MediaPost column: 'agentic' ad platforms are rebranded programmatic tools
Ad platforms that keep more than 70% of advertisers' transaction dollars are not entitled to call themselves agentic, a MediaPost Research Intelligencer column argued on September 3, 2026. The piece traces the 'programmatic' label back more than a decade, crediting Irwin Gotlieb's data-driven buying at Mediavest, Mindshare and Group M while accusing later entrants of masking principal trading with dashboards, acronyms and attribution reports that overstate campaign impact. Agentic, the column states, means having autonomy to act independently toward a specific goal, a standard the authors say most self-described agentic ad platforms fail because they profit from the trade itself.
Buying decisions made by platforms that will not disclose their take rate leave advertisers unable to confirm whether a system optimized for the campaign or for its own margin. As agencies hand more authority to AI systems for planning and buying, the column argues that speed and automation do not substitute for independent verification of results. One of the piece's authors writes: 'AI can make decisions, but in no way should authenticate its own performance,' a call for third-party checks on any platform, agentic or not, that moves ad dollars.