Startups are betting that AI agents—technology that carries out tasks on behalf of humans—can take over the unglamorous grunt work of ad operations, and investors are buying in.
This year alone saw a new crop of startups, including Olyzon and Swivel, that automate media buying tasks like trafficking line items, rewriting video creatives for dozens of audience segments, and reallocating budgets in real time. While the human touch isn’t redundant yet, these bots promise to be faster, cheaper, and—according to their creators—more precise than the actual hands on keyboards.
In 2025, agentic AI startups have raised a whopping $700 million, according to Crunchbase, as investors bet on the next wave of AI-fueled productivity. Big tech players aren’t sitting out either, with giants like Google and Salesforce releasing their own agents for rote marketing tasks. By 2028, 33% of business software applications will incorporate AI agents, according to a 2024 Gartner report, signaling a broader shift toward automation in daily operations.
“Historically, ad ops have been a services business done in-house or by specialized consultants, so it makes sense to expect AI agents to replace and augment this business,” Sim Blaustein, early-stage VC Investor, 1745 Ventures, told ADWEEK. “[The question remains] if these agents will be able to achieve the margins and moats of classic software [or SaaS] businesses, or will they resemble the services businesses they replace?”
Here are five startups, listed alphabetically, using AI agents to automate the repetitive tasks behind modern marketing campaigns.
MarkeTeam
What its AI agents do: MarkeTeam equips mid-market brands with AI agents that act as extensions of in-house marketing teams. These agents integrate with internal systems—social media, analytics, and ad platforms—to monitor trends, analyze competitors, and make real-time optimizations. The startup, staffed by five AI agents, uses its digital workforce for content creation, SEO, and brand management.
Brands it works with: Glassy Baby, Accessibility Accelerator, Kimberly-Clark, Dunkin’ Donuts, Kellogg’s, Vimeo, Cisco
Funds: Raised $3 million in seed funding in 2025
AI model: AI agents are trained on open-source models such as Meta’s Llama, Google’s Gemma, Qwen (developed by Alibaba Cloud)
Olyzon
What its AI agents do: Olyzon’s AI agents help brands plan and execute ads on connected TV platforms like Vizio. After receiving a campaign brief via chatbot, the agents identify target audiences and build media plans by mapping ads to relevant shows. They also pull brand assets directly from a company’s website—like logos and product images—to generate ad formats such as pre-roll and in-stream creative.
Brands it works with: PepsiCo, L’Oréal, Loewe, Mastercard, Nissan, Redbull, Ford, MG Motors, IKEA
Funds: Raised $5 million in a seed round in 2025
AI model: OpenAI, DeepSeek, Anthropic, and Olyzon’s proprietary tech
ProRata
What its AI agents do: While ProRata’s core product is a search engine, the company expanded into advertising earlier this year, using AI agents to handle tasks like ad copywriting, creative matching, and campaign optimization, specifically for ads running within its own search platform.
Brands it works with: Brands across insurance, travel, fashion, and consumer electronics; ProRata declined specify.
Funds: Raised $25 million Series A in 2024
AI model: Uses a mix of open-source large and small language models, including Meta’s Llama 3
Streamr.ai
What its AI agents do: The AI agents automate both creative production and media buying for CTV ads. Its Creative Agent generates video ads using a brand’s images and videos from its website, Instagram, Shopify, and Google Business API, among others. The Campaign Planner Agent suggests budgets, reach forecasts, and targeting across key demographics, geographies, and behaviors. Meanwhile, the Campaign Optimization Agent produces and tests multiple creative variants for each audience segment, automatically reallocating budget based on real-time signals like website visits and QR code scans to maximize ROAS.
Brands it works with: Trident Coffee, Countryside Homes, Mondeca Design, and runs ads across Comcast’s Universal Ads, Channel 4, and ReachTV
Funds: Bootstrapped, with a $2.5 million seed round expected this fall
AI models: Google’s Veo 3, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Suno, among others
Swivel
What its AI agents do: Swivel’s AI agents automate ad monetization for publishers, performing up to 50,000 optimizations per day, compared to the 100–200 typically handled by human ad ops teams. Through a rules-based engine, publishers first set parameters for tasks like line item creation, which the AI then automates. The agents also surface strategic recommendations where, if a publisher sets a rule, such as adjusting price floors based on performance, the AI agent can analyze similar patterns across other demand partners and suggest expanding that logic to optimize yield.
Brands it works with: LG and Telly
Funds: $5.8 million in Series A funding in 2025
AI model: Developed in-house and trained on each client’s own data
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