Google launches agents for safety

John Ebbert

Google safety agents

“Agentic safety features” for Google’s Ads Advisor, the AI chatbot within Google Ads, were announced yesterday.

Priya Baliga, Google’s Senior Engineering Director, Ad Platforms, explained each of the three features in a blog post:

  1. “Proactive troubleshooting: Flags complex policy violations without prompting and offers personalized guidance to resolve your issue”
  2. “24/7 security monitoring: Strengthens your account’s security using a personalized dashboard and suggestions”
  3. “Instant certifications: Transforms weeks of manual paperwork into instant approvals, built with Gemini capabilities”

The troubleshooting agent includes an agentic workflow component known as “Real-Time Policy Reviews” described as “instant, in-workflow guidance as you create and edit campaigns.”

Read: “3 new ways Ads Advisor is making Google Ads safer and faster” (April 21) – Google Ads & Commerce blog

Related: “Expanding likeness detection to the entertainment industry” (April 21)- YouTube blog

From tipsheet: These aren’t just safety features. They are guardrail agents embedded in campaign creation. Google is shifting from policing ads after launch to steering them in real-time, which makes execution smoother but further centralizes control inside the platform.

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Developments

  • Introducing ChatGPT Images 2.0 (April 21) – OpenAI
  • Mozilla Used Anthropic’s Mythos to Find and Fix 271 Bugs in Firefox (April 21) – Wired (subscription)
  • Google brings Pomelli in English to small businesses in Europe. (April 21) – Google

SELL-SIDE

Index Exchange offers a cloud for AI

A different kind of cloud is emerging inside ad tech.

Sell-side platform Index Exchange announced a new infrastructure layer for clients called Index Cloud.

Index Exchange product marketing executive Robert Lawrence explained the value proposition in a blog post:

“Index Cloud is our neutral compute environment, built inside our global data centers, where partners can choose to deploy their own models, data, and applications directly inside the exchange and run them within our real-time transactional environment.

Partners bring the intelligence. Index provides the environment. Partners control what runs inside.

Because Index Cloud is a cloud we own and operate ourselves rather than a public cloud, the signals available at the point of transaction can be richer, the latency is lower, and the overhead and costs that come from running outside the auction do not exist.”

The company said Index Cloud was currently in “closed beta.” According to Index marketer Ashley Woods on LinkedIn, “Bedrock Platform, Chalice AI, inPowered AI, and Nano Interactive” are early partners.

Read: “Introducing Index Cloud: Bring Your Own Intelligence Inside the Exchange” – Index Exchange blog

From tipsheet: SSPs are becoming AI execution layers. With Index Cloud, decisioning and optimization move inside the auction — and closer to the impression — where models can act before the DSP sees the bid.

Another step forward for IAB Tech Lab’s Agentic Real-Time Framework (ARTF).

Index Cloud looks like the infrastructure behind ARTF-style “bento box” architectures—where modular agents and models plug directly into the transaction layer.

“Bento box”: Chalice AI CEO Adam Heimlich popularized the phrase “bento box” in the context of ARTF at IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting earlier this year. See his tasty visual on LinkedIn. (February 2)

GOVERNANCE

IAB Tech Lab: new governance council

Industry standards organization IAB Tech Lab announced the establishment of Programmatic Governance Council (PGC), “a new industry body designed to bring together media buyers, media owners, and ad tech platforms to ensure that programmatic advertising’s automation and AI reshape digital advertising.”

Ben Hovaness, agency OMD’s chief media officer, is one of the co-chairs along with sell-side focused co-chairs Scott Both, Huda Kazi, and Harry Wilkins who will address web, in-app and CTV in programmatic environments.

IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur said PGC is open to all IAB Tech Lab members. Read LinkedIn. (April 21)

AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff reported on the urgency for the council:

“The group expects to put forward a few initial recommendations within 90 to 120 days, with cutting down on bid duplication and QPS bloat at the top of the list.

The stakes are only getting higher, as more buying is handled by automated systems.

Although the council wasn’t a direct response to the rise of AI per se, the industry needs to get in front ‘of all things agentic now,’ Hovaness said.”

Read: The Tech Lab’s New Programmatic Governance Council Is So Over All The Ad Tech Drama (April 21) – AdExchanger

More: “IAB Tech Lab Launches Industry Council to Address Transparency in $200B U.S. Programmatic Ad Market” (August 21) – press release

From tipsheet: Programmatic doesn’t have a standards problem. It has a governance problem — that’s Tech Lab’s point. As automation and AI accelerate buying, the gap between how the system works and how it’s expected to work is becoming impossible to ignore.

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Microsoft builds AI visibility capabilities

Generative engine optimization (GEO) startups already knew Microsoft was getting into their space. Yesterday, the Redmond giant took another step in serving the GEO needs — and broader needs — of marketers and their agencies.

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and new contextual advertising offerings at Microsoft received updates, too.

They’re all connected as Microsoft Corporate Vice President Tim Frank explained on the Microsoft Advertising blog:

“To help businesses succeed across all three eras of the human, LLM, and agentic web, here’s what we’re announcing today:

    • Microsoft Clarity’s AI Visibility expansion helps businesses understand how AI systems discover and surface their products and cite information so they know what to optimize for next.
    • Universal Commerce Protocol in Microsoft Merchant Center and Copilot Checkout enhancements help businesses participate in agentic shopping experiences by showing accurate, structured product information optimized for agents or enabling faster transactions.
    • AI Max for Search campaigns, Offer Highlights, and Audience generation capabilities maximize advertiser relevance in new discovery and decision moments through improved query matching, context-aware offers, and AI-assisted audience creation.”

With promotional quotes from Target, Shopify and BestBuy included in the press release, Microsoft is looking to unlock business in the retail sector.

Read: “Win across all three eras of the web” (April 21) – Tim Frank on Microsoft Advertising blog

On LinkedIn, Mr. Frank summarized his blog post and added a juicy stat: “Automated traffic is growing 8x faster than human traffic. Agentic browser traffic is up ~8,000% year over year.” Read more. (April 21)

More:

From tipsheet: Microsoft isn’t just competing with GEO startups. It’s redefining what “visibility” even means.

  • Clarity’s AI visibility signals who shows up in LLM answers.
  • UCP structures product data for agents.
  • Copilot Checkout closes the loop.

That’s not SEO vs. GEO. It’s a full-stack system where discovery, optimization, and transactions happen inside AI environments.

And if agentic traffic is really growing 8x faster, the implication is clear: marketers won’t just optimize for rankings. They’ll optimize for being selected and acted on by agents.

CREATIVE

Meta’s AI creative growing pains

“Meta’s AI-powered alterations to ad creative is just one of many AI-powered updates rolling out across its platforms. That includes enhancing its ad retrieval system, Andromeda, as well as its Advantage+ AI tool offering, which along with AI-powered creative tweaks uses AI in the ad targeting and budget optimization processes. Meta is also integrating AI into its product discovery tools.

Like with some of its other AI features, it’s been a bumpy adjustment on the creative side.

Curtis Howland, marketing VP at Misfit Marketing, said he has observed unexpected AI-powered modifications to ad creative, including changes to image size or background, as well as ‘full reimaginations,’ including changing static content to video assets or to other, different static creative. ‘We turn that off whenever it pops up,’ he said.”

Read: “Meta’s AI push has made its way into ad creative. Not all marketers are happy about it” (April 21) – Marketing Brew

Related: “Following Manus probe, Chinese authorities ordered at least one other prominent AI startup, MiroMind, not to send talent and research out of China” (April 21) – Washington Post (subscription)

AGENTS

The Trade Desk announces agentic strategy

The Trade Desk announced an expansion of its existing partnership with agency holding company Stagwell and its marketing platform yesterday.

What the announcement really is about: the beginning of The Trade Desk’s agentic strategy.

Stagwell will become “the first global marketing network to adopt Koa Agents, The Trade Desk’s new alpha agentic AI capabilities for media planning, buying, optimization, and measurement across the open internet,” according to a press release.

For background:

  • “Koa” is the AI engine underpinning the company’s demand-side platform technology including its Kokai platform and was first introduced in 2018.
  • Read more about “Koa Optimizations” on The Trade Desk’s website here.
  • The alpha of “Koa Agents” appears to be an evolution of the concepts behind “Koa Optimizations” and “Koa Audiences.”
  • The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green hinted at the “agentic AI framework” in the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call with analysts in February. Read transcript.

Yesterday’s release continued:

“Koa Agents introduce a simpler way to run advertising: instead of manually configuring campaigns step-by-step, marketers can describe their goals and direct AI-powered agents execute, optimize, and continuously improve campaigns in real time with visibility and control. Tasks that once required days of setup and analysis now happen automatically and adapt as conditions change, enabling faster decisions and stronger performance.

As part of this first to market partnership, Stagwell will connect the AI capabilities within Stagwell Media Platform with Koa Agents through Open Agentic Kit, The Trade Desk’s agentic integration framework.”

Read: Stagwell Becomes First Partner to Adopt The Trade Desk’s Koa Agents, Bringing AI-Driven Advertising to Scale (April 21) – press release

More:

  • “The Trade Desk launches first AI agents with Stagwell as client” (April 21) – Ad Age (subscription)

  • Stagwell launches Stagwell Media Platform (SMP) (July 2025) – press release

From tipsheet: This is a formal launch of The Trade Desk’s agentic strategy but details remain scant. “Open Agentic Kit, The Trade Desk’s agentic integration framework” is all new.

But make no mistake. Trade Desk CEO Green is bullish about agents.

He said on his company’s February earnings call: “We’re convinced that agentic AI will ultimately accrete the most value to companies that already have deep customer trust, that have scaled, refined and objective datasets, and that prioritize objectivity, not by companies with limited data hoping an AI framework becomes their business model. In that sense, agentic AI is an evolution of outcome-based platforms, not a shortcut around them.”

You can expect to hear more about the “Open Agentic Kit” when The Trade Desk issues its Q1 earnings report next month.

AGENTS

TripleLift has an agentic strategy, too

Creative SSP TripleLift is the latest ad tech platform to introduce an “agent,” announcing TL Spark—positioned as an intelligence layer for campaign execution.

A press release outlined the system’s core components across curation, creative, audiences, measurement and optimization.

“By coordinating these elements rather than leaving them in silos, TL Spark learns from multivariable performance patterns — how creative, inventory, audiences, and measurement interact — and feeds those insights back into planning and optimization,” according to the release.

Read: “TripleLift Launches TL Spark, Introducing an Intelligence Layer for Outcome-Driven Advertising” (April 21) – TripleLift

See: TL Spark on TripleLift’s website.

From tipsheet: This isn’t quite a fully autonomous “agent” yet. It’s a coordination layer across planning, creative, targeting, and measurement. But autonomy is the goal.

TECH

Magnite leadership changes

Leadership at sell-side platform Magnite is in transition. Three executives have announced their departures.

  • CFO — On Monday, David Day announced his retirement, with plans to step down as Chief Financial Officer in September, while remaining an advisor through May 2027. In a press release, CEO Michael Barrett noted that Day’s tenure was “marked by the pivotal 2020 merger between Rubicon Project and Telaria, and acquisitions of SpotX and SpringServe.” Read the release.
  • CPO — Adam Soroca, the company’s Chief Product Officer who joined via Rubicon Project’s 2017 acquisition of Ntoggle, left his role on April 8 and will advise for another month. Read more on LinkedIn.
  • CSO — Erik Hovanec, Magnite’s Chief Strategy Officer, announced his departure on April 14 and will leave the company on May 15. He had been with the company for over 10 years and helped oversee the company’s M&A strategy. Read more on LinkedIn.

From tipsheet: Mr. Soroca will likely follow his entrepreneurial roots and get back into startups.

Though executive turnover is sometimes seen as a warning sign of company turmoil, this is likely another moment of planned transition especially considering the synchronized timing. Who fills these roles will signal Magnite’s strategy from here. The company continues to be reinvented through M&A with Mr. Barrett at the helm.

Like many ad tech companies, the next “layer” for Magnite is AI — especially how SSPs automate pricing, packaging and demand orchestration. CTV remains core, but its push into demand-side capabilities is another area to watch.

Related: “Hearst News Selects Magnite as Preferred Deal Partner for High-Impact Formats Across Web and CTV Supply, Announces SpringServe Partnership” (April 21) – Magnite

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