White paper gathers perspectives from early AI adopters and innovators in publishing, including Future and The Irish Times
The rapid rise of agentic AI has fundamentally changed the infrastructure supporting advertising activities within major publishers and media companies. Yet while AI has unlocked new capabilities and opportunities for publisher monetization, nearly all of the industry’s conversation around AI and publishing has focused on a small part of AI’s impact today: media buying and selling agents.
Beyond Transactions: How AI Has Reshaped Publisher Monetization, a new white paper from Permutive, explores the significant impact agentic AI adoption has already had on publishers’ advertising solution capabilities, highlighting new opportunities and expanding what’s possible for publisher monetization.
Over the past three years, Permutive has been working alongside publishers and media owners to put agentic AI into practice across their advertising businesses. Beyond Transactions draws on these learnings and experiences, bringing together practical examples of how publishers have adopted AI and the new capabilities it makes possible.
“AI is fundamentally changing how publishers operate, from how we understand and engage audiences to how we deliver measurable outcomes for advertisers,” said Jamie Samuel, VP, Commercial Product & GTM, Future.
The white paper offers information to help publishers navigate and accelerate their own AI adoption journeys, while providing advertisers a clearer understanding of these capabilities so they can create greater value through partnerships with publishers.
For example, the evolution is already changing how publishers compete in the broader advertising ecosystem. As Sam Bloom, Head of Partnerships at PMG, explains, “Over the past two to three years, publishers have integrated sophisticated AI agents across their advertising solutions stack. As a result, the gap between publisher media solutions and walled garden solutions is quickly closing.”
As the global leader in publisher data and privacy-first collaboration, Permutive was able to draw from experiences across dozens of publishers, including specific insights from The Irish Times and Future, offering a firsthand look at how AI is being applied across publisher advertising solutions. It explores the technologies and approaches behind this evolution, with an overview of agentic AI adoption and emerging protocols, alongside detailed explanations of how audience, planning, optimization and reporting agents work in practice.
In addition to first-hand publisher stories, Permutive co-founder and CTO Tim Spratt provides a state of the state on agentic’s broader impact on publishing. “In these early days, the ecosystem is already seeing the benefits of using agents to collaborate on buy-side decisioning that is owned by the agency and activated directly with the publisher. We hope this guide illuminates a path forward for advertisers, agencies, and publishers alike,” Spratt writes.
The white paper is intended as a resource for publishers, from those just beginning to explore the technology to those already putting agentic systems into practice. By sharing practical examples, emerging approaches and perspectives from across the industry, Permutive hopes to help accelerate adoption and unlock new opportunities for collaboration between publishers and advertisers.