Ad tech is a fast paced industry where innovation is driven by trends (e.g. brand safety, programmatic TV, header bidding). The next trend poised to strike is artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. So what are AI and machine learning and why are they so hot in ad tech right now?
What is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is the ability for computers to perform tasks that are traditionally considered representative of human intelligence such as decision making, visualization, language translation, speech interpretation, etc.
What is machine learning?
Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence. By giving computers, aka machines, access to data, they should be able to recognize patterns and learn the appropriate response/action for the future.
How does this fit into ad tech?
SpotX performs millions of transactions a second. Ad tech operates at a large scale in an almost completely automated fashion, making artificial intelligence seem like a natural fit. Some ad tech companies have already begun to adopt this technology to eliminate unnecessary inefficiencies.
For example, DSPs have begun to leverage AI to reduce infrastructure costs. With the advents of header bidding and server-side ad insertion (SSAI), DSPs must evaluate more impressions than ever before and infrastructures costs have skyrocketed as a result. To adapt, these demand-side platforms have begun to lean on AI and machine learning as the solution. By trimming out opportunities they are unlikely to win, DSPs can avoid bidding and reduce their infrastructure costs as a result.
On the supply side, publisher CafeMedia is using AI to more efficiently categorize and tag their inventory. This is traditionally a very manual process for publishers, requiring humans to individually categorize inventory within a content management system. In turn at SpotX, we have to again manually enter key value pairs to target against those categories and tags. It’s important for buyers to know what type of content is present where their ads are playing. It’s equally as important that publishers know the type of ads serving on their properties, which is why we also leverage a team of inventory classification specialists to review and classify all programmatic ad creatives. The opportunity to automate this entire process is exciting to say the least.
Interested in learning more about AI and machine learning? Stay tuned as we examine more potential use cases for publishers and the pros and cons of implementing such solutions.
This article was written by Lexie Pike, product marketing manager at SpotX.