AI is turning ad tech into a fight for the brain behind the buy
The number of mergers and acquisitions in ad tech has been steadily increasing as 2026 draws to a close, proving an apt context for this year’s Digital Marketing Summit, hosted by investment bank LUMA Partners earlier this week, where attendees debated what’s most likely to spur the interest of corporate development teams
Opening the DMS proceedings were Terry Kawaja, LUMA Partners CEO, and Conor McKenna, a partner at the boutique investment bank, both of whom said AI is changing ad tech on two fronts: how marketing technology selects and delivers ads, and how consumers discover and buy products.
As workflows get easier to automate
The first shift is in ad tech, with such technologies making previously complex workflows easier to automate; this movement is likely to prompt a shift in competitive advantage away from managing the process of campaign delivery to making better real-time decisions, i.e., firms that can better establish which signals to use, what creative to show, where to place an ad and how to improve results will thrive in the AI-first era.Â
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Source:: Digiday
