Agentic buying is an emerging form of online shopping where consumers rely on AI to find, compare, and complete purchases on their behalf. It can we used to buy everything from toilet paper to digital ads. As more marketers are expected to lean into the option, the IAB Tech Lab is planting a flag in the future of digital advertising with the release of its 2026 Agentic Roadmap. It is a technical blueprint for scaling AI agents in media buying and ad sales without splintering the standards that already power the ecosystem.
“Agentic execution is already part of how digital advertising operates today,” says Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur. “Open, interoperable standards are what make that possible, and our focus is on scaling it responsibly. The fastest and smartest way forward is to build on an existing shared foundation, not introduce multiple new standards that create fragmentation.”
The IAB says the document lays out a strategy to extend — not replace — industry-embraced protocols including OpenRTB, AdCOM, OpenDirect, VAST, GPP, TCF, and the recently introduced Agentic RTB Framework (ARTF), which defines how large language models and autonomous agents can participate in real-time advertising transactions without sacrificing performance. The Tech Lab is integrating those existing standards with the new protocols. The goal is to enable secure, interoperable, machine-speed agentic ad transactions while avoiding costly reinvention or competing AI languages that could fragment adoption.
“The industry gets the best of both worlds,” Katsur says. “High-performance agentic execution combined with the interoperability, governance, and trust the market already relies on, without reinventing everything.”
For the industry, Tech Lab says it also means faster roller allowing ad agencies, publishers, brands, and technology providers to adopt agentic workflows more quickly, while also reducing integration complexity, and lowering operational risk by modernizing the execution rather than reinventing foundations.
To accelerate delivery, Tech Lab confirmed it is making a “significant” engineering investment dedicated exclusively to AI development, including adding new technical resources.
The effort already has support from several in the digital industry.
“Scale only works when interoperability is real,” said George Panagopoulos, Chief Technology Officer at Experian Marketing Services. “This roadmap makes it clear how agentic execution can expand without sacrificing control or transparency.”
“Our multi-party digital advertising ecosystem operates best when we all embrace, improve, and extend the transparency and interoperability standards that enable our industry,” adds Ray Ghanbari, CTO of Index Exchange. “Tech Lab’s Agentic Roadmap builds on this proven model, extending transparency and interoperability to service-to-service and agentic transactions as well.”
To demystify the roadmap, IAB Tech Lab will host a public webinar on Jan. 28. Register HERE. It will be followed by the first in a new series of in-person Agentic AI Boot Camps, launching Feb. 12. Monthly sessions will run the second Thursday of each month, offering hands-on training for agencies, publishers and brands adopting agent-driven workflows.