The Intelligence Shift: Why Smarter Advertising Is Moving Closer to Media

For years, programmatic intelligence has largely sat on the buy side, with platforms making decisions at the point of auction. That balance is shifting as media owners contribute richer first-party signals, retailers bring purchase data into the mix, and buyers seek intelligence that lives closer to the media itself. 

Increasingly, the focus is moving upstream where those signals can shape media decisions before the auction.

At this year’s Advertising Week New York, Magnite’s SVP, Demand Mike Dupree brought together Rebekah Shalit, SVP, Head of Platforms at dentsu, Miles Fisher, VP, Global Strategic Advertising Partnerships at Roku, and Paul Lentz, Head of Strategic Development and Operations at CVS Media Exchange (CMX), to discuss what’s driving the shift and what it means for the next phase of programmatic.

Here are five key takeaways from the conversation.

1. Some of the richest audience intelligence now sits with media owners.

Media owners are bringing more than inventory to the table: they’re contributing a rich array of first-party signals and behavioral data that offer a fuller picture of the audiences behind each impression.

For OEMs like Roku, whose operating system reaches more than 100 million households globally, that means combining registration data with viewing behavior.

“Because we’re the operating system, signal is a two-way street,” said Miles Fisher. “Viewing behavior can inform advertising decisions, while connections to commerce data can help link what people watch with what they buy.”

Retail media networks bring a complementary perspective, grounded in purchasing behavior. As Paul Lentz explained, “Our ExtraCare loyalty program reaches 90 million addressable users, with an average tenure of about a decade. Also, 84% of CVS transactions happen in stores, giving us visibility into purchase histories. So we have a much larger context of the entire shopper that we’re able to bring to bear,” Lentz said.

Together, these examples illustrate the shift upstream: audience signals increasingly originate with media owners and networks.

2. More data doesn’t automatically mean better advertising.

As agencies build closer relationships with media owners and supply-side platforms, the question is no longer simply what data is available, but what new value a partnership can unlock.

“Intelligence needs to be something incremental beyond what we have available today within our tech stack,” said Rebekah Shalit. “New signals should improve performance or provide insight that existing tools cannot—not simply duplicate what advertisers already know.”

One opportunity is cultural intelligence. Purchase and viewing behavior can reveal not just who consumers are, but what they’re interested in and where cultural momentum may be building—insight that can shape how and when brands show up.

“Something that we’re really hyper-focused on today is how our brands show up in cultural moments and not a single data set can help us pinpoint that in a way that is proactive versus reactive,” Shalit said. “However, by working really closely with our publisher partners, we do get closer to that information.”

3. Interoperability is key to stronger infrastructure. 

Moving intelligence upstream requires more than access to new signals. It requires infrastructure that allows buyers, media owners and data partners to work together across platforms.

“We want to be in the enablement business and the interoperability business,” said Fisher. “The goal is to let buyers and sellers combine their respective strengths through connected infrastructure, rather than forcing data, inventory and decision-making into a single system.”

That interoperability serves a need on both sides. Agencies and brands want to activate differentiated data while buying publisher inventory through their existing workflows. Media owners want to make their inventory and first-party signals accessible to buyers without forcing them into entirely new systems.

4. Upstream decisioning paves way for a more efficient buying path.

Moving intelligence upstream allows agencies and brands to chart a more efficient path to their audiences, using signals earlier to inform decisions before media reaches the auction.

Mike Dupree compared the shift to using Google Maps to find the most efficient route. “You want to know where your exit’s going to be a few miles before you get there, if there’s going to be traffic, and having those signals helps you plan,” he said. “The result is a more efficient buying pathway.”

Dentsu’s global testing across CPG and beverage brands underlines this point. “We found incremental gains of 2X return on ad spend or 40% CPM efficiencies when signals were brought to the supply side and decisions made before the auction,” said Shalit.

By going directly to the source, advertisers can also avoid some of the repeated data matching and additional signal fees associated with demand-side platforms.

5. AI will put more intelligence into action.

The supply side’s growing role in audience intelligence is being amplified by AI, which helps media owners and retailers turn first-party signals into action—refreshing audiences as behavior changes and automating routine campaign tasks.

AI is also accelerating campaign reporting. “Tasks that once took weeks can now be completed in minutes, with roughly 90% of the work automated,” Lentz said.

But the panelists drew a clear line between automating routine work and handing over strategic judgment. Shalit described a “sliding scale of low to high human oversight requirement,” with content interpretation, strategic planning and long-term innovation still requiring a high degree of human craft.

That distinction surfaced again in the panel’s closing lightning round. Asked whether they would agree or disagree to trust an AI agent to move a meaningful amount of client budget without approving each change, all three panelists had the same emphatic response: “Disagree.”

The bottom line: supply-side intelligence is becoming a competitive advantage.

Regardless of where they sit in the supply chain, the panelists agreed on where programmatic is heading: more consequential decisions should happen before the auction, with media owners playing a greater role in campaign outcomes and accountability.

The opportunity is to connect the first-party signals closest to consumers with the infrastructure to activate them earlier, turning supply-side intelligence into better-informed decisions, more efficient media buying and stronger campaign outcomes, while preserving human judgment where it matters most.