Ad Industry Must Stay 'Open' To Save The Web
PALM SPRINGS, CA -- IAB CEO David Cohen called on the advertising industry to do what it can to keep the web open and get involved in privacy regulations before some other entity or political regulation does it instead.
He made the appeal during his keynote on Monday at the IAB ALM conference here.
Cohen called on support for the open web along with interoperable and transparent digital technology, as artificial intelligence (AI) changes business models and privacy regulations.
He asked conference attendees to “stay open, open to the potential, open to the new ways of thinking and new business models” and “open to possibilities.”
There will be a critical role for ethical considerations and industry standards, and the IAB is ready to lead those standards.
“One thing we know about the future is that it will arrive at dizzying speed,” he said. “On some days, maybe many days, we will feel like we crash landed from Kansas right next to the yellow brick road to Oz.”
He spoke about AI agents that will innovate and evolve without human input. “Your agent will connect with my agent, and deliver tasks with incredible efficiency,” he said. “In that world, how does advertising work?"