setup friction to system-level optimization, spend levels signal today’s constraints and what it takes to unlock scalable growth.

PubMatic addresses publisher concerns with AI Insights, a tool that reveals buyer, DSP, and inventory trends to clarify where demand and value move.

On today’s EMARKETER Miniseries—AI-Driven Media Management—we explore how to break down the media manager role into workflows that can be automated or augmented by agentic AI, what agencies misunderstand about AI, and which agency tasks are ripest to hand off to AI right now. EMARKETER Senior Director of Content Jeremy Goldman speaks with Adam Epstein, co-founder and CEO of Gigi. Listen everywhere you find podcasts, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

WunderKIND Ads announced an integration with Yahoo DSP Thursday that will unlock scalable access to Wunderkind’s connected TV (CTV) pause ad inventory through private marketplace (PMP) deals. Wunderkind’s and Yahoo DSP’s integration delivered a 12.6% lift in purchase intent for what the announcement refers to as a “leading luxury retailer”; an almost 10% lift in brand favorability; and a 28% more cost-effective CPC than the retailer’s holiday average. Those using Yahoo DSP can now take advantage of Wunderkind’s high-performing pause ads, unlocking scalable access to formats proven to lift purchase intent, strengthen brand perception, and drive more efficient results.

Agencies tell Digiday that The Trade Desk (TTD) is softening its long-held stance on pricing, opening the door to fee negotiations as Amazon DSP gains traction with lower costs and competitive performance. Advertisers should revisit programmatic fee structures, elevate competitive benchmarking in annual planning, and negotiate for joint business plans that tie costs to incremental spend or measurable outcomes.

Magnite launched a Live Scheduler tool on Tuesday, an industry-first asset that enables media owners to seamlessly plan, execute, and evaluate ad campaigns around live events. Live Scheduler turns chaotic, real-time tentpole events into a predictable, scalable, and programmatic marketplace—giving advertisers the opportunity to capitalize on major cultural moments without as much unpredictability.

Amazon announced a breadth of AI-powered ad options on Day 1 of its annual Unboxed event designed to simplify campaign creation and deployment. Amazon’s new resources give advertisers a uniquely full-funnel solution that’s difficult to find in the crowded digital marketing world.

The Trade Desk posted another strong quarter, with revenue up 18% to $739 million and EBITDA margins above 40%, but CEO Jeff Green’s focus remains philosophical. On the Q3 call, Green said the company’s “AI-first” Kokai platform and new tools—Open Ads, Deal Desk, Audience Unlimited, and Trading Modes—position TTD as the infrastructure layer of an open, transparent internet. CTV now accounts for half of total revenue, with Disney and Hearst partnerships lifting publisher yields by 23%. Yet Green acknowledged the open web’s challenges, calling the vision “more aspirational than factual” as walled gardens tighten control.

Artificial intelligence is transforming how brands navigate media buying, with digital ad buyers using AI for processes like ad personalization, audience insights, and creative ideation. In a conversation with EMARKETER, Mike Hauptman, CEO of cross-DSP manager AdLib, discussed how AI is altering the media buying landscape. Marketers are operating in a landscape where AI is a necessity—but as challenges are expected to persist for years to come, those who thrive will be the ones who find a happy medium.

GumGum’s CMO Kerel Cooper says contextual advertising has shifted from an education hurdle to a growth engine. In an EMARKETER interview at Advertising Week New York, he described how AI now interprets full-page or frame-by-frame context, allowing brands to reach audiences based on meaning rather than identity. As cookies fade, contextual ads offer privacy-safe precision and brand safety at scale. Cooper calls this “mindset marketing”—targeting users in the right headspace, not just the right demo. With the open web regaining advertiser trust and AI powering deeper relevance, contextual targeting is emerging as the foundation of a healthier ad ecosystem.

The digital ad market is shifting fast. In court, Google admitted the “open web is already in rapid decline,” contradicting its public claims, as AI Overviews erode publisher traffic. The Trade Desk’s stock plunged 12% after Netflix’s Amazon DSP deal, with Morgan Stanley citing CTV headwinds and higher fees. Meanwhile, Reddit is positioning itself as a publisher ally, rolling out Reddit Pro to help offset traffic losses from search. Together, these moves underscore a fractured open web ecosystem: Google under pressure, The Trade Desk undercut by Amazon, and Reddit stepping up as publishers seek new discovery sources.