Rakuten Advertising unveiled Innovation Labs this week, a product development hub designed to accelerate AI adoption across its global affiliate network.
The platform, now live within Rakuten’s Insights & Analytics portal, gives advertisers and publishers early access to experimental AI tools while creating a direct feedback loop to the company’s data science team.
The launch centres on AI Recommendations – a tool that analyses campaign data across multiple dimensions to surface non-obvious publisher partnerships beyond traditional category searches.
Publishers receive AI-curated product recommendations identifying trending opportunities from current and potential partners, filterable by brand and category.
Chief Product Officer Adam Rostan described the platform as “a space where advertisers and publishers can experiment, collaborate, and scale new use cases with AI,” signalling a shift from closed-door development to transparent co-creation with partners.
Testing in Public
The rolling experiment model treats Innovation Labs as permanent R&D infrastructure rather than a finished product suite. Rakuten’s data science team will conduct ongoing tests guided by partner feedback, with new features added regularly.
The approach reflects broader industry movement toward collaborative development in marketing tech, where platforms test emerging AI capabilities with select partners before full deployment.
