Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI) on April 27 announced two parallel AI expansions: an agentic buyer agent now in testing with programmatic firms Kepler and MiQ using Disney Advertising inventory, and enhanced AI-powered mediation tools in its SpringServe platform for publishers, according to a company press release.
“AI is creating an opportunity to bring greater intelligence and efficiency to every part of the advertising workflow,” said Sean Buckley, President of Revenue and Market Strategy at Magnite. “By advancing mediation within SpringServe, we’re helping publishers gain clearer visibility into performance, automate optimization, and make more confident decisions about their business.”
Two Tracks: Buy-Side and Sell-Side Agents
The buyer agent is designed to streamline activation, optimization, and performance management in programmatic workflows. Kepler and MiQ are the initial testing partners, with access to Disney Advertising inventory as the testing ground. The agent handles tasks that currently require manual campaign management: bid optimization, audience targeting adjustments, and performance monitoring across programmatic channels.
On the sell side, Magnite expanded SpringServe with three AI-powered mediation features: anomaly detection that identifies shifts in auction performance, demand path optimization to improve efficiency, and dynamic pricing tools that adjust to changing market conditions. These give publishers centralized control over monetization decisions that previously required manual monitoring across multiple demand sources.
Partner Ecosystem Expanding
Beyond the Kepler and MiQ tests, Magnite announced collaborations with Publicis Media Exchange on seller agent workflows and a partnership with Spectrum Reach to pilot AI-enabled mediation, as Investing.com reported. The company emphasized an open framework approach: in addition to developing its own buyer and seller agents, Magnite will collaborate with partners that use third-party agents to enable more flexible workflows.
Ad Tech’s Agent Moment
Magnite’s announcement follows a pattern across programmatic advertising in 2026. The industry is splitting agent specialization between buy-side (campaign optimization, audience targeting, bid management) and sell-side (yield management, demand path optimization, anomaly detection). Each side has distinct workflows that benefit from autonomous decision-making at speeds human traders cannot match.
The choice of Disney Advertising as the testing inventory is notable. It signals that premium publishers are willing to let autonomous agents interact with their inventory in controlled environments, a prerequisite for the technology to move from experimentation to production.