PLAYBOOK ATLASPlaybook Atlas

Advertising

AI in advertising: explore 32 applications.

Connect campaign decisions to delivery, conversion quality and measured business outcomes.

Explore creative review, audience preparation, bidding and measurement workflows for media buyers and marketing teams.

Plan your first AI move See the 32 applications

Where the 32 applications sit

Explore the domains
  1. 16Performance Optimization
  2. 7Campaign Management
  3. 7Targeting and Personalization
  4. 5Regulatory Compliance
  5. 3Market Research

01Why AI now

Why advertising is moving on AI, in three figures.

Each figure links to its source.

  1. Ad fraud losses: $84.2B in 2023

    Juniper Research estimated that 22% of global digital advertising spend, totaling $84.2 billion, would be lost to fraud in 2023.

    Source: MediaPost

  2. AI in ad creative: 83% of companies

    IAB reports that 83% of ad executives say their company has deployed AI in the creative process, up from 60% in its 2024 study.

    Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

  3. Programmatic inefficiency: $22B opportunity

    The ANA found that only 36 cents of each programmatic ad dollar effectively reaches consumers, leaving marketers $22 billion in potential efficiency gains.

    Source: Association of National Advertisers (ANA)

How to evaluate a first project

Choose one campaign decision and compare it with the buying platform’s existing controls. Establish conversion definitions, attribution delays and spend limits before testing a change. Report delivery and attributed results separately from effects established by a valid incrementality study.

02Capability map

Where advertising puts AI to work, domain by domain.

Pick a domain to see its applications. Each one opens a full report.

Inside Performance Optimization

Applications in Performance Optimization

What the use cases ask AI to do

Share of the advertising use cases, by the kind of work the AI does.

  1. Reasoning

    Analyzes, predicts and decides: scoring, forecasting, classifying.

    62%

  2. Generation

    Creates: text, images, code and other content.

    35%

  3. Agentic

    Acts: plans, uses tools and completes multi-step tasks.

    4%

Under 1% each: perception and optimization.

03What gets built

The approaches advertising uses most, and when to skip them.

Knowing when not to use one matters as much as knowing when to.

  1. 01 · 12 applications

    API-Wrapper

    Thin application layer over a managed AI API.

    API-Wrapper, in depth

  2. 02 · 5 applications

    Workflow Automation

    Use AI inside orchestrated workflows to automate multi-step business processes.

    Use it when

    • When you have repetitive, rule-heavy workflows that still require human judgment or document understanding.
    • When the process spans multiple systems (ERP, CRM, ticketing, email) and manual coordination is slow or error-prone.
    • When large volumes of semi-structured or unstructured data (emails, PDFs, forms) must be processed consistently.

    Skip it when

    • When the process is highly creative, exploratory, or non-repeatable, with no stable sequence of steps.
    • When decisions are extremely high-stakes (e.g., life-critical medical decisions, major legal judgments) and regulations require full human control.
    • When you lack reliable access to the necessary systems or data sources to complete the workflow end-to-end.
    Workflow Automation, in depth

  3. 03 · 3 applications

    AI Evaluation Diagnostics

    AI evaluation, failure analysis, and model diagnostics workbenches.

    AI Evaluation Diagnostics, in depth

04The applications

32 advertising applications, each with a full report.

The widest first, by the number of use cases each covers. Every report shows what changed, how it works, who has done it and what can go wrong.

  1. Programmatic Budget Pacing and Bid-Control ReviewReconcile campaign spend, inspect supported optimization suggestions and evaluate pacing changes against delivery limits. Custom controllers need real decision-time feedback, explicit actuation rights and live comparison; causal return requires a separate valid experiment.API Wrapper7 use cases
  2. Programmatic Advertising OptimizationConfigure and evaluate programmatic bids against a defined campaign outcome, then monitor delivery, conversion quality and spend. Start with the buying platform’s native bidding controls; custom policies need separate offline and live evaluation.API Wrapper7 use cases
  3. Advertising Trend Signal ForecasterTrack emerging search-demand signals, preserve forecast versions and compare predictions with later observations. Turn supported signals into planning questions for a marketer; evaluate campaign impact separately from forecast accuracy.API Wrapper6 use cases
  4. Cross-Channel Media Budget ReallocatorCompare constrained channel-budget scenarios using explicit measurement assumptions, then stage approved changes and reconcile actual spend. Keep daily pacing separate from model-based estimates of incremental impact.Simulation-Optimization5 use cases
  5. Behavioral Ad Audience SegmentationCreate permitted advertising audiences from observable behavior and tested predictions, then verify membership and campaign outcomes. Keep purchase propensity, short-horizon revenue and incremental ad response as different measures.API Wrapper5 use cases
  6. AI Ad Creative StudioHelp creative teams turn an approved campaign brief into reviewable ad variants. Keep product facts, prices, logos and required disclosures tied to their sources; track each approved asset through export and a controlled campaign test. Measure production effort and campaign results separately.Generative-Content4 use cases
All 32 applications, A to Z

Work with us

The catalog shows what is possible. A sprint decides what you should fund.

Reading every report still leaves the hardest question open: which move is worth funding first, here, given your constraints. That is the sprint: two weeks, fixed scope, and a candid answer either way.

Book a 30-minute callHow the sprint works

Two weeks Fixed scope A candid fit-or-no-fit answer

  1. 01

    Three ranked opportunities

    A decision-ready shortlist scored against value, feasibility, evidence, risk, and time to proof.

  2. 02

    One pilot-ready workflow

    A bounded operating design with actors, handoffs, data needs, controls, and success measures.

  3. 03

    A defensible 90-day plan

    Build-versus-buy guidance, ROI assumptions, risk treatment, sequencing, and executive decisions.

05Rules & standards

Rules and standards to check, with their scope and sources.

Selected US and EU references for these workflows. Applicability depends on jurisdiction, organization, data and intended use. The planning notes are Atlas editorial guidance; they are not official implementation-time estimates or an exhaustive list of obligations.

  1. Truthful advertising and substantiated claims

    Law or regulation

    United States · FTC jurisdiction

    Advertising claims must be truthful, non-deceptive and supported by evidence. These principles also matter when AI drafts product descriptions, recommendations or campaign copy.

    FTC: Truth in Advertising

    Source checked

    Project planning note

    Tie generated claims and creative variants to approved product evidence before release.

  2. Digital Services Act · online platforms

    Law or regulation

    European Union · covered intermediary services

    The DSA applies different duties by service type and size. Covered online platforms have advertising transparency duties and restrictions on certain profiling-based ads; a retailer is not automatically an online platform.

    EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Articles 19, 26 and 28

    Source checked

    Project planning note

    Identify the platform role and confirm which targeting fields and disclosure controls the ad workflow uses.

Your next step

Find your first move in advertising.

Ask the workspace which move fits your company. Add your size, systems and constraints, and it works from these 32 applications to a plan your team can act on.

Plan your first AI move

Rather talk it through? Book a 30-minute call