Ad tech’s two competing AI agent protocols are still more blueprint than marketplace, according to Jochen Schlosser, Adform’s chief technology and product officer. In an ExchangeWire Trader Talk TV episode published September 23, 2026, he said AAMP and AdCP do largely the same job, very little money runs through either, and the advertisers they are built for may never notice which one their platform uses.
One brief, two rulebooks
Schlosser’s whiteboard session set the IAB Tech Lab’s Agentic Advertising Management Protocols against the Ad Context Protocol. Both try to let AI agents discover ad space, negotiate prices and set up campaigns. But the purpose overlaps almost completely: discovery, packaging, negotiation and targeting appear on both sides.
- AAMP evolves the existing OpenRTB ecosystem and adds package discovery, negotiation and setup. Buyers inherit frequency capping, curated audiences and DSP/SSP targeting.
- AdCP is more abstract and execution-agnostic. It describes what an execution layer must return rather than prescribing OpenRTB, so more implementation work shifts to sellers.
Schlosser’s key point was about what buyers actually want. People “don’t crave for autonomy they crave for assistance,” he said. The real demand is for conversational help to surface inventory, not hands-off automation.
The adoption math nobody likes
On the question of scale, Schlosser was blunt. When asked whether very little money runs through both systems, he replied “Absolutely.” DataBeat’s June report put the gap in numbers: conventional programmatic buyers cleared at a $6.95 CPM versus $6.13 for agentic buyers, with agentic demand entering 86% fewer auctions.
The engineering burden is real too. Schlosser estimated a custom deals API integration with one SSP would cost Adform 250 to 350 days of work, while building against a shared standard might take 50. For agentic connections, a custom build for every SSP would stretch to thousands or tens of thousands of days; a shared standard makes it “almost nothing to connect.”
Execution latency adds another layer. Trusted Match, AdCP’s frequency-capping component, now carries a 50-millisecond service-level agreement, compared with OpenRTB’s 20 to 100-millisecond window and Adform’s internal 2-millisecond requirement. That pushes both protocols toward similarly heavy execution layers, Schlosser argued.
What to do while the protocols shake out
Schlosser expects many platforms to build a core layer that takes a brief and passes it through connectors to whichever protocol a seller speaks. That means advertisers stay indifferent only as long as dual-protocol support stays out of their fees.
For marketing and growth teams, the practical response is to keep the conversation on outcomes. Ask your DSP or SSP whether agentic discovery, negotiation and setup are included or priced as extras. Track agentic CPMs against conventional programmatic performance before moving budget. And treat agentic tools as assistance for your team, not a replacement for negotiation and approval.
Schlosser’s forecast allows three endings: one protocol dies, they merge, or they coexist. Adoption will probably be decided by seller supply and buyer demand, but the margin question will land with platforms either way.
Source: PPC Land
