As the ad industry wrestles with shrinking signals, tougher privacy rules, and rising pressure to prove ROI, madSense and Symitri are betting that deeper AI—not looser data—will restore addressability on the open internet.

The two companies have announced a strategic partnership that natively integrates Symitri’s PRISM AI audience discovery technology directly into madSense’s OLM-powered madBuy DSP. The result: advertisers can identify, activate, and optimize high-value audiences across cookieless browsers, mobile, CTV, and programmatic channels—without bolting on new tools or cutting separate contracts.

In an ecosystem where “privacy-first” often means “less reach,” the partnership is positioning itself as a way to get more of both.

Why This Matters Now

Third-party cookies are effectively gone, regulators are watching AI more closely, and advertisers are tired of trading performance for compliance. Walled gardens still offer scale and precision—but at the cost of transparency and control. The open web, meanwhile, has struggled to keep up.

madSense and Symitri argue that the problem isn’t lack of inventory; it’s lack of intelligence. By embedding real-time, multimodal AI directly into the DSP layer, the companies aim to make addressability continuous, adaptive, and privacy-safe—rather than modeled after the fact.

Jeff White, Co-CEO of madSense, summed it up bluntly: this isn’t theoretical lift or probabilistic reach. It’s real-time discovery and activation operating as a single system.

What the Native Integration Delivers

Unlike many data partnerships that live outside the buying workflow, PRISM AI is baked directly into madBuy. Advertisers can turn it on without additional integrations or operational friction.

Key capabilities include:

• Real-time addressability expansion across cookieless and cross-device environments

• Dynamic cohort decisioning that adapts instantly to user behavior

• Omnichannel activation spanning display, video, social, mobile, CTV, and gaming

• Privacy-by-design execution, aligned with GDPR, CCPA, and emerging AI regulations

Because discovery and activation happen in the same system, campaign insights flow back into optimization loops automatically—closing a gap that has long slowed performance on the open web.

Early Results: Doubling the Addressable Footprint

The companies aren’t launching empty-handed. Pilot programs run in late 2025 showed meaningful gains, including a deployment with a top-tier pharmaceutical advertiser.

According to the companies, the integrated platform delivered:

• Nearly 2x addressable reach, expanding footprint by close to 200% through privacy-safe cohort resolution

• Closed-loop optimization, with real-time feedback driving incremental reach and efficiency improvements mid-campaign

Bill Wheaton, CEO and Chairman of Symitri, framed the outcome as something the industry has been steadily losing: true addressability outside of walled gardens—without sacrificing transparency or compliance.

Competitive Implications

This move puts pressure on both DSPs and data providers that still treat audience discovery as an external, pre-campaign exercise. As AI-driven buying becomes more autonomous, the line between planning, activation, and optimization is blurring fast.

By collapsing those stages into one system, madSense and Symitri are aligning with a broader industry shift toward always-on, AI-orchestrated media buying—where performance improves continuously, not in post-campaign reports.

It also signals a challenge to clean rooms and static cohorts that can’t adapt in real time. If this model scales, “addressability” may increasingly mean AI-driven inference rather than deterministic identity.

Availability and What’s Next

Following successful pilots in Q4 2025, the integrated madSense–Symitri solution will roll out to select enterprise brands and agency partners starting in Q1 2026.

For advertisers frustrated by shrinking signals and rising complexity, this partnership offers a clear pitch: walled-garden-level performance on the open web, without giving up privacy, scale, or control.

Whether it becomes a new standard—or just a strong alternative—will depend on how quickly the rest of the ecosystem follows.

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