PubMatic 全力押注智能体广告采购：权力多大才算过界？

Tuesday, November 10th, 2026 – 12:03 am

Why So Immature?

PubMatic saw sizable growth in Q3, with its revenue totaling $79.6 million – up 17% from the same period last year.

Its not-so-secret sauce? Advancing AI solutions and increased demand for CTV and mobile app advertising.

CTV spend represented 21% of PubMatic’s total revenue this quarter, up 30% year over year, CFO Steve Pantelick told investors on Monday afternoon’s earnings call. Mobile app revenue grew even faster, nearly 40% year over year, and made up roughly 27% of quarterly revenue.

But it’s not just ad spend that’s evolving; it’s how the ads are bought and launched. Since PubMatic launched AgenticOS, its operating system for agentic advertising, in January, buyers have used it to run over 120 fully agentic campaigns, roughly one-third of which happened in Q3.

And the company only expects that number to go up.

When asked by an investor what parts of a campaign are still done by humans and which steps can’t be replicated by AI, PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel suggested that whatever isn’t yet being done by AI soon will be.

Some clients are “all in on AI,” while others want to manually review each step of the campaign, Goel said, describing it as different “parts of the maturity spectrum.”

Meaning: If you don’t want AI doing your work for you, tough luck. Just “mature” a few more years.

That’s That Me Espresso

“There’s a lot of risk in automating choice,” Jonathan Roberts, head of innovation at People Inc., cautioned listeners during the IAB roundtable discussion “Advertising in the Agentic Era” on Monday.

Although allowing an AI assistant to make purchase decisions may be a tempting convenience, it will devolve into a “winner takes all” situation for brands, which is, simply put, “bad for democracy,” said Roberts.

Not to mention the fact that what’s best for one customer isn’t best for everyone. Roberts likens AI answer engines to a bar where every customer is handed an espresso martini because that’s the average, or most common, order.

Personal agents, though, ingest a large amount of information about the consumer. “People will literally tell [them] everything, even if they shouldn’t,” Roberts quipped. That becomes an issue in terms of privacy, but also in terms of overreliance on memory. Which is to say, just because you ordered something once doesn’t mean that’s the product you want every time, or that you need another, identical product.

The sweet spot for recommendations is somewhere in between the two extremes: AI agents that prioritize real-time data and protect consumer privacy while also providing personalized responses that cater to user preferences.

Otherwise, said Roberts, “we have this kind of ‘espresso martini for everyone’ world, and that sucks.”

AI Endorse This Message

WPP-owned ad agency Ogilvy is partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to use the likenesses of CAA’s celebrity clients in AI-generated ads, reports Digiday.

The resulting ads will use data from CAA’s library of digital face and body scans, which it already maintains for use in deaging and postproduction work. They will also be watermarked as AI and approved by the talent featured therein.

Technically, this agreement is a kosher one as far as Hollywood is concerned. SAG-AFTRA’s AI regulations stipulate that performers are required to give consent to the use of digital replicas and must be compensated at the same rates as they would be for in-person filming.

But even though actors are on board (although only Terry Crews has publicly opted in so far), it might still be difficult for consumers to come around to the idea of AI-generated endorsements.

Sure, AI-generated content is now prevalent enough that some audience members are even voluntarily watching it. (Remember how many views “Fruit Love Island” got?) But the existing association that many users probably still have between deepfaked celebrity endorsements and online scam ads might be tougher to overcome.

But Wait! There’s More!

The best, worst and strangest of the midterm ads. [NYT]

Regional sports network SNY gets hit with layoffs and show cancellations. [The Athletic]

ICMYI, here’s a timeline of the scandal that rocked Nvidia CEO and Co-Founder Jensen Huang’s world over the weekend. [Business Insider]

You’re Hired!

SiriusXM hires Anjali Sud as its new CEO. [Variety]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.