Martech

5 startups using AI agents to automate ad ops and boost media efficiency

These startups want to replace ad ops teams with bots and they just raised millions to do it

Patrecia Meliana

30 Jul 2025 • 4 min read

A new crop of AI startups is taking aim at one of marketing’s most overlooked pain points: ad operations. In 2025 alone, companies building “agentic” AI—software that acts autonomously on behalf of users—have raised nearly US$700 million, per Crunchbase.

While the human touch in marketing still matters, the rise of AI agents signals a shift in how brands think about scale, precision, and labor. Startups like Olyzon and Swivel promise not just faster execution, but lower costs and operational leverage that could reshape the economics of media buying.

This article explores five AI agent startups reinventing how marketers plan, buy, optimize, and manage advertising campaigns across digital channels. Their bots rewrite creatives, traffic line items, reallocate budgets, and optimize performance at a pace humans can’t match.

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Here’s a table of contents for quick access:

MarkeTeam.AI

MarkeTeam.ai positions its AI agents as digital staff for mid-market brands, offering capabilities that span trend monitoring, content creation, SEO, and brand management. These agents hook into analytics platforms and social channels to keep campaigns agile and responsive.

By operating as an extension of in-house teams, MarkeTeam gives marketers a flexible layer of automation—particularly valuable for companies without large ad ops departments.

Clients include: undisclosed
Funding: US$3 million seed round
Model base: Meta’s Llama, Google’s Gemma, Qwen

Olyzon.TV

Olyzon's AI agents simplify the complex task of planning and executing connected TV (CTV) campaigns. From a chatbot brief, the agents identify relevant shows, match ads to audiences, and automatically pull brand assets from a website to generate creative formats.

By compressing what used to take hours into minutes, Olyzon is making CTV advertising more accessible for both global brands and lean teams.

Clients include: PepsiCo, Mastercard, Nissan, L'Oreal
Funding: US$5 million seed round
Model base: OpenAI, DeepSeek, Anthropic, proprietary stack

ProRata

Originally a search engine startup, ProRata entered the ad tech arena by applying AI agents to ad copywriting and optimization within its own platform. Brands targeting ProRata’s users now benefit from automated campaign setups, real-time creative testing, and ongoing performance tuning—all handled by bots.

This vertical integration of search and media buying could offer tighter feedback loops and higher efficiency for brands that play in ProRata’s ecosystem.

Clients: undisclosed
Funding: US$25 million Series A
Model base: Open-source LLMs including Llama 3

Streamr.ai

Streamr.ai is all-in on agentic automation for connected TV ads. Its AI suite includes a creative generator, media planner, and optimization engine that adjust budgets dynamically based on live user signals—think QR code scans or product page visits.

The goal? Push personalized video ads at scale without humans managing dozens of variants or bid strategies.

Clients include: Trident Coffee, Mondeca Design
Funding: Bootstrapped, with US$2.5 million seed round planned
Model base: Google Veo 3, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Suno

Swivel

Swivel flips the script by serving publishers instead of brands. Its agents handle up to 50,000 daily optimizations in ad monetization tasks—far surpassing human ad ops teams that typically manage a few hundred per day. From line item creation to yield optimization, Swivel’s bots follow publisher-set rules and learn from platform-level patterns to improve performance.

For publishers under pressure to maximize revenue per impression, Swivel’s automation promises both scale and strategic insight.

Clients include: LG, Telly
Funding: US$5.8 million Series A
Model base: In-house, trained on client-specific data

What marketers should know

Whether you’re managing performance campaigns or optimizing video ad placements, AI agents are no longer a fringe experiment. Here's how marketers should be thinking about the shift:

1. Start by identifying repeatable tasks.

Creative testing, asset generation, and budget reallocation are all prime candidates for automation. AI agents work best when there are clear inputs, outputs, and rules.

2. Choose vertical-specific solutions.

Some agents, like Streamr’s, are built for CTV; others, like Swivel’s, are publisher-centric. One-size-fits-all bots won’t deliver strategic value if they can’t plug into your media mix or platforms.

3. Think about data hygiene.

AI agents only perform well if they’re trained on clean, structured inputs. Before handing off tasks to automation, make sure your brand assets, campaign briefs, and audience data are up to par.

4. Don't replace, augment.

AI agents might outperform humans on speed and scale, but judgment still matters. Use them to free up your team for creative, strategic, or cross-channel work.

Agentic AI isn’t a hypothetical—it’s a funded, fast-moving wave reshaping digital marketing. Startups are betting that bots can do ad ops better than humans. The onus is on marketers to decide when—and how—to plug them in.

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