The Complete Feed

UX isn’t being redesigned—it’s being replaced. As AI shifts systems from navigation to action, interfaces fade and design moves upstream. This piece explores the collapse of traditional UX, the rise of agentic systems, and why the future of design is about orchestrating outcomes—not building screens.

The agency model is splitting. Some holdcos are evolving into integrated operating companies built on data, platforms, and AI. Others remain loosely connected portfolios of services. As media becomes automated and margins compress, the winners will be those who own the infrastructure behind marketing — not just the execution in front of it.

Customer Data Platforms are entering a new phase — not convergence, but fragmentation. This article explores four emerging futures for the CDP: the Agentic Control Plane, the Intelligent Marketing Platform, the Unified Experience Stack, and the AI-Ready Data Layer. Each reflects a different vision for how AI, data, and marketing operations will evolve—and what role the CDP may play in the years ahead.

At RampUp in San Francisco, hosted by LiveRamp, industry leaders gathered to discuss the future of identity, data collaboration, retail media, and AI in advertising. In this Signal & Noise episode, hosts recap the event and share insights from top AdTech voices on how privacy, data, and AI are reshaping modern marketing.

For fifteen years, advertising has revolved around real-time auctions. But as agentic AI and protocols like AdCP emerge, machines can now reason, remember, and negotiate—not just bid. This shift could move value upstream into continuously negotiated, agent-to-agent deals, relegating open exchanges to clearing remnant supply. The result: a market defined less by speed and auctions, and more by automated, machine-executed negotiation.

After a blockbuster Q4 2025, AppLovin has cemented itself as AdTech’s most valuable — and polarizing — company. Explosive ad growth and margin expansion suggest its AI engine is working. But success brings scrutiny. With Meta looming over in-game and performance budgets, the real question is whether an independent optimization layer can keep scaling inside a world dominated by walled gardens.

For the past year, Brett House and I have been building something we believe this industry has been missing. Today, we officially launch Signal & Noise. This isn’t just a podcast or a website. It’s a platform for real conversations about the future of advertising, marketing, media, and technology—without the buzzwords or recycled narratives. We curate operators: founders, builders, and practitioners with real accountability and real scars. Signal & Noise brings together candi

Publisher monetization is at a breaking point. Open-web economics are collapsing under platform control, identity loss, and commoditized inventory. Yet publishers still own powerful assets—trusted brands, engaged audiences, and rich first-party data. The path forward isn’t another tactic, but a systemic redesign of strategy, data, inventory, measurement, technology, and operating model to reclaim control and build durable revenue.

From the show floor to the executive suites, CES 2026 wasn’t just another technology expo — it was a global turning point for AI, media, data, and the future of digital experiences. In this special edition of Signal & Noise, co-hosts Rio Longacre and Brett House bring you their top takeaways, on-the-ground interviews, and operator-first analysis straight from Las Vegas. In this finale episode of our CES series, Rio and Brett break down how AI has moved from feature to foundat

Recorded live in Las Vegas during CES 2026, this special Signal & Noise conversation brings together Rio Longacre and Brett House with one of the industry’s most trusted—and outspoken—voices: Lou Paskalis. In this wide-ranging discussion, Lou digs into the future of the industry in light of the rise of a tidal wave of AI-generated content, synthetic versus authentic signals, regulatory changes versus human discernment, and how trust is shifting from institutions to people...

What actually mattered at AWS re:Invent 2025—once the keynotes ended and the hype faded? In this belated, boots-on-the-ground debrief from Las Vegas, Signal & Noise hosts Brett House and Rio Longacre break down the real signals from re:Invent 2025, drawing on executive conversations, daily floor recaps, and firsthand time with partners and practitioners across the ecosystem. Joined throughout by Credera's Alyssa Furth, the episode focuses less on announcements, and more on wh

Ad fraud isn’t a bug in the system. It is the system. Digital advertising was built on the promise of precision at scale. What we got instead is an economy where speed, automation, and opaque incentives have created the perfect habitat for industrialized ad fraud, one of the most profitable forms of organized crime on the planet. It thrives because we let it.