As we navigate an unprecedented wave of AI innovation across the advertising industry, the need for standardisation and collaboration has never been more critical. Today, I’m proud to announce that Ebiquity has joined the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) as a Founding Member, and I want to share why this initiative matters for our industry and, most importantly, for the brand advertisers we serve.
Our Commitment to Industry Progress
At Ebiquity, we have always believed that meaningful industry progress requires active participation, not passive observation. Throughout our history, we have consistently allocated resources to initiatives, trade bodies, and open-source protocols that demonstrate genuine merit and align with our mission to empower brands to grow through Effective and Responsible Advertising (ERA). We dedicate our expertise and resources to help design and deploy solutions that benefit the entire ecosystem.
A Critical Moment for Standardisation
The AdCP initiative arrives at a vital inflection point. Across the advertising landscape, agencies, platforms, publishers, and brands are embedding various AI solutions into marketing and advertising workflows at remarkable speed. Without common language and agreed standards, we risk creating a fragmented ecosystem where innovation becomes siloed, interoperability suffers, and ultimately, advertisers lose control and visibility.
An open-source protocol like AdCP offers the framework necessary to innovate fast and responsibly. It provides the shared infrastructure that enables AI agents to communicate effectively across advertising platforms, whilst maintaining the transparency and governance that brand advertisers rightfully demand.
Why AdCP, Why Now
We have evaluated multiple standards initiatives emerging in this space, and we consider AdCP one of the viable frameworks with genuine potential to reach critical mass. This assessment is precisely why our involvement at the founding stage is essential. Ebiquity’s independent position as expert advisor to brand advertisers gives us a unique perspective. We are not beholden to media platforms or technology vendors. Our loyalty lies with the brands we advise, and through our founding membership, we ensure their interests are represented in the protocol’s architecture from day one.
Our Focus: Transparency, Quality, and Business Outcomes
Our participation in AdCP will concentrate on four fundamental pillars:
Transparency – Brand advertisers must understand where their investments go and how decisions are made, even as automation increases.
Know Your Customer (KYC) capabilities – Robust identity and verification frameworks are essential for trust in agentic systems.
Quality – Standards must protect against inventory degradation and ensure brand safety remains paramount.
Outcomes and effectiveness – Above all, protocols must enable brand advertisers and their agencies to drive true incremental business growth, not simply automate existing inefficiencies.
These principles will guide our contributions as we help shape the AdCP specification.
Governance in the AI Future
The AdCP initiative aligns and integrates seamlessly with our ERA Curriculum solution, which functions as an AI Governance Grid for brands. As automation increases through innovations in Agentic AI, governance becomes absolutely critical. We believe fundamentally in ‘human in the loop’ systems design that protects against unforeseen and unintended risks.
Efficiency without governance is recklessness. Speed without transparency is dangerous. The protocols we help develop must embed these safeguards from the outset, ensuring that as AI agents become more capable, they remain accountable to human oversight and brand objectives.
Personal Commitment to the Mission
I intend to serve on the Board of the 501(c)(6) nonprofit organisation currently in process of filing for incorporation in the USA. This personal commitment reflects how seriously we take this initiative. Board-level involvement ensures that Ebiquity can help steer the organisation’s direction, maintain its independence, and protect the interests of brand advertisers as the protocol evolves.
Building a Better Industry Together
The advertising industry stands at a crossroads. We can allow AI innovation to fragment our ecosystem, creating new opacity and complexity. Or we can work together to build common standards that accelerate innovation whilst protecting the principles of effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.
At Ebiquity, we choose collaboration. We choose to invest our time, expertise, and resources in initiatives like AdCP because we believe brand advertisers deserve better. They deserve an industry that places their success at the heart of innovation, not as an afterthought.
As a founding member of the Ad Context Protocol, we commit to bringing the voice of brand advertisers to every technical decision, every governance discussion, and every architectural choice. This is how we build a better industry. This is how we deliver on our promise of Effective and Responsible Advertising.
The future of advertising will be based on integration between humans and AI. Let’s ensure it’s also transparent, effective, and accountable.
Understanding Ad Context Protocol: What Brand Advertisers Need to Know
Join Ebiquity and Scope3 as we explore the impact AdCP will have on AI-powered advertising
4th November, 3pm GMT
