Last week, WBD (Warner Bros. Discovery) announced an agentic AI-powered advertising platform built with AWS. The company said the system uses autonomous agents across audience planning, forecasting, optimization and measurement while unifying workflows across linear, streaming and digital channels.
A planned rollout is ongoing throughout 2026.
Read: Warner Bros. Discovery Announces Agentic AI-Powered Advertising Technology Built with AWS – Warner Bros. Discovery (June 17)
Dr. Nage Sethu, SVP, Technology – Converged Advertising and Linear Systems, Warner Bros. Discovery, answered a selection of follow-up questions from tipsheet via email.
tipsheet: WBD is rebuilding its advertising infrastructure with AWS agentic AI. What problem was WBD trying to solve?
Dr. Nage Sethu: Advertising has become increasingly fragmented across linear TV, streaming and digital, as well as audiences, and measurement systems. Both the buy and sell sides are spending too much time navigating complexity instead of focusing on outcomes. We partnered with AWS to create an agentic platform that unifies planning, activation, optimization, and measurement, making it easier for advertisers to access the full value of WBD’s inventory through a single intelligent workflow.
The announcement describes autonomous agents for planning, forecasting, optimization, and measurement. Can you say more about what decisions agents can make and what need human approval? Curious about the dividing line today.
The agents are being designed to automate analysis, recommendations, forecasting, pacing, and optimization decisions that traditionally require significant manual effort. They can evaluate thousands of variables in real time and recommend the best allocation of budget and inventory.
However, strategic decisions remain firmly in human hands (human in the loop). Advertisers and sales teams determine campaign objectives, budgets, brand requirements, and business priorities. The agents provide intelligence and execution support, while humans retain oversight and final approval of key business decisions.
WBD says the platform unifies buying across linear and digital inventory. How would you say that changes the advertiser experience?
Historically, advertisers often planned and purchased linear and digital inventory through separate processes. Our platform will enable a unified buying experience where advertisers can define desired outcomes and audiences once. The platform can then help optimize delivery across the full WBD ecosystem. The result is a greater simplicity, efficiency, and a more holistic view of campaign performance.
The platform promises ongoing automated campaign optimization. What is the biggest decision that advertisers will no longer have to make themselves?
One of the biggest shifts we are seeing is that advertisers would no longer need to manually monitor and adjust inventory allocation throughout a campaign. The platform will continuously evaluate performance signals and recommend optimizations to maximize campaign objectives, allowing marketers to focus more on strategy and less on operational management.
Regarding the platform’s flexible targeting across brands, audiences, linear, and digital inventory, how does AI determine inventory allocation recommendations?
The AI evaluates a combination of campaign goals, audience availability, historical performance, inventory characteristics, pacing requirements, and real-time delivery signals. It continuously models where impressions are most likely to achieve the advertiser’s desired outcomes and recommends allocation strategies that balance reach, efficiency, and performance across the WBD portfolio.