Inside Agentic Advertising: Publishers, Platforms & Payments

Agentic advertising has quickly become one of the most talked about topics in AdTech. AI agents buying and selling media on behalf of advertisers and publishers promises a more automated, efficient, and intelligent ecosystem.

But beyond the headlines, where are we actually today? 

In Episode 2 of the Revving PubCast, our co-founders Chris Pettit and David Mandeno sat down with Andrew Mole, CEO of pubX.

pubX connects publishers and advertisers through a transparent, data-driven marketplace built on five years of publisher-side trust and data. Its agentic technology operates across every auction in real time, helping drive better yields for publishers and stronger performance for advertisers.

Together, they explored what agentic advertising really means in practice, where adoption stands today, and why the conversation extends far beyond media buying alone.

Beyond the Hype

Much of the discussion focused on separating genuine progress from industry excitement.

While agentic advertising has become a major talking point, Andrew explained that adoption is still in its early stages. The technology is real, but the industry is moving through the work of testing, learning and proving where AI agents can create genuine value.

Rather than replacing people, the opportunity lies in allowing software agents to manage the operational complexity that humans simply can’t optimise at scale.

“It solves the human capital problem. Humans are limited by scale […] Agentic gives us the opportunity to get the best job done, not just get the job done.” Andrew Mole, CEO, pubX

Putting Publishers Back at the Centre

One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion was the role of publishers.

Programmatic advertising has created extraordinary scale, but that scale hasn’t always translated into better outcomes for the publishers creating the inventory and audiences advertisers want to reach.

Andrew argues that agentic advertising offers an opportunity to rebalance that relationship.

By helping publishers surface the right audiences, package value more precisely, and transact more efficiently, agentic systems could give publishers greater control over how their inventory is valued and sold.

As the conversation explores, the winners won’t simply be the platforms with the most automation, but the businesses that create the most value for the ecosystem.

Simplifying a Complex Ecosystem

Another theme that surfaced was operational complexity.

AdTech has become dense with manual workflows, fragmented systems, and intermediaries built to solve specific problems. Over time, that has made the ecosystem harder to navigate for everyone involved.

Rather than adding another layer, Andrew sees agentic advertising as a chance to simplify how work actually gets done.

Routine tasks that consume traders, sales teams and AdOps functions today could increasingly be handled by agents, freeing people to focus on higher-value decisions, relationships and strategy.

“AdTech has spent 15 years trying to fix the problems that AdTech has created [ …] Agentic gives us the opportunity to rewrite the strategic problems of the industry.” Andrew Mole, CEO, pubX

Payments Can’t Stay Outside the Workflow

While AI is transforming how media is bought and sold, Andrew, David and Chris highlighted another challenge sitting underneath the industry: payments. 

Campaigns may eventually become increasingly autonomous, but payment infrastructure still relies on processes and settlement cycles that were designed for a very different era. 

As David explains during the conversation: 

“Payment terms should be a choice that either participant of the transaction can choose into, rather than that being dictated.” David Mandeno, COO, Revving

The discussion explores how financial infrastructure could evolve alongside agentic workflows, giving businesses greater flexibility over when revenue moves through the ecosystem rather than treating payment timing as a fixed constraint.

Building What Comes Next

The episode closes on a clear point. Agentic advertising isn’t just another optimisation layer; if it takes hold, it changes how media is transacted, how value is created, and how the infrastructure around those transactions needs to operate.

As Andrew puts it: 

“I do think agentic is inevitable. I do think this is the way media is transacted, and I think in three years from now it’s going to be normalised.” Andrew Mole, CEO, pubX

For publishers, there is immense opportunity to regain more control over how inventory is valued, how audiences are activated, and how value flows back through the ecosystem. 

That is what makes this conversation bigger than automation. It’s about what the next generation of advertising infrastructure could unlock, and who it’s ultimately built to serve. 

Watch the full episode above to hear the discussion in full.

Learn more about pubX: https://pubx.ai/