In his latest MadTech Sketch, Ciaran O'Kane fires up his trusted crayons to detail how custom algorithms and AI are revolutionising programmatic media buying.

It’s been quite the week for media-related AI platform announcements. WPP Media launched Open Intelligence, its LLM that builds custom algos for clients. First- and third-party sources train the OI LLM. It's a smart strategy. MiQ is also unveiling its AI platform at Cannes. You can’t swing a cat without smashing into a company pivoting to AI or a lad with an AI pitch deck. It’s a free-for-all.

Beyond the hype there is genuine application. Creative being the obvious one. On the media optimisation side, the algo seems to be the area where AI adds immediate value. But ultimately, it’s the data that remains the most-important asset in ad tech - as this feeds the LLM that creates the algos.

In this MadTech Sketch, I outline how data, custom algos, and AI are upending programmatic buying - and redefining the supply chain. It’s just not the open internet. Walled gardens like YouTube are now leaning into proprietary signals like attention to prove the efficacy of ad campaigns and ultimately deliver better outcomes. Granted, DV360 has been using custom algos for a long time, but third-party signals (like attention) training algorithms to buy across Google O&O underlines the baseline for programmatic buying. When Google gets religious about something, you know it’s going big.

(High-quality PDF download)