LiveRamp unveils AI agents for data-driven marketing

LiveRamp has rolled out new agent-based artificial intelligence features across its data collaboration platform, allowing partner-built AI agents to operate inside LiveRamp's environment for audience planning, campaign measurement, and media optimisation.

The update centres on what LiveRamp calls "agent-powered access" to its platform. It says specialised partner agents can work across marketing tasks that often sit in separate tools and teams, shifting work away from manual processes and towards automated execution with oversight controls.

According to LiveRamp, customers can use the features under their own organisational AI policies and the usage guidelines of the relevant AI provider. Marketers can also license partner AI agents and applications and run them from a central hub within the LiveRamp platform.

"We're making it possible for AI agents to do what marketers have been doing manually - build audiences, measure cross-media performance, and optimise spend - but faster and within the governed environment our customers already trust," said Matt Karasick, Chief Product Officer, LiveRamp.

Partner agents

Agents from Newton Research and SemantIQ are available now, with more planned. LiveRamp describes the approach as an ecosystem model in which marketers can add specialist agents as new functions are needed.

SemantIQ's agent connects with LiveRamp's Clean Room product for controlled data collaboration. LiveRamp says health and life science marketers can use it to build and activate healthcare provider audiences from within that environment.

Newton Research's agent integrates with LiveRamp's Cross-Media Intelligence offering. LiveRamp says marketers can ask natural-language questions and receive measurement insights across media activity.

Newton Research says the partnership is intended to embed AI into routine marketing analysis and decision-making.

"LiveRamp and Newton Research have leaned in together to help marketers use AI to drive quantifiable performance increases, today," said John Hoctor, CEO and Co-founder, Newton Research. "As Newton Research unlocks media performance gains from analytics with specially-trained intelligent agents, and LiveRamp streamlines adoption of these next-gen agents, every marketer will be able to easily tap the power of AI as part of their everyday workflows."

Audience tools

Alongside partner agents, LiveRamp has added new tools for audience building and measurement that can be used directly in the platform or accessed through agents. LiveRamp says the tools support audience expansion and experimentation across channels.

One update is enhanced lookalike modelling, drawing on a mix of first-party, second-party, and third-party data sources. Lookalike models extend reach beyond known customers by identifying people with similar attributes or behaviours.

Another update lets marketers apply a single identity-powered control group across "surfaces and channels," which LiveRamp says enables more consistent measurement. Control groups are used in marketing experiments to compare outcomes between exposed and unexposed audiences.

LiveRamp links these upgrades to broader adoption of AI agents, with automation handling more of the ongoing tuning and iteration that campaign teams often manage manually.

DG Media Network says it is applying AI-driven lookalike modelling on top of an identity framework. An executive described identity as the basis for model accuracy.

"Building a strong identity foundation has given us confidence in the accuracy, completeness, and precision of our data. As we progress to applying AIpowered lookalike modeling to scale reach for our suppliers and advertisers, we're able to develop highquality models that help us identify the right audiences and engage them in the ways they want to be reached," said Austin Leonard, VP and GM, DG Media Network.

Privacy focus

LiveRamp operates in a market where data governance and privacy are central requirements, particularly as brands look for alternatives to older methods of tracking and audience targeting. Clean rooms and identity-based approaches are used to control how data is shared and matched while still enabling measurement and activation through approved partners.

MGM Resorts International cited privacy and security as part of its rationale for using AI with data collaboration.

"With data security and consumer privacy protected at every step, we can use AI and data collaboration to model, build, and recommend higher-quality audiences with confidence, driving stronger marketing results and enabling us to scale more efficiently," said Thomas Atkins, Executive Director of Media, MGM Resorts International.

IDC says marketing teams have faced practical barriers to using lookalike audiences, including data access, integration into existing workflows, and the ability to activate audiences across platforms.

"Marketers have historically struggled with incorporating lookalike audiences due to three main friction points: data, workflow, and connectivity," said Ananda Chakravarty, Research VP for Retail Insights, IDC. "With this release, LiveRamp addresses these factors by sourcing from first-, second-, and third-party data, adapting to workflows, and ensuring seamless connectivity and activation across the ecosystem, resulting in a marketer focused solution."

LiveRamp says the Newton Research and SemantIQ agents are the first available on the platform, and it expects to add further partner agents for audience planning, segmentation, optimisation, and measurement.