Viant #AI: The Adtech Savior No One Asked For?

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.

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