CNN International Commercial, which manages the media company’s business operations outside of the US, is developing infrastructure in preparation for agentic media trading, aimed for completion by early 2027.
The test will focus on enabling AI agents to exchange information, negotiate pricing and manage tasks autonomously on behalf of media buyers and sellers, using agentic protocols, first reported by Digiday.
The global media company that also owns Warner Bros. Discovery, revealed in Q3 it would test properties to see how they’re interpreted by LLMs, before focusing on whether budgets are being allocated toward agent-to-agent trading in Q4.
CNN said it will use both in-house and off the shelf products to develop the infrastructure, and will work alongside IAB Tech Lab to ensure the agents produce accurate outcomes.
Agentic Media Planning and Buying
Agentic media planning and buying represents a shift from simple automation to autonomy. Where traditional programmatic advertising focuses on rule-based scripts, agentic trading focuses on goal-oriented systems that reason, negotiate, and adapt.
CNN’s strategy, which will use Advertising Context Protocol (AdCP), focuses on developing an agentic strategy where specialised agents can operate in parallel to trade inventory efficiently.
In January this year, NBCUniversal also announced a partnership with ad tech firm FreeWheel and agency RPA to test agent-to-agent buying, using AI sales agents to negotiate and optimise video investment across linear TV and streaming platforms.
Disney also announced its own Disney Ads Agent at CES 2026, which can target audiences and search for relevant inventory based on a brand’s creative brief.
Clearly, media trading is moving towards an agentic future, as agents let brands evaluate millions of potential ad placements without needing humans to manage platforms.
