From AI to In-App: Making Programmatic’s Next Chapter Work

This post was written by Elan Carter, Vice President of Growth and Business Development at Start.io

New capabilities are changing what programmatic advertising can accomplish. Their lasting value will depend on how effectively the industry puts them to work. AI needs to improve how people collaborate, while growing investment in mobile needs infrastructure that supports publishers’ businesses and the experiences their audiences expect.

Those priorities connected two recent conversations I participated in at Programmatic I/O and the Prebid Summit in New York. I joined industry peers to discuss the practical decisions that will determine how much value these opportunities deliver. Across both events, I came back to the same conviction: Progress requires closer alignment between business ambitions and the technology supporting them.

AI Can Help Business and Technology Teams Find Common Ground

At Programmatic I/O, I joined my Start.io colleague Meital Goldberg and Patrick Callinan of T-Mobile Advertising Solutions for “Bridging Biz and Tech: How AI Is Rewriting the Playbook.” We discussed how AI is changing everyday collaboration between teams that often approach the same opportunity from different perspectives.

Business teams understand what clients want to accomplish. Technology teams understand what it takes to build a solution. Translating between those perspectives has always required time, and misunderstandings can persist well into development.

AI is beginning to help with that translation. An idea can become a visual or mockup before anyone writes code, giving both teams something concrete to evaluate. Assumptions become easier to challenge when everyone can see how a proposed solution might work.

We also discussed how AI can help teams assess client potential more accurately. A clearer understanding of an opportunity, its associated attribution and better measurement can improve decisions about where to devote resources, while reducing the back-and-forth that slows collaboration.

For me, these applications capture where AI can make an immediate difference. When teams reach a shared understanding sooner, they can make better decisions about what to build and why. That creates a stronger connection between technical effort and business value.

Mobile’s Growth Raises the Stakes for the App Experience

At the Prebid Summit, I participated in “The Growth of Mobile & In-App” session, which examined growing adoption of the Prebid Mobile SDK and the opportunities it creates for publisher monetization.

After years of predictions about the “year of mobile,” I feel compelled to borrow a line from Shania Twain: “Looks like we made it.” But that milestone comes with a practical challenge: Growing demand for in-app advertising increases the importance of getting the underlying technology right.

My view is that the industry needs to marry SDK performance with the experience each publisher wants to deliver. Monetization technology operates inside a product that people have chosen to use. Its performance therefore has consequences for the publisher’s relationship with its audience.

That makes SDK performance a growth  journey. Publishers dissatisfied with performance may limit their monetization of high performing campaigns’ potential or reconsider a provider altogether. Higher demand alone cannot resolve those tensions; we need to address the technical conditions that allow publishers to benefit from it.

Our discussion also touched on identity and brand safety, alongside AI. As mobile attracts more interest, the ecosystem will need to adapt in ways that give buyers confidence and publishers a sustainable path to growth.

Building Progress Through Shared Problem-Solving

My takeaway from both conversations is that alignment will determine how far these opportunities take us. AI can help business and technology teams work toward a shared goal. Mobile’s continued growth requires the same alignment across the companies responsible for delivering advertising inside apps.

The next stage of programmatic will take shape based on how teams turn an idea into something useful, and how the ecosystem makes growing demand work for the publishers sustaining it. As we help shape that future at Start.io, I see an opportunity to build stronger connections between the people developing the technology and the businesses depending on it. Those connections will help turn the industry’s ambition into growth that lasts.

Contact Start.io to discuss how we can help turn your next advertising or monetization opportunity into lasting growth.