Collaborative effort by 20+ companies establishes technical foundation for agent-to-agent communication across digital ad ecosystem
15 October 2025 — New York City — A consortium of companies across the advertising ecosystem today announced the launch of Ad Context Protocol (AdCP), an open standard that enables AI agents to communicate with advertising platforms and, as the standard evolves, directly with each other across the ecosystem.
"AdCP gives the advertising industry a chance to establish shared technical infrastructure and standards that aim to accelerate progress," said Adam Broitman, Partner, McKinsey & Company.
The founding members include Yahoo, Optable, PubMatic, Scope3, Swivel, and Triton Digital, along with launch members like Classify, The Weather Company (The Weather Channel app and weather.com), Butler/Till, Raptive, Samba TV, Newton Research, Kargo, Magnite, LG Ad Solutions, and Accuweather (full list below).
Why this matters now
Today's advertising ecosystem is fundamentally inefficient. Ad spend flows through hundreds of fragmented tools with opaque economics, where budgets disappear into opaque intermediary layers rather than reaching publishers or driving advertiser outcomes. As companies build AI agents for media buying and selling, they need a common foundation to work from — shared infrastructure that lets agents communicate, regardless of which platform they're built on.
Similar to how OpenRTB standardized real-time bidding for programmatic advertising, AdCP standardizes agent-to-agent communication for agentic advertising — enabling AI agents to work more efficiently with existing infrastructure while establishing the technical foundation for direct agent-to-agent transactions as the industry evolves. AdCP creates a bridge between today's programmatic ecosystem and the emerging agentic future, allowing agents to work with existing DSPs, SSPs, and ad servers while gradually enabling new ways of transacting.
How AdCP lays the foundation for agentic advertising
AdCP creates a common language for AI agents across the advertising ecosystem. Whether an agent is helping a marketer build audiences, discover inventory, or execute media buys, AdCP ensures it can communicate with any compatible platform or agent.
This enables fundamental changes in how advertising can work:
Built on Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, AdCP establishes a unified interface for AI agents operating in advertising.The initial release includes protocols for Audience Activation, Curation, and Media Buy, with the framework designed to expand as the industry's needs evolve.
AdCP is governed by a neutral working group representing all sides of the ecosystem — publishers, advertisers, agencies, and ad tech platforms. It is not owned by a single vendor and is designed for open contribution and broad adoption. The protocol is available now for any company to implement.
Full list of launch member companies: Accuweather, Adgent, Bidcliq, Butler/Till, Classify, HYPD, Kargo, Kiln, LG Ad Solutions, Locala, Magnite, Media.net, MiQ, Nativo, Newton Research, OpenAds, Raptive, Samba TV, Scribd, The Product Counsel, and The Weather Company (The Weather Channel app and weather.com).
About Ad Context Protocol
Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) is an open technical standard that enables AI agents to communicate across advertising platforms. Developed collaboratively by leading companies across the advertising ecosystem, AdCP establishes shared infrastructure for the agentic advertising era. Founding members include: Yahoo, Optable, PubMatic, Scope3, Swivel, and Triton Digital. Learn more at https://adcontextprotocol.org/.
