Role of identity reinforced, while speed of AI ad development outpaces marketer skillsets

Welcome to the May Spotlight, your monthly deep dive into the latest developments shaping the future of adtech and digital marketing.

In a month of many major news stories, we focus on why the acquisition of the year (so far) proves that data infrastructure is becoming a significant battleground, how media brands are restructuring for an internet without clicks, and why the deployment of AI is moving faster than the talent pipeline.

Identity shaken

The biggest shockwave this month came from Publicis Groupe’s $2.2 billion acquisition of LiveRamp. It is a defining moment for the data industry. For rival holding companies, this deal has necessitated a massive rethink regarding reliance on one of the industry’s largest data onboarding options – and one which became so by being independent.

Our view? Robust, privacy-compliant identity infrastructure has been more than a tactical tool for some time; it is the core qualifier underpinning enterprise value. As the open web undergoes structural shifts, the premium on secure, first-party data and direct verification has never been higher.

Is “zero-click” finally here?

Publishers are facing still greater traffic challenges as Google rolls out a sweeping AI search overhaul. With AI Overviews keeping users entirely within Google’s walled interface, traditional referral search traffic is drying up. The page-view economy as we knew it is fading, with the worst-case scenario being that publishers move from being destination websites into backend information sources for LLMs. Shifts in strategy will accelerate. Forward-thinking media companies are moving away from traffic-dependent models, choosing instead to double down on direct audience relationships, proprietary newsletters, and subscriptions. Protecting and growing the value of unique, human-curated audiences may prove the only way to retain leverage in a zero-click ecosystem.

AI ads abound

OpenAI’s emerging conversational ad model is rapidly evolving from experimentation towards scalable programmatic deployment. Demand-side platforms such as StackAdapt are expanding access to emerging ChatGPT ad formats, in some cases removing minimum spend requirements. While tech vendors are lining up to cash in on high conversion rates (Criteo reported traffic converting at 1.5 times the rate of standard referrals) the industry remains cautious. Right now, OpenAI relies on adtech intermediaries to borrow demand, but it is simultaneously building its own self-serve stack to own that demand directly.

For marketers, the message is clear: conversational commerce is scaling, but we must watch closely to see how these new walls are built.

The AI adoption paradox

Budgets rise, skills stall. New insights from Digiday+ Research highlight a stark contradiction in modern agency and brand workflows. While marketers’ use of generative AI and agentic tools is skyrocketing, with Chief Marketing Officers now allocating over 15% of budgets to AI initiatives, internal technical skills are falling well behind.

Only 30% of executives report being genuinely “ready” to govern and operate these systems. As autonomous media buying agents move from theory to real-world, a concerning gap is opening between technological capability and human oversight. Media moves exceptionally quickly, and AI is pressing a foot further down on that pedal. Yet, it requires a strategic workforce that understands how to step back, assess and apply the brakes. Implementing guardrails, managing complex data flows, and ensuring brand safety are critical.

More from Novatiq

For more insights on future-proofing your first-party data strategy and maintaining independent identity resolution in a consolidating market, visit our blog – our latest post explores how telco data enables more accurate, privacy-first CTV targeting.