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About agentic advertising

When you ask an AI assistant for a product recommendation, the assistant can surface relevant brands — similar to how a retail platform shows sponsored products when you search. The brand pushes its product catalog, brand identity, and content standards into the platform ahead of time. When a user’s question matches, the AI generates a contextually relevant recommendation from that data. This is called Sponsored Intelligence.
AI platforms are beginning to offer advertising, and the market is growing. AdCP provides a standard protocol so your buyer agent can connect to any AI platform that implements it — without building a custom integration for each one. Your buyer agent discovers available inventory from connected sellers in real time via get_products.
SEO for AI (sometimes called GAIO or generative AI optimization) focuses on getting your brand mentioned in organic AI responses by optimizing your public content. Sponsored Intelligence is paid advertising — brands push structured product data, brand identity, and optimization goals into AI platforms through a standard protocol, and the platform generates clearly labeled sponsored content. The two approaches are complementary, not competing.
Yes. Sponsored Intelligence content is labeled as sponsored, the same way sponsored search results and retail media placements are labeled. Transparency is a core principle — the user always knows when content is paid.
For a practical guide to buying ads on AI platforms, see the monetizing AI guide. For the technical protocol walkthrough, see the Sponsored Intelligence overview.

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About AdCP

AdCP (Ad Context Protocol) is an open protocol specification that defines how AI agents interact with advertising platforms. It provides standardized tasks, JSON schemas, and transport mechanisms for operations like media buying, creative generation, audience activation, and brand governance.AdCP is a specification — not a product, platform, or company. Anyone can implement it.
AdCP is developed and maintained by AgenticAdvertising.org, an open member organization. AgenticAdvertising.org is not owned by or affiliated with any single company. It is an independent organization whose members include platform providers, advertisers, agencies, and developers.
AgenticAdvertising.org exists to pioneer a more intelligent, human-centric advertising future through Agentic AI.The organization unites builders and thinkers to develop agentic solutions that pair the scale of AI with the power of human judgment. Its vision is to be the definitive engine of the Cre(ai)tive Economy — where every brand and creator thrives through agentic collaboration.Three pillars support this mission: open standards (AdCP), education (the Academy and certification program), and governance (frameworks that keep humans in the decisions that matter).
No. AdCP is not owned by Google, Meta, The Trade Desk, or any other company. It is maintained by AgenticAdvertising.org, an independent member organization. No single company controls the protocol. Governance decisions are made by member working groups and committees.
Yes. AdCP is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. You can use, modify, and distribute implementations of the protocol without restriction.
No. There is no cost to use, implement, or license AdCP. The protocol specification, JSON schemas, and documentation are all freely available. You do not need to pay a fee or sign a license agreement.
AdCP is currently at version 3.0 release candidate 2 (v3.0-rc.2). This means:
  • The protocol design is stable and suitable for pilot implementations
  • Schemas and task definitions may still receive minor refinements based on implementer feedback
  • Breaking changes are possible before the final 3.0 release, but are tracked through semantic versioning
See the release notes for version history.
No. Anyone can implement AdCP without being a member of AgenticAdvertising.org, without requesting permission, and without paying any fees. The Apache 2.0 license grants full rights to use the specification.

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How AdCP relates to other standards

No. AdCP and OpenRTB operate at different layers and are complementary.
OpenRTBAdCP
ScopeImpression-level transactionsAgent-level workflows
OperationsBid requests, bid responses, win notificationsProduct discovery, media buy creation, creative generation, audience activation
ParticipantsDSPs and SSPsAI agents and advertising platforms
TimingReal-time (milliseconds)Asynchronous (seconds to days)
A platform can implement both. For example, a publisher’s AdCP agent might accept a create_media_buy task from a buyer agent, then use OpenRTB internally to execute the impression-level delivery. AdCP handles the workflow; OpenRTB handles the auction.
AdCP is a separate specification from IAB Tech Lab standards. AgenticAdvertising.org is an independent organization. However, AdCP is designed to be compatible with IAB standards — for example, AdCP’s content taxonomy fields align with IAB content categories, and AdCP’s audience segments can reference IAB audience taxonomy IDs.
Yes. AdCP’s sponsored_intelligence channel covers advertising within AI assistants, AI search engines, and generative AI experiences — including sponsored responses, AI search sponsored results, generative display, and brand experience handoffs via SI Chat Protocol. AI platforms and ad networks implement AdCP the same way any seller does: publish adagents.json, implement get_products with channels: ["sponsored_intelligence"], and accept media buys. See the Sponsored Intelligence protocol for product modeling, workflows, and measurement.
AdCP uses MCP (Model Context Protocol) and A2A (Agent-to-Agent Protocol) as transport layers. Think of it this way:
  • MCP and A2A define how agents communicate (the transport)
  • AdCP defines what agents say about advertising (the domain)
AdCP tasks are the same regardless of transport. A get_products call has the same request schema and response schema whether it travels over MCP or A2A. See protocol comparison for details on how the two transports differ.
No. Platform APIs (self-serve dashboards, management APIs) serve a different purpose than AdCP. Platform APIs expose the full, proprietary feature set of a single platform. AdCP provides a standardized interface for common advertising operations across platforms.A platform that implements AdCP does not need to replace its existing API. AdCP sits alongside it, providing a standard interface that AI agents can use for cross-platform workflows.

