TIME Utilizes AI Agents To Streamline Ad Sales Process
TIME is using AI agents to automate tasks in its ad sales process, freeing up sellers to focus on relationships and selling. The move aims to increase efficiency and productivity.
Original reporting · adexchanger.com
Original: “TIME’s AI Agents Do The Coordinating, And Its Sellers Still Do The Selling”
Read “TIME’s AI Agents Do The Coordinating, And Its Sellers Still Do The Selling” at AdExchanger →
How this was written. CTCV wrote this article with a language model from AdExchanger’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from AdExchanger’s report
- TIME is using AI agents to automate tasks in its ad sales process, freeing up sellers to focus on relationships and selling.
- Kana's AI agents draw on a shared pool of context, known as a knowledge graph, to inform their decisions.
- The use of AI agents has resulted in a significant increase in productivity for TIME's revenue operations team.
- TIME is not planning to automate the entire sales process, including dealing directly with advertisers' agents.
- The company believes that selling is still built on relationships and that human interaction is essential to the sales process.
TIME's ad sales team previously spent a significant amount of time on labor-intensive tasks, such as manually coordinating across various platforms to respond to RFPs. However, with the help of AI agents from startup Kana, these tasks are now being automated, according to AdExchanger.
Kana's AI agents take over the grunt work of the ad business, including reading RFPs and drafting proposals. The agents draw on a shared pool of context, known as a knowledge graph, which is built by pulling from TIME's Salesforce CRM, order management system, and ad server.
The sales agent can proactively turn historical data and live campaign information into raw material for pitches, allowing salespeople to focus on ideating new proposals for advertisers. However, the relationship itself still belongs to the salesperson, and TIME isn't looking to automate this aspect of the sales process.
In addition to the sales agent, TIME is also using Kana's second agent, which works with ad ops to watch live campaigns and recommend fixes when a campaign starts to fall behind. This agent helps ad ops teams by providing recommendations on how to address issues, such as changing trafficking, pacing, or budget.
The use of Kana's agents has resulted in a significant increase in productivity for TIME's revenue operations team, with the team able to accomplish more in a given day or week. The agents are also helping with budget planning, including modeling for 2027.
While Kana's agents could potentially be used to automate the entire sales process, including dealing directly with advertisers' agents, TIME is not planning to go in this direction. The company believes that selling is still built on relationships and that agents doing the deal is not in their game plan, as reported by AdExchanger.
The implementation of AI agents in the ad sales process is part of a larger trend in the industry, with companies looking to automate tasks and increase efficiency. As the use of AI agents becomes more widespread, it will be interesting to see how the role of salespeople evolves and how companies balance the need for automation with the importance of human relationships.
Questions and answers
What tasks are TIME's AI agents automating in the ad sales process?
The AI agents are automating tasks such as reading RFPs, drafting proposals, and recommending fixes for live campaigns.
How do Kana's AI agents inform their decisions?
The agents draw on a shared pool of context, known as a knowledge graph, which is built by pulling from TIME's Salesforce CRM, order management system, and ad server.
Is TIME planning to automate the entire sales process, including dealing directly with advertisers' agents?
No, TIME is not planning to automate the entire sales process, and believes that selling is still built on relationships and that human interaction is essential to the sales process.
