As announced last week, LightBoxTV is accelerating its investment in AI as part of our long-term vision. This comes at a time when the entire advertising industry is beginning to shift.
We are uniquely positioned to integrate the next generation of AI capabilities directly into the planning layer, where strategic decisions are made before activation begins. Rather than building isolated AI tools that sit further downstream, we are embedding intelligence into the core of the planning environment itself, where it can truly drive better outcomes.
AI innovation is emerging across several areas, but we believe its most immediate and meaningful potential lies in transforming how campaigns are planned, activated, and measured. This is where AI can have the greatest impact, reshaping the foundations of strategy and delivering near-term gains where they matter most.
AI has the potential to impact every part of the advertising ecosystem. While the possibilities are real, the challenge is moving from isolated tools to integrated solutions that fit naturally into real-world campaign execution.
We’re seeing major advances across key areas:
Agentic AI systems are starting to emerge. These are capable of dynamically adjusting campaign strategies in real time based on changing signals. While still early, the potential is clear. Human oversight will remain crucial via human in the loop systems, but with governance frameworks and control layers in place, advertisers can safely unlock real efficiencies without sacrificing control.
Content categorisation and classification at scale is also gaining traction. As computational costs have dropped, it is now possible to scan, label, and interpret vast volumes of data and inventory. A prime example is content metadata. In traditional TV, this data has always been relatively clean and structured. In CTV, by contrast, we see firsthand how messy, inconsistent, and incomplete content metadata can be. It often lacks clear taxonomy or standardisation. AI offers a critical solution by helping to standardise and enrich content intelligence, enabling sharper audience targeting and more accurate campaign reporting.
AI copilots and assistants are also helping planners and buyers work faster and more efficiently. They surface real-time insights around audience mix, inventory availability, strategic recommendations, and platform support. These tools are beginning to streamline workflows, enabling users to move through complexity with greater speed and confidence.
Predictive planning is becoming increasingly viable as well. By using historical signals and viewership data to forecast reach, audience behaviours, and inventory availability even before a campaign launches, it strengthens upfront strategic decision-making.
But while AI’s capabilities are advancing quickly, the challenges are growing just as fast. Many emerging tools are tied closely to specific buying platforms or activation routes. While these offer powerful features, they can make it more difficult for advertisers to integrate AI across the broader planning and buying ecosystem. Instead of simplifying operations, they risk creating new silos.
From day one, we built LightBoxTV to sit at the heart of TV planning. It bridges Linear and CTV, connects multiple datasets, and fits naturally into agency workflows without bias toward any particular buying path.
Think about it like how Cursor improved uponVScode. It creates a powerful environment that expands what you can do with your data, helping you plan, optimise, and deploy rapidly, without losing control.
That’s our focus for LightBoxTV:
All delivered in a platform designed for flexibility, transparency, and control.
We expect the pace of innovation around AI and automation to move faster than almost any other technological wave this industry has seen.
We’re already in discussions with a wide range of forward-thinking partners who are building insights and capabilities that can live within the LightBoxTV platform. These will sit alongside our own internal developments and deliver a steady stream of new features in the months ahead.
If you’d like to learn more about how we’re evolving LightBoxTV to support smarter, faster, and safer TV advertising with AI, we’d love to hear from you.