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Buying AI media

Pricing varies by platform and format. Common models include CPC (cost per click) for sponsored responses and AI search results, and per-session pricing for conversational brand experiences via SI Chat Protocol. Your buyer agent discovers available pricing from connected sellers through get_products — each product lists its pricing options.
AI assistants, search copilots, and conversational platforms are live today. The ecosystem is early-stage and growing. Your buyer agent discovers available inventory from connected sellers in real time via get_products — you always see what’s currently reachable.
No. AdCP supports standard measurement integrations. Your existing attribution, viewability, and brand safety tools work alongside protocol-native reporting.
Yes. AdCP is additive to existing agency relationships. Your agency can use buyer agents to extend their capabilities, or you can work with AdCP-certified practitioners.
If your agency already supports AdCP, you can be live in days. If not, the monetizing AI guide walks through options for brands, agencies, and small businesses — including working with an AdCP-certified partner.

Read the buyer's guide

What you need, what data to provide, and how to find a partner — whether you’re a brand, agency, or small business.

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Certification

Start a conversation with Addie, our AI teaching assistant. She’ll guide you through interactive modules at your own pace.
The Basics track has 3 modules, about 50 minutes total. Most learners finish in a few focused sessions. Practitioner tracks add 4 more modules (~90–105 minutes depending on your role track).
The Basics track is free and open to everyone. Practitioner and Specialist tracks require AgenticAdvertising.org membership.
Not for the Basics track. The Practitioner track includes a build project, but it uses vibe coding — you describe what you want in plain language and an AI agent writes the code.
Yes. That’s the point. The Practitioner build project is designed so that anyone — including marketing executives with zero coding experience — can build a working advertising agent through conversation with an AI coding assistant.
Vibe coding means describing what you want in plain language and having an AI coding assistant build it. No syntax, no prior programming experience needed. You iterate by describing what to change — the AI handles the code. In the certification build project, you’ll vibe-code a working advertising agent.
Yes. Every module has 3–5 required demonstrations — specific things you must do or explain during the conversation. These are identical for all learners, enforced by the system, and cannot be skipped. Addie adapts the teaching to your background, but the bar is the same for everyone. An experienced ad tech executive and a newcomer both verify the same core competencies. See assessment fairness for details.
AdCP evolves. When a protocol update changes what certified professionals should know, the system identifies which credentials are affected and notifies holders about what changed. Recertification is targeted — if the update affects creative workflows but not media buying, only creative-related credentials are flagged. You won’t be asked to redo material that hasn’t changed.

Start the certification program

Open Addie and say “I want to get certified.” The Basics track is free — no account required.

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Getting involved

Read the introduction for an overview, then explore the domain that matches your use case:
  • Sell-side platforms: Start with media buy to expose your inventory
  • Creative platforms: Start with creative to offer format discovery and ad generation
  • Data providers: Start with signals to make audiences addressable by agents
  • Orchestrators and agencies: Start with the integration guide to connect to existing AdCP agents
JSON schemas for all tasks are available at adcontextprotocol.org/schemas.
Both. AgenticAdvertising.org membership is open to individuals and companies. If you work in advertising — as a trader, media planner, buyer, agency strategist, or any other role — you can join as an individual member and benefit from:
  • Certification — The Practitioner and Specialist tracks teach you how agentic advertising works and how to build advertising agents, regardless of technical background. The Basics track is free and open to everyone.
  • Community — Connect with others navigating the same transition from programmatic to agentic, across roles and companies.
  • Working groups — Participate in groups that shape protocol direction. Your operational perspective as a practitioner is valuable — protocols built only by engineers miss real-world workflow needs.
  • Professional development — Agentic advertising is early. Getting certified now positions you ahead of the curve as the industry adopts AI-driven workflows.
You do not need to be an engineer or represent a company to join. Individual membership is designed for practitioners who want to learn, contribute, and stay ahead of the industry shift.
Membership gives you access to the community, certification, and governance:
  • Certification — Practitioner and Specialist credential tracks, including a hands-on build project where you create a working advertising agent
  • Working groups — Participate in groups that shape protocol direction and vote on proposed changes
  • Member directory — List your organization’s capabilities so others can find you as a partner or vendor
  • Community — Connect with implementers, practitioners, and decision-makers across the industry
Membership is not required to implement AdCP or to complete the free Basics certification track. See the working group page for how to get involved.
Yes. The protocol is developed in the open. You can:
  • File issues and feature requests on GitHub
  • Join the community Slack to ask questions and discuss implementations
  • Submit pull requests with bug fixes or documentation improvements
  • Build and publish your own AdCP implementation
Membership is for individuals and organizations that want to go deeper — certification, working groups, and formal influence over protocol governance.

Get started with AdCP

Implementation guides, SDKs, and integration patterns.