Agentic AI pushes programmatic ad buying beyond auctions
Rio Longacre from Credera, co-authoring with Edward Skolarus, highlighted the emerging impact of "agentic trading" on AdTech. This involves a shift from real-time auctions to dynamic, autonomous negotiation in programmatic advertising, with significant implications for ad buyers, sellers, and the broader ecosystem. The post promotes an ebook from Credera and Omnicom exploring these changes as allocation moves upstream.
Key Takeaways
- Rio Longacre describes “agentic trading” as a shift from real-time auctions to autonomous negotiation.
- The post says the implications are “far-reaching” for buyers, sellers, and the entire AdTech ecosystem.
- Longacre and Edward Skolarus co-authored a Credera / Omnicom ebook on what changes when allocation moves upstream.
- Longacre says Part 2 will follow next week.
Why It Matters
If programmatic buying moves from static auctions to autonomous negotiation, the mechanics of allocation change at the point where impressions are priced and assigned. That directly affects buyers and sellers, and the post frames the shift as one that reaches the broader AdTech ecosystem. The key issue here is not a new buying interface, but where decision-making sits: upstream, closer to allocation. Watch for the follow-up Part 2 next week, since that is the only concrete next step mentioned here.
Additional Context
Omnicom has already begun implementing this strategy, reporting during its Q1 2026 earnings call that it has executed live media buys for several clients using an agent-to-agent framework. According to reports from Digiday in April 2026, the company is using these agents to bypass traditional ad tech intermediaries that CEO John Wren described as extracting a "toll" on client budgets. These moves are supported by the integration of Acxiom's first-party data, which provides the identity spine necessary for agents to make effective autonomous decisions without third-party cookies. Competitors and platforms are also moving toward agent-based models to streamline campaign execution. Per FutureWeek in April 2026, Stagwell became the first agency network to adopt The Trade Desk’s "Koa Agents," a conversational AI tool for media planning and optimization. Similarly, Scope3 launched an Agentic Media Platform in early 2025 to factor in sustainability and media quality metrics during autonomous negotiations. These developments suggest a trend where the technical layer of the DSP/SSP stack is fragmenting as agencies build proprietary agentic logic to regain control over supply paths. The push for agentic systems coincides with significant financial maneuvers within the holding companies. Omnicom's $13.25 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group, finalized by early 2025, has scaled its data resources through Acxiom to better feed these AI models. According to reporting from The Drum in February 2025, rivals like Publicis have also significantly increased their AI investments, though they have focused heavily on integrating first-party data into their "Power of One" model to drive organic growth. The central tension remains the interoperability of these agents across different media environments and the industry's ability to standardize protocols like AdCP.
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