The Trade Desk launches Kokai Zuma, claims 32% CPA gain from agentic AI

August 29, 2026 · mediaweek.com.au

Rolling out globally from 27 August, Kokai Zuma is The Trade Desk's latest upgrade to its Kokai media buying platform, expanding the agentic capabilities of its Koa AI system. Koa now analyses more than 20 million ad impressions every second, and a new Koa Assistant gives traders a conversational interface for campaign creation, audience building, troubleshooting and performance analysis. The Trade Desk credited Zuma's updated modelling and forecasting engine with an average 32 per cent improvement in cost-per-acquisition performance, though it provided no sample size, campaign mix or methodology behind the figure. CEO Jeff Green said Zuma was built to make Kokai 'faster, simpler and smarter.'

Traders gain tools that automate routine campaign changes, from audience discovery to frequency optimisation, freeing time for strategy work while forecasting upgrades sharpen inventory predictions before budgets get committed. The Applied Settings View and updated bulk-editing tools let teams preview the effect of changes across campaigns before applying them, cutting the risk of costly errors at scale. Redesigned Conversion Lift and Report Builder tools simplify how lift studies and custom reports get built, making it easier to justify budget decisions with data. The 32 per cent CPA claim invites scrutiny given the missing methodology, and agencies weighing Kokai against rival platforms will want to test Zuma's forecasting accuracy against their own campaign benchmarks.