October 5, 2026 · CTREX Team
Agentic AI Reaches a New Level: 58% of the Industry Expects AI Agents to Scale in Advertising Buying
Programmatic advertising is gradually shifting from the automation of individual operations to systems capable of independently planning, making decisions, and optimizing ad auctions.
According to IAB Europe’s report, The Impact of AI on Digital Advertising 2026, published on September 24, 58% of respondents expect agentic ad buying to reach operational use or scale within the next 12 months. At the same time, 86% of participants are already using AI for marketing tasks, and 72% reported an increase in overall AI investments in 2026.
What’s changing for publishers?
In traditional programmatic advertising, algorithms already help evaluate bids, audiences, and the effectiveness of ad placements. Agentic AI goes a step further: AI agents can participate in planning and executing the sequence of actions related to ad buying and optimization.
This raises the bar for the ad inventory itself. For automated systems to make more accurate decisions, they need high-quality data on impressions, users, devices, context, and the potential value of a specific ad placement.
Predictive Valuation as the Foundation for the Next Phase
CTREX uses an algorithmic approach to evaluate ad inventory, analyzing impression parameters and adapting monetization to current conditions.
Dynamic valuation allows for differences between users, devices, and ad contexts to be taken into account, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach to all impressions.
As a result, publishers gain an infrastructure that is better suited for an environment where advertising decisions are increasingly made automatically.