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

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

The Trade Desk scrutiny is opening doors, as rivals court buyers after audits—but agency AI ecosystems and walled gardens pose the real threat to DSPs.

Spotify is scaling its programmatic push, with Ad Exchange advertisers jumping 222% as reserved buys and stronger measurement court brand budgets.

Integral Ad Science is expanding far beyond verification with IAS Agent, a DSP-embedded AI assistant that analyzes live campaign data and autonomously optimizes safety, suitability, and contextual settings. Built on IAS’s multimodal dataset, the tool evaluates trillions of signals across text, video, audio, and imagery to refine targeting decisions faster than human workflows—early testers reported efficiency gains and reduced waste. IAS frames the product as a step toward agentic advertising, enabling real-time optimization, natural-language insights, and interoperability with other AI systems. The launch comes as private equity bets heavily on independent measurement players amid rising demand for precision and transparency.

In 2026, AI will reshape advertiser workflows and behaviors, while rising video consumption will boost CTV and YouTube.

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.

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.

The news: Quality control is a growing fear for advertisers as an Adweek investigation found ads from major brands appeared near offensive and inappropriate content. Ads from brands like Amazon and Verizon were found near sexual or racially offensive content on the Android short-form video app XShorts. Our take: Advertisers are increasingly faced with a digital landscape where programmatic ad buying lacks the quality control required to keep up with rapid innovation and demand for ad space—prompting renewed calls for transparency, verification, and human oversight in automated systems.

Our first-ever worldwide forecast for retail media ad spending shows enduring momentum and lots of good news for Amazon and other ecommerce platforms around the world.

Google’s end of support for third-party cookies won’t happen until 2023 at the earliest, but the average publisher site now has more than five identifiers enabled on its inventory.

US advertisers are spending about a third of their nonsocial programmatic display ad dollars on fees this year—aka the “ad tech tax.” Read on to learn more about our inaugural estimates of spending on programmatic fees.

Casie Jordan, director of professional services at MoPub, spoke about how app publishers are adjusting the ways they sell inventory programmatically.