The Trade Desk introduces an AI forecast engine

Advertisers and agencies can turn to artificial intelligence to gain a clearer picture of where campaign expenditures are flowing across the buy and sell side of the programmatic ecosystem.

That's the planned end result with the latest tools from The Trade Desk, announced today, all of which intend to lower barriers to understanding programmatic buying, planning and optimization.

Launched at a private event in Singapore by Jeff Green, CEO and founder of The Trade Desk, the products, collectively referred to as the Next Wave, aim to help advertisers plan, forecast and buy digital media more effectively.

"By enhancing the innovations on our platform that have always set us apart, we are giving agencies and brands more control and power and a great user experience," said Green. "This is truly the next wave of digital advertising.”

Digging into data to spot and analyze trends is Koa, a new AI-based forecast engine that powers a user interface (UI) and a planning tool. The UI tool is Megagon, a data visualizer regarding the predictions and recommendations made by Koa, while The Trade Desk Planner guides users on strategies across devices and channels.

The Trade Desk said the simplicity of the new engine is intended to lower the barriers to entry into programmatic for advertisers and publishers, with tools that make buying more intuitive. This also eliminates the need for new users to invest in a trial and learning budget, given that the engine reportedly learns from past campaigns, providing users with relevant metrics before budgets are allocated.