On the AdExchanger Talks podcast, LiveRamp CEO Scott Howe dropped some news that answer engine Perplexity is launching an alpha of a new ad product this quarter with LiveRamp’s help.
AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff reported yesterday:
“Perplexity, after seeming to retreat from advertising – or, at least, put its ad ambitions on ice – is preparing to launch an alpha this quarter that will test combining its behavior data with CRM data from advertisers to provide more useful answers.
Perplexity is partnering with LiveRamp on the effort and should have some results and case studies to share by March, according to Howe.”
On the podcast, Howe explained:
“…we work with Perplexity – it’s a great company. If I think about the last two years of their journey, it’s really interesting…
When they first started talking about launching an ad product, it looked a lot like Google AdWords – there was a question they would answer. And then beneath that, there were more sponsored questions you could buy as an advertiser.
And now they’ve reimagined that and they’re launching an alpha this quarter, whereby which they’re saying, ‘OK, we’re gonna pair the user experience with what advertisers can uniquely bring,’ which is their inventory, their CRM system — and it’s the combination of those two things, all of those data sets that can enable a much better answer to whatever question that you’re typing into Perplexity.’”
Read more and listen to the podcast on AdExchanger. (January 27)
In October 2024, LiveRamp partnered with Perplexity to “Personalize AI-powered searches.” Read the release.
From tipsheet: Beating OpenAI’s ad product for ChatGPT is right up Perplexity’s alley of marketing strategies – see the Apple and Google Chrome gambits.
The media will eat it up. This could also help LiveRamp’s stock price (currently a $1.6 billion market cap) which has been relatively flat in recent years.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Developments
- Inside OpenAI’s big play for science – Interview with Kevin Weil (January 26) – MIT Technology Review
- Mozilla is building an AI ‘rebel alliance’ to take on industry heavyweights OpenAI, Anthropic (January 27) – CNBC
- Introducing Prism – Accelerating science writing and collaboration with AI. (January 27) – OpenAI
TECH
Yahoo launches an AI chatbot
Scout, a new AI chatbot from Yahoo, launched yesterday with an ads tease in the press release about “new, improved opportunities for search advertisers to effectively cross the chasm to generative AI search advertising.”
- Read the release. (January 27)
- About “Scout.”
- See the answer engine in the Yahoo mobile app or the Scout website.
On what’s powering the chatbot, Axios’ Kerry Flynn reported:
“Scout’s primary foundational AI model is Anthropic’s Claude. Scout runs on Yahoo’s proprietary data, content and insights alongside Claude and Microsoft Bing’s grounding API, which surfaces sources from the open web for answers.”
With Scout’s inline links in the answers, and membership in Microsoft’s Publisher Content Marketplace initiative, Yahoo is positioning the answer engine as a helpful web traffic referral engine for publishers.
Also on the technology backend, the company is hoping its new Scout Intelligence Platform can help bring more personalization to a range of Yahoo properties such as Mail and Finance.
About the Scout launch, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said on LinkedIn yesterday:
“Huge shout-out to the Yahoo Research Group, led by Eric Feng, who made this all happen after we acquired his startup, Cymbal, last summer. Fun anecdote: many years ago, Eric received an offer to run Yahoo Search from Jerry Yang, but he was a little preoccupied with the explosive growth of Hulu, so he didn’t take it. Well, better late than never. It’s been amazing to watch Eric and his team cook.”
More: Head of Yahoo Research Group, Eric Feng, on Scout launch (January 27) – LinkedIn
From tipsheet: It will be interesting to see how the Claude LLM and Yahoo’s content and advertising technology mix.
All large publishers will be doing this one way or another: integrating an AI chatbot with the publisher’s own proprietary data and content.
MOBILE
CloudX and omnichannel programmatic
Mobile sell-side platform CloudX co-founder & Business Lead Dan Sack announced that his company was opening up its platform to “omnichannel programmatic buyers.”
Mr. Sack previewed the news on LinkedIn saying:
“Omnichannel programmatic buyers represent deep pools of brand demand that are incremental to what SDK networks provide. Historically, these buyers have been at a structural disadvantage. Many don’t have SDK footprints and are relegated to buying through exchanges, where fee structures make it nearly impossible to compete with scaled SDK networks.
With CloudX, publishers can activate this buyer group directly, with buyers competing at the same fee structure as SDK networks.”
Read more on LinkedIn. (January 27)
More: “Leveling the Playing Field for Non-SDK Bidders” (January 27) – Dan Sack, CloudX blog
Related: CloudX CEO Jim Payne on the AI opportunity in mobile (November 13) – tipsheet
AGENCIES
Sorrell: Agentic workflow matures in 2026
After outperforming Wall Street expectations in Q4 2025 (read more in The WSJ) on Monday, Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, said plans for “rewiring” AI into his ad holding company were on track.
