AI in adtech: the vendors selling to advertisers, agencies and publishers

Every layer of advertising, from the bid to the ad itself to the report on whether it worked, now has vendors selling AI. This piece covers the AI vendors that sell to advertisers, agencies and publishers, not the brands or media owners themselves.

We checked 41 companies against their own websites and pricing pages on 25 and 26 September 2026, and profile 39 of them here, grouped by the job each one does.

The short version

• →The work splits into six jobs: buying and campaign automation, measurement and attribution, brand safety, context and attention, creative, streaming TV and in-content ads, and publisher yield.
• →Measurement is being absorbed. DoubleVerify, a verification company, acquired the attribution company Rockerbox, and Smartly, a buying and creative platform, acquired the incrementality company INCRMNTAL.
• →Many tools price on your spend. Madgicx, Bïrch and Motion tier their plans by your ad spend, Northbeam and Rockerbox by your marketing spend, and Albert asks for your yearly ad budget before quoting.
• →Ownership keeps moving. Integral Ad Science was taken private, Mediaocean acquired Innovid, and Mirriad says it has ceased trading.

Buying and campaign automation

The Trade Desk sells an omnichannel buying platform to advertisers, with AI features in its Kokai release. It announced an agreement to acquire Sincera in January 2025, and its first-quarter 2025 results state that the acquisition closed in that quarter. Quantcast calls itself "The Ad Platform Built for Performance Marketers". Smartly sells an AI advertising platform to brand, performance and creative teams, and completed its acquisition of INCRMNTAL in May 2026. Pixis sells "a complete, AI-powered advertising solution" to consumer brands. Albert, which describes itself as "Albert by Zoomd", sells autonomous campaign management to advertisers and agencies. Madgicx sells AI management of Meta ads. Bïrch, which renamed itself from Revealbot in October 2024, automates ads for performance teams. Madhive sells local TV and streaming tools to media sellers.

Measurement and attribution

Northbeam sells attribution and marketing mix models built on machine learning. Triple Whale calls itself an AI operating system for commerce, and in January 2026 completed its acquisition of Anteater, which analyses how AI models surface brands. Rockerbox sells attribution, mix modelling and incrementality testing, and is now part of DoubleVerify, whose quarterly filing records the acquisition in March 2025. Measured calls itself "the AI-powered marketing effectiveness platform trusted by enterprise brands". Haus, which gives its headquarters as San Francisco on its press page, sells incrementality experiments and causal models. Recast sells marketing mix modelling. Mutinex sells what it calls a "Growth Answers Platform" to marketing teams.

Brand safety, context and attention

DoubleVerify sells verification and optimisation to brands, agencies and publishers. Integral Ad Science sells media measurement and optimisation, and announced the completion of its acquisition by Novacap in December 2025. GumGum promises to "Find the Moments Most Likely to Move People" and sells contextual advertising across streaming, video and display. Seedtag sells "Neuro-Contextual" advertising built on its own AI, Liz. Peer39 sells pre-bid contextual data and brand safety, and in June 2026 announced it acquired Adloox. Adelaide sells attention metrics to marketers and publishers.

Creative

These vendors generate ads and test which ones work. Pencil says "Marketing has an AI operating system now". Typeface sells "Agentic AI for enterprise marketing teams". Omneky generates ads for brands and agencies. AdCreative.ai belongs to Appier, which announced the deal in February 2025 and later said it was acquired towards the end of its first fiscal quarter of 2025. Motion sells creative analytics to brands and agencies. Marpipe, headquartered in New York, turns product feeds into catalogue ads. Vidmob sells creative data to brand, creative and media teams. CreativeX sells "the system to scale creative excellence".

Streaming TV and in-content ads

This is where adtech meets broadcasters and streamers. Innovid, headquartered in New York, is now part of Mediaocean, which completed the acquisition in February 2025. IRIS.TV sells "the only data platform built for video", and Viant announced it acquired IRIS.TV in November 2024. Wurl, AppLovin's streaming TV platform, sells to publishers, streamers and advertisers. Vionlabs sells video metadata and discovery to streaming platforms. Anoki pairs streaming TV with multimodal AI, selling scene-level contextual targeting, and quotes Magnite on its homepage.

Rembrand sells "In-Content Advertising. Powered by AI.", advertising placed inside the content itself. In July 2025 it formed a joint venture to run Mirriad's US business, and in September 2025 it announced a merger with Spaceback. Mirriad, which sold virtual product placement, now states on its own homepage that administrators were appointed in May 2026 and that the company has ceased trading.

Publisher yield

Optable, from Montréal, calls itself an agentic platform for the advertising ecosystem. Raptive sells to independent creators and media companies, and in June 2026 announced the acquisition of AlchemyAI. Ezoic sells AI ad optimisation to sites, apps and newsletters. Assertive Yield sells revenue management and AI optimisation to publishers and supply-side platforms.

What to ask before you buy

1. 1.What happens to your bill when your spend grows? If the tool is tiered by ad spend, your success raises its price. Ask for the price at double your budget.
2. 2.Is the measurement independent of the buying? When the same company buys, verifies and measures, ask how it keeps those apart.
3. 3.Who owns this vendor now? Several changed hands in the last two years. Check the vendor's investor releases and footer, not only the first announcement.
4. 4.What does the AI do on its own? Ask what it changes without approval, and how you see and reverse it.

If you sell one of these products, expect these questions in the first reply.

How we did this

We checked 41 companies against their own websites and pricing pages on 25 and 26 September 2026, and profile 39 of them here, described the way each describes itself. Mirriad appears only as an event. We left out Ryff, whose web address no longer shows its own site. Deals come from the companies' own announcements and filings, and we report each as announced or completed exactly as those sources state. The list covers the vendors we examined, not the whole market.

If something here is out of date or wrong about your company, tell us and we will correct it with the source.