If you believe Viant’s CEO Tim Vanderhook, AI is about to liberate the advertising world from the tyranny of spreadsheets, ad ops teams, and, well, basic human oversight. No more fat-fingered budget inputs. No more endless trafficking tasks. Just the blissful automation of media buying at the push of a button.

At least, that’s what the press-friendly pitch says.

But internal emails from agencies, advertisers, and those in the trenches tell a different story—one that sounds a lot less like progress and a lot more like an AI-powered land grab. The overwhelming sentiment? This isn’t about “saving ad buyers time.” It’s about centralizing control, eliminating oversight, and locking brands into yet another DSP-driven black box.