Optable, a leader in identity resolution and audience activation for publishers, today announced the general availability of Optable Planner Agent, an AI-powered agentic solution that automates the most time-consuming steps in publisher ad planning. Built on open standards including the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Ad Context Protocol (AdCP), Planner Agent is the first purpose-built agentic tool designed to operate seamlessly across identity, audience, and activation workflows.

Planner Agent reads RFPs, interprets campaign goals, builds audience segments using first-party and third-party data signals, recommends inventory packages, and activates campaigns—all with human-in-the-loop controls that ensure publishers retain full command of their operations.

Solving Publisher Ad Planning’s Biggest Challenge

Today’s ad planning process is fragmented, manual, and slow. Publishers rely on spreadsheets, email threads, and disconnected tools to respond to advertiser RFPs. Proposals often take days or weeks to complete, creating bottlenecks across sales, operations, and data teams. Errors increase, efficiency drops, and revenue opportunities are lost.

“Publishers have been telling us for years that ad planning is broken—it’s too slow, too manual, and too dependent on heroic efforts from overworked teams,” said Bosko Milekic, Chief Product Officer at Optable.

“Planner Agent represents our vision for how AI should work in advertising: intelligent automation that amplifies human expertise rather than replacing it.”

By building on open standards such as AdCP, Planner Agent ensures transparency, interoperability, and publisher control—reimagining how publishers compete and scale in an AI-driven ecosystem.

Key Benefits of Planner Agent

• Reduces RFP-to-activation timelines from weeks to hours
• Increases proposal throughput without additional headcount
• Creates consistency and transparency across all campaign briefs
• Builds bespoke audience segments from all available data sources
• Supports agentic buyers and LLM-driven systems with a future-proof interface
• Maintains interoperability and control through open protocols (MCP, AdCP)

How Planner Agent Works

1. Ingest RFP or Brief: Reads uploaded RFPs and interprets objectives, audiences, and constraints.
2. Generate Recommendations: Proposes audience definitions using first-party and enriched data.
3. Find & Build Audiences: Selects matching audiences and builds segments within Optable.
4. Human Review: Publishers review and approve recommendations for compliance and brand safety.
5. Activate: Campaigns are pushed into SSPs, ad servers, or partner systems.
6. Report & Optimize: Performance data is measured for reporting and continuous improvement.

Industry Leaders Embrace Agentic Ad Planning

“Agentic systems will fundamentally reshape how buyers and sellers interact,” said David Olesnevich, VP of Weather Data and Advertising Products at The Weather Company. “Open standards like AdCP are essential to ensuring this transformation benefits the entire ecosystem.”

“The next frontier is operational speed and intelligent automation,” said Jessica Hogue, Chief Data Officer, Consumer Media at Hearst. “Planner Agent seeks to connect systems and automate key planning and activation steps.”

“Planner Agent allows our team to manage more campaigns without sacrificing quality,” said Charlie Morris, VP of Partnerships & Data Strategy at Mediavine. “Most importantly, it keeps humans in control.”

Built on Open Standards for an Agentic Future

Planner Agent leverages AdCP, an open protocol that allows LLM agents to interact securely with context-aware advertising tools and APIs. This standards-based approach ensures publishers remain interoperable and in control as the ecosystem evolves toward agentic collaboration.

Optable plans to continue expanding its agentic advertising roadmap, introducing additional AI-powered capabilities and partnerships throughout the year.