These formats don’t work in chaotic or low-quality content ecosystems. They require well-tagged, structured, high-signal environments. Premium publishers are uniquely suited to provide such environments. As a result, the most valuable inventory won’t be visible pages. It’ll be the structured, cited, reusable snippets AI agents pull from again and again.
A second wind for direct-sold advertising
For years, direct deals were pushed aside by scalable, programmatic buys. But in a world where AI agents deliver answers instead of pages, brand safety and contextual relevance return to center stage.
Going forward, direct deals with frequently cited publishers will carry outsized value, and advertisers may pay a premium to be adjacent to LLM-verified information. Increasingly, marketers will favor partnerships that give them a durable presence in trusted content streams, not just one-time exposure.
What marketers should do now
Given this shift, marketers should consider the following strategies in an AI-first media world:
- Shift from targeting users to targeting contexts: LLMs don’t deliver people. They deliver answers. Brands need to be discoverable in the right moments, not just the right demos.
- Partner with citation-worthy publishers: Aligning with sources that LLMs already trust ensures you show up in the new interface of discovery.
- Prepare creative for text-native environments: LLM outputs are overwhelmingly textual. Ads should match that format: informative, context-aware, and seamlessly embedded.
- Treat AI agents as distribution channels: Ask: What’s our brand’s presence in generative ecosystems? How often are we cited, referenced, or recommended by AI?
- Consider new performance metrics: Instead of CPMs or CTRs, think: How often is my brand cited in generative responses? How much influence do we have in machine-curated journeys?
The real shift: authority as inventory
When machines curate content for people—and not the other way around—the balance shifts. Long tail loses its edge. Premium reclaims its pricing power. Authority becomes scalable again.
The next great media opportunity won’t come from clicks. It will come from being trusted by the machines that decide what people see next. And for the first time in a long time, that’s very good news for publishers who still believe in quality.