AI in Digital Advertising in 2025

2024 was a banner year for AI in digital advertising, especially at Viant. The launch of ViantAI, which allows advertisers to develop a media plan in seconds, has been called “the biggest launch in ad tech history.” 

So, what AI innovations can agencies and advertisers look forward to in 2025?

To find out, we sat down with Senior Director of Product Marketing Eric Shuai. 

Q: Eric, before we dive into what AI looks like in 2025, can you discuss the advances AI made last year?

In 2024, AI made significant strides that are already reshaping digital advertising. It’s remarkable how far we’ve come since generative AI was introduced in late 2022.

One major breakthrough was the emergence of AI Agents, like Google’s Gemini 2.0, which can perform multi-step tasks, such as conducting research across websites. Multi-modal AI interactions also took center stage, enabling conversations that integrate visuals, creating podcasts from uploaded materials, and even providing real-time gaming tips. Tools like Microsoft’s Copilot Vision demonstrated how AI can interpret screens to assist decision-making.

Another area of progress was video creation. OpenAI’s Sora model showed promising potential, even though it’s still in its early stages. These advancements highlight how rapidly AI capabilities are evolving.

In digital advertising, AI is beginning to make a real impact. Many DSPs now leverage machine learning for targeting and bidding optimization. At Viant, we launched the first generative AI planning tool —ViantAI — which transforms media planning by reducing the process from days to seconds. Additionally, IRIS.TV’s AI-driven contextual metadata for CTV content has revolutionized targeting, allowing advertisers to focus on emotions, brand references and content types rather than just specific shows.

These innovations are just the start, and I’m excited to see how they’ll continue to help businesses connect with customers in more meaningful ways.

Q: OK, let’s move to 2025. What evolutions do you see for AI this year?

AI’s ability to help advertisers create higher-quality content, especially videos, will be a major trend in 2025. OpenAI’s Sora model now enables the creation of surprisingly polished 20-second videos, and Google’s Vids adds AI voiceovers to its video content creation tools. Video, which is traditionally costly, is becoming more accessible for smaller advertisers thanks to AI.

AI has also made strides in analyzing complex quantitative data — a pain point for advertisers running omnichannel campaigns with millions of variable combinations. AI can quickly uncover hidden insights and explain trends in data that typically take hours to analyze.

As AI improves, the rise of AI agents handling optimizations — shifting budgets between channels, publishers and audiences — will gain traction. Signal loss from cookie opt-outs, especially with Chrome’s upcoming update, presents another challenge. If opt-out rates mirror Apple’s, over 90% of Chrome users could disappear. AI may help solve this with lookalike targeting, but it’s a tough hurdle.

Lastly, the need for regulation will become critical. AI simplifies content creation but raises risks like false advertising, copyright issues and misuse of likenesses. Addressing these concerns will be a priority in 2025.

Q: Can you tell us about ViantAI? 

ViantAI represents a leap forward in programmatic advertising, designed to help advertisers unlock the full potential of their campaigns more quickly than ever before. Imagine cutting out the tedious, time-consuming processes of planning, executing and optimizing campaigns — and instead having an intelligent assistant take care of the heavy lifting for you.

ViantAI empowers advertisers to move from strategy to execution in moments. It starts with just a few basic inputs — like your campaign goal, budget and timeline — and immediately gets to work analyzing data to define your audience, recommend channels, allocate budgets and even optimize media plans. For example, in a live demo, ViantAI helped a grocery brand identify its ideal target audience, choose the best channels to reach them and allocate a $5M budget across platforms like CTV, streaming audio and digital out-of-home — all in a matter of seconds.

But ViantAI is more than just a tool for efficiency; it’s a system designed to improve outcomes. It can suggest ideal times to run ads, set frequency caps to avoid ad fatigue and even recommend measurement strategies like tracking foot traffic or running brand lift studies. While it’s not fully autonomous yet, it gets advertisers most of the way there, enabling teams to spend less time on manual processes and more time refining and enhancing strategies with their unique expertise.

Looking ahead, ViantAI will continue to evolve, with upcoming features like seamless integration into Viant’s DSP and the ability to incorporate first-party data for even deeper insights. It’s not about replacing human creativity — it’s about accelerating what’s possible, giving advertisers the freedom to focus on what really matters: creating campaigns that connect with audiences in meaningful ways.

Q: Eric, looking beyond 2025, what other advancements do you foresee with AI in digital advertising?

Looking ahead, AI has the potential to help marketers achieve the ultimate goal: delivering the right message to the right customers at the right time. As AI continues to learn from programmatic campaigns, it will provide more predictive insights into crafting tailored messaging for different customer segments and identifying the most effective channels, publishers and even time slots to drive desired outcomes. Advanced measurement will play a crucial role in creating a feedback loop to refine and enhance these capabilities.

AI will also democratize sophisticated tools like multivariate testing, which were once exclusive to large companies with vast resources. By simplifying and automating these processes, AI will enable advertisers of all sizes to test multiple combinations of media and creative, leveling the playing field.

Another transformative opportunity lies in optimizing the customer journey. AI will help advertisers deliver personalized, dynamic experiences by orchestrating the right message in the right sequence, at the right time and in the right context. This approach will foster deeper engagement and drive meaningful behavior.

Together, these advancements will make programmatic campaigns not only more efficient but also significantly more effective, helping advertisers achieve better outcomes and delivering greater value to consumers.

To learn more about Viant’s AI innovations, including ViantAI, get in touch with your sales representative, or get started with Viant today.