He explained on LinkedIn yesterday:
“Yesterday’s performance update from S4 Capital Group marks a significant turning point in our operational discipline. Beating our revised revenue and EBITDA guidance is a positive step, but the real significance lies in our strengthened balance sheet and a net debt ratio of 1.1x—well ahead of our targets and market consensus.
As I’ve shared throughout my time at CES, Davos, and beyond this year, the industry is moving out of the ‘AI as a novelty’ phase. 2026 is about the maturity of the agentic workflow. We are rewiring S4 and Monks around an AI workforce to deliver hyper-personalization at a scale and speed that legacy models simply cannot match.”
Read more on LinkedIn. (January 27)
From tipsheet: After news of S4 Digital’s unexpected performance in Q4 broke on Monday, the company’s market cap rose nearly 50% in the public markets to $260 million USD yesterday.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Musings about OpenAI and ads
- As ChatGPT’s growth slows, ads look like the next risky move (January 27) – Digiday (subscription)
- OpenAI Introduces Ads: What Does it Mean for Buyers, Vendors and Pubs? (January 26) – Karsten Weide, chief analyst, on W Media Research
- ChatGPT Ads TAM (January 27) – Tom Triscari, Landmark Ventures, on his “Quo Vadis” Substack
BRANDS
IAB ALM next week, Agentic AI webinar today
February 1-3, Palm Springs, California – See agenda.
Watch: IAB CEO David Cohen Talks Biggest Changes to Ad Industry as Association Turns 30 (January 27) – NYSE on YouTube
Today: “Launching the Agentic AI Roadmap” – IAB Tech Lab at 11 a.m. ET – Sign-up (Membership required)
PEOPLE MOVES
Moving up
-
Vibhoor Kapoor elevated to CEO of Next Roll – the martech parent of AdRoll (January 27) – LinkedIn
TECH
From GenAI to Agentic AI in 2026
Analysts at eMarketer say programmatic isn’t going away, but big changes are on the way in the coming year.
eMarketer senior analyst Arielle Feger explained yesterday:
“2026 will mark the beginning of the end for manual programmatic buying as genAI gives way to agentic AI and automation becomes the industry standard. Marketers must prepare now for AI to take on a larger role in the programmatic process; those that don’t may get left behind.
This shift fundamentally changes how programmatic works.
As a result:
– Automated bidding is the default.
– Targeting shifts from static to real‑time.
– Creative becomes continuous.
– Measurement gets smarter.”
Read: “GenAI will take over programmatic advertising in 2026 and agentic AI isn’t far behind” (July 27) – eMarketer
From tipsheet: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised in June of last year that his automated AI-enabled ads platform, Advantage+, would be all a marketer needs by the end of 2026. Drop off the budget and y’er done.
AI-enabled ad platforms across walled and hedged gardens and the open web are all aiming for the automated future.
And then comes the use of agents at-scale in advertising and marketing.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
See the demo
“At the end of this video, Claude is controlling Pontiac (DSP). This is the (very) first iteration of the ‘Pontiac DSP chatbot’, so it is running in Claude code which is a developers environment. It is a bit intimidating for the DSP buyer who is used to a glossy interface.
Calm down! It will get “glossier”. This is just the very early stages. Our version for Claude desktop comes out next week.”
Watch Mr. Gooberman use Claude to manage a campaign for his DSP on LinkedIn. (January 27)
PLATFORMS
TikTok partnering with ad tech
Digital ad platform Fluency, which announced $40 million in new funding in December, announced a partnership with TikTok yesterday.
TikTok will use Fluency’s platform, which the ad tech firm positions as a “digital operating system”, to power TikTok Automotive Ads. Among Fluency’s features are workflow tools “using AI to streamline campaign reporting and creative generation.”
TikTok’s Global Director, Product Strategy & Operations, Brian Torpey, said in the release:
“At TikTok, we have been building alongside our auto partners to make the platform more accessible to dealerships, agencies and auto sellers looking to engage with our community of high-intent auto shoppers. The integration of TikTok Automotive Ads with Fluency’s tech represents a meaningful step forward for an industry that is primed to enter a new era of growth.”
From tiphseet: Fluency’s founding team has roots in automotive. It built and sold Dealer[dot]com in 2014 for $1.4 billion to Dealertrack. In 2015, Dealertrack was sold to Cox Automotive for $4 billion.
MORE
- ADWEEK to Debut the Super Bowl AI Influence Index (January 26) – Adweek
- Can Meta recover leadership in mobile games advertising? (January 27) – Analyst Eric Seufert on Mobile Dev Memo (subscription)
- Opinion: “CTV Is Ready for ABM, And It’s High Time You Use It” (January 27) – Ali Manning, Chalice AI, on Unbundled ABM
- Taxonomies Alone Won’t Save Digital Advertising (January 16) – Mike Villalobos, Seedtag, on Forbes
- Meta to test premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp (January 26) – TechCrunch