Clients Fear 'Rogue' AI Agents: How Agencies Are Responding
Dentsu, NBC Universal, Freewheel, and Newton are launching an AI agent for upfront investments; Tinuiti has opened its measurement layer to AI agents.
Dentsu announced a partnership between its media agency Carat and NBC Universal, Freewheel, and AI company Newton: the consortium is launching an agent for planning, buying, and optimizing upfront investments. The news broke during Advertising Week, where the agentic future of media became one of the main topics of discussion.
The solution already has its first user. One of the parties to the deal did not name the client, but according to available data, a premium luxury retailer is already using the tool in practice.
What are agencies doing?
Two notable initiatives over the past weeks show how quickly the segment is moving toward agentic media:
- Dentsu / Carat + NBC Universal, Freewheel, Newton — an agent for planning, buying, and optimization, tied to upfront investments. A luxury retail client is already working with the solution.
- Tinuiti — the independent agency opened the 'Bliss Point Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server,' giving AI agents direct access to its proprietary measurement layer.
Tinuiti's server combines audience, creative, media, and measurement outcome data in a single loop. Previously, agencies kept such proprietary data closed; now external AI agents are being granted access to it.
Why are clients worried?
Advertisers' main fear is so-called 'rogue activity': autonomous agents operating without oversight and capable of making decisions that were never agreed upon with the client. The topic came up at several Advertising Week sessions.
The growing number of agentic initiative announcements amplifies this anxiety. The more agencies announce handing planning and buying functions over to algorithms, the more insistently clients demand explanations of exactly how oversight will be ensured.
How are agencies addressing the concerns?
Agency executives promoting agentic technologies are actively working to dispel clients' fears of uncontrolled AI behavior. This very task — warding off client rogue fears — has become one of the key storylines of the industry agenda.
The architecture of the solutions is also telling. Dentsu's partnership was built together with NBC Universal and Freewheel — a content owner and an advertising infrastructure provider. This composition of participants distributes responsibility across players in the chain and makes the agent's work more transparent for the advertiser.
Tinuiti's move of opening an MCP server, in turn, demonstrates a different approach: instead of a 'black box,' the agency integrates agents into its own measurement environment, where their outputs can be verified.
What's next?
Both cases mark a turning point: agentic technologies are no longer an experiment and are moving into operational practice — from upfront buying at Dentsu to the open measurement layer at Tinuiti.
At the same time, the competition for client trust is only beginning. The speed of agent adoption now directly depends on how convincingly agencies can prove to advertisers the controllability and predictability of autonomous systems.
Original: bbc.co.uk
More from Сергей Мельник
179 articles
Related articles
- Elvis Presley Song Rights Holders Demand $41.1 Million from Anthropic
- Pinduoduo and Anthropic paid Kazakhstan 8 billion tenge in taxes
- Disney Will Show Super Bowl 2027 Through the Eyes of Star Wars Characters
- Mom's Touch to Open 50 Restaurants in Kazakhstan with Shin-Line
- Prada answered AI slop with a pencil: 6 million views and mice in the style of Disney