Experts from Vevo, Mediaocean, McKinsey, and dentsu opine on the near future impact of AI on streaming TV. It will help revolutionize the ad experience and bring trust, transparency, and certainty to the TV ad business.
At the VideoNuze CTV x AI Preview 2025 conference, I moderated a panel entitled AI’s Capabilities Bring Benefits to CTV. The discussion was wide-ranging, covering everything from AI in the UX to the back office. I asked my panel of four experts to mention one thing they are excited about that AI will achieve in the near future. Here is what each had to say.
Ad creative in real-time, competitive with social
Gerry D Angelo – McKinsey and Co
Two of my panelists saw AI enabling the real-time generation of customized ads. Gerry D’Angelo, Senior Advisor, Marketing & Sales, McKinsey & Company, is steeped in the advertising market, having recently been a senior executive at Procter & Gamble. As such, his thoughts went straight to how AI can help deliver the ultimate ad experience:
“The ability to automatically generate and tailor ad content in a real-time basis, dependent on data from the viewers, the context of the program, and levels of engagement.”
AI is necessary to generate all the foundational metadata required to customize the ad. It is also necessary to process all the user preference data and decide in real time what type of ad to create and deliver to the viewer.
Natasha Potashnik – Vevo
Natasha Potashnik, Vevo’s Head of Data, Research & Measurement, amplified Mr. D’Angelo’s thought:
“More seamless ad creative that goes off of the content that was just there. It feels like a better user experience, kind of similar to what exists today on the social platforms.”
Given Vevo’s music video focus, smoothing the ad experience is essential to boost viewing time. Imagine a smooth jazz channel being interrupted by an ad blasting heavy metal! I can’t think of a faster way to lose a viewer! She also pointed out that social video platforms like Reelz and TikTok are already smoothing the ad experience, so supporting the functionality is a competitive issue for streaming TV providers.
Removing uncertainty, boosting trust and transparency
My second two panelists took us in a different direction. Both see the opportunity for AI to help tackle the less tangible but oh-so-real problem of uncertainty.
Kevin Weigand, VP of Partnerships – Video & Audio at dentsu US Media Investment Solutions, thinks AI will help remove uncertainty in the ad decisioning process, plugging the gaps and leading to more predictable outcomes:
“We work with personalized recommendations engines with our video partners, with the OEMs of the smart TVs, to better predict and better create forward-facing investments to do some of that bidding.”
Asaf Greiner, General Manager, Protected by Mediaocean, had mentioned earlier in the discussion that he thought AI could help bring trust and transparency. He said it would give us a common language, smoothing interactions between media entities. He expanded on the point:
Asaf Greiner – Protected by Mediaocean
“A lot of what we are doing in verification is kinda of black box these days. And hopefully, the common intelligence with the artificial intelligence would allow us to create that common language, which will take a lot of that friction away and become much more efficient in our day-to-day <business dealings>.”
My panelists made many other great points during the discussion. You can catch a re-run of the entire panel when VideoNuze publishes them in the next several days. Also, check out this Friday’s Inside the Stream podcast, when Will Richmond, editor-in-chief at VideoNuze, and I will review the major themes of the virtual conference. You will also be able to find the podcast here first thing on Friday morning.
