The Auction Flip: Prebid’s Plan To Swap Places With Google

The Big Story

Google’s ad tech business was ruled a monopoly. But the remedy isn’t a breakup; it’s an integration.

Google needs to do a few things: AdX must bid into other ad auctions, not just the ones in its ad server. Publishers must receive bid data, including winning and losing bids. And it is required to integrate its ad server with Prebid.

At the Prebid Summit this week, the group unveiled its plan for a new ad auction. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first: Instead of Prebid running an auction that’s fed into Google’s ad server, it’s proposing that Google feed its auction into Prebid, allowing Prebid to collect bids and handle the decision-making.

Does this mean Prebid wants to be an ad server? That’s unclear, but the change ignited interest at the event. Google employees were in the meeting rooms, our editors note, but remained silent observers even during animated group discussions about Google’s own tech.

From CDP to AEP

Then, we turn to another conference AdExchanger attended last week: a Florida summit for Treasure AI, a CDP (customer data platform) turned AEP (agentic experience platform).

Marketers have used data to better understand their customers for ages, but AI is changing how they use that data. Treasure AI is one of a number of companies (Optimizely also built AI “colleagues,” AdExchanger Associate Editor Joanna Gerber observes) that are building agents with distinct areas of expertise. Just like at a company, this team of specialists works together to create a finished product.

But, as agents become more sophisticated, the humans working with these AI employees are gaining a stronger sense of what agents can – and can’t – do. “The honeymoon phase is over,” Gerber says. “Now we’re starting to see the flaws. And the question is, ‘Will the relationship last?’”