Agents of Change: Human in the Loop

Alo

Conversations with people acting as agents of change, and those tracking its ripple effects in real time. Across media, technology, and AI, we unpack what’s real, what’s overhyped, and where human judgment still matters most.

  1. 17h ago

    David Mandeno at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    David Mandeno, COO and co-founder of Revving, joins Agents of Change at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week NY 2026 to talk about the part of ad tech that hasn't caught up: getting paid. Revving gives publishers, SSPs and DSPs instant access to the money they're owed, so nobody waits 60 plus days to be paid or floats it on their own balance sheet. David explains why a publisher can still wait up to 120 days, who's really setting payment terms today, and why he sees K-shaped innovation in ad tech, with trades happening in milliseconds while payments are still stuck in an analog era. Plus quick hot takes, from his chatbot manners to the line he'd retire forever: "AI is going to take our jobs." In this episode: Why publishers still wait up to 120 days to get paidWho dictates payment terms today, and whyK-shaped innovation: real time trades, slow moneyWhy agentic is where he'd put his moneyThe two systems he wants connected: impressions and invoicesWhy he doesn't think AI is coming for your jobGuest: David Mandeno, COO and Co-Founder, RevvingRevving: https://revving.io The Advertising Economic Forum interview series is sponsored by MadConnect. Subscribe to Agents of Change: Human in the Loop for more honest conversations on what's real in media, technology, and AI. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AI #AdTech #AdvertisingWeek

  2. 2d ago

    John Collier at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    John Collier, CFO of Dstillery, joined me at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week New York to talk about what AI is actually worth when you’re the one running the numbers. We get into where AI saves real money today and why 18 years of campaign data is hard to copy. He also explains why he’s building his own internal apps instead of renewing some software subscriptions. John shares the headline he’d write if he were still covering ad tech, where he’d put a blank check, and why so many of his reports in 2026 still arrive by email. In this episode: The two places AI pays off right now: time saved and smarter data selectionWhy 18 years of data and learnings can’t be bought overnightBuild or buy: where vibe coding works and where third parties still winThe ad tech consolidation that keeps not happeningLetting performance, not assumptions, pick the dataHot takes: the buzzword to retire, saying please and thank you to AI, and his job if advertising disappearedThe AdEF interview series is sponsored by MadConnect. Thanks to Tom Triscari and the Advertising Economic Forum. Guest: John Collier, CFO, DstilleryDstillery: https://dstillery.com #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AdvertisingWeek #AdTech #Dstillery

  3. 6d ago

    Arthur Larrey at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    Arthur Larrey, co-founder and CEO of Audion, joins Agents of Change at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week NY 2026, about six weeks after moving to New York to lead Audion's US launch. Audion is an AI audio advertising platform built to make audio accountable and tie it to real outcomes. Arthur shares what surprised him about how Americans buy audio, why one of the oldest mediums still needs AI agents, and what a skeptical CMO should ask for before calling audio a performance channel. He also makes the case that as AI spreads, people are spending more time with human content, not less, and explains where his team keeps a human in the loop. In this episode: Why US audio spend dwarfs Europe's, and why so much of it is still manualIs a video podcast still a podcast? Why the audio and video silos have to goMaking audio accountable to the CMOAI does 99% of the job, the critical 1% stays humanWhere he'd put a blank check: podcasts, CTV and the conversations around themThe two worlds he wants connected: open web audio and the walled gardensQuick hits: the acronym he'd retire, why he tries to be rude to his chatbot, and his dream job in cookingGuest: Arthur Larrey, Co-Founder and CEO, AudionAudion: https://audion.ai The Advertising Economic Forum interview series is sponsored by MadConnect. Subscribe to Agents of Change: Human in the Loop for more honest conversations on what's real in media, technology, and AI. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AI #AdTech #AdvertisingWeek

  4. Nov 3

    Peyman Nilforoush at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    Peyman Nilforoush, co-founder and CEO of inPowered AI, joins Agents of Change at the Advertising Economic Forum, fresh off launching DecisioningOS with PMG. inPowered runs AI decisioning on the sell side, inside the major SSPs. Peyman explains why that intelligence is moving into the exchange, how running models in a container lets them see the full exchange instead of a throttled slice, and why the bigger story is effectiveness, not just cutting fees. He also gives an honest read on agentic: the promise is real, the timeline is early, and the pipes aren't there yet. In this episode: Why decisioning is moving from the DSP into the exchangeWho comes out ahead when the decision moves upstreamWhy agentic is real but earlyWhere he'd put his money: paid media innovationThe two systems he wants connected: creative and mediaWhy AI valuations aren't the question he wants answeredGuest: Peyman Nilforoush, Co-Founder and CEO, inPowered AIinPowered AI: https://inpowered.ai The Advertising Economic Forum interview series is sponsored by MadConnect. Subscribe to Agents of Change: Human in the Loop for more honest conversations on what's real in media, technology, and AI. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AI #AdTech #AdvertisingWeek

  5. Nov 2

    Max Kalehoff at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    Max Kalehoff, CEO of Adverteyes, joins Agents of Change at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week NY 2026, almost a year after spinning the company out of Realeyes. Adverteyes connects creative with sales outcomes. It has watched nearly 20 million people in 90 countries respond to ads and turned that human data into a model that predicts which creative will drive sales. Max explains why generative AI gets expensive fast once the novelty wears off, why first party human data is the moat, and why creative, not media or targeting, is where he'd put his money. He also names the vanity metrics he'd kill tomorrow and the silo he wants gone: creative and media. In this episode: Bootstrapping Adverteyes after the Realeyes spin outWhy AI creative gets expensive, and why the intelligence belongs in the briefFirst party human data as the ground truthThe vanity metrics he'd kill: click through rate, view through rate, and ROAS on its ownWhy he'd bet on creative over media and targetingBreaking down the wall between creative and mediaQuick hits: chatbot manners, his dream job outside ad tech, and the conference topic he's done with Guest: Max Kalehoff, CEO, AdverteyesAdverteyes: https://adverteyes.ai The Advertising Economic Forum interview series is sponsored by MadConnect. Subscribe to Agents of Change: Human in the Loop for more honest conversations on what's real in media, technology, and AI. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AI #AdTech #AdvertisingWeek

  6. Oct 30

    Jeremy Flynn at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    Jeremy Flynn, EVP and Head of Product at Horizon Media, joins Agents of Change: Human in the Loop at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week New York 2026. Jeremy oversees Blu, Horizon’s AI-native platform, and came to Horizon to build technology that makes the CMO the CFO’s best friend. We talk about why advertising should run as disciplined as financial services, how Blu brings audience, media performance, and creative signals together so a human can make the next call, and why media and creative never should have been split apart. In this episode: Making the CMO the CFO’s best friendSpeed without trading away cost control“Delegate to an agent, but own the decision”Why his blank check goes to campaign taxonomyHot takes: the buzzword he’d retire, prompting by voice, and his backup career on BroadwayGuest: Jeremy Flynn, EVP and Head of Product, Horizon Media Thank you to MadConnect for sponsoring the Advertising Economic Forum interview series. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AdvertisingWeek #AI #AdTech LinkedIn post: When Jeremy Flynn joined Horizon Media, one of the big reasons was the chance to build technology that makes the CMO the CFO’s best friend. I love that, especially now, when every impression has to show what it’s actually worth. Jeremy is a friend, and this was genuinely one of the most fun interviews I’ve done. He’s super smart, and I’m excited about what he and the team are building with Blu for Horizon’s clients. We also got into why his blank check goes to campaign taxonomy, and his backup career on Broadway. Full episode in comments. Thank you to MadConnect for sponsoring the Advertising Economic Forum series, and to @Tom Triscari. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AdvertisingWeek

  7. Oct 28

    Bill Wise at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    Bill Wise, CEO of Mediaocean, sits down with Agents of Change at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week NY 2026. Bill treats AI as an inflection point on the scale of the early internet. We talk about why Mediaocean launched a venture arm to back AI startups and how AI becomes the orchestration layer across ad tech. He explains Nivo, Mediaocean’s AI platform, and how it moves from co-pilot agents inside existing products to a fully agentic experience where you don’t log into anything. He also makes the case that being an incumbent right now is more risk than advantage. In this episode: Why Mediaocean is investing in AI startups instead of building everything aloneAI as the orchestration layer for ad tech workflowsNivo and the path from co-pilots to fully agenticWhy incumbency is a disadvantage in this marketHot takes: the acronym he’d retire, chatbot manners, and his backup careerGuest: Bill Wise, CEO, MediaoceanMediaocean: https://www.mediaocean.com The Advertising Economic Forum series is sponsored by MadConnect. