Charter enters AI era with Latis household intelligence platform

Charter’s launch of Latis signals a shift by major ISPs to move beyond basic connectivity and monetize granular household behavior through real-time AI modeling. By providing mathematical patterns of intent before transactions occur, Charter is positioning its first-party data as a foundational layer for advertiser-led AI agents and predictive targeting. This puts the company in direct competition with tech platforms and media giants building their own retail media networks. For the broader streaming ecosystem, it suggests that future ad stacks will rely heavily on cross-device signals that integrate broadband, mobile, and video data into unified identity graphs. Watch for how many third-party data clean rooms adopt the Latis schema during the 2026 commercial rollout.

The launch of Latis follows Charter's broader strategic pivot toward becoming a 'converged' connectivity provider. In March 2026, the company appointed John Lee, formerly Chief Data Officer at NBCUniversal, as Head of Intelligence Ventures to lead the development of data-driven products and AI partnerships according to a company announcement. This move highlights an industry-wide trend where cable operators utilize their massive broadband footprints to offset traditional linear video subscriber losses. Per Charter's Q4 2025 earnings report, the company finished the year with 29.7 million internet customers but saw its residential video base continue to shrink, reflecting the ongoing pressure of cord-cutting despite new bundle strategies.

Charter's investment in AI-driven intelligence mirrors moves by rivals like Comcast, which has aggressively expanded its own data and advertising infrastructure. Since 2024, cable operators have been refining their first-party data offerings to better compete with retail media networks and social platforms in a cookie-less advertising environment. According to reporting from IAB Tech Lab in 2025, the industry is increasingly focused on clean room interoperability as a standard for secure data collaboration. Charter's decision to build Latis as an open platform for 'agentic AI' reflects this shift, aiming to integrate its proprietary insights into the emerging ecosystem of autonomous AI agents that a founders like Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas have suggested could become the primary targets for digital advertisements by late 2026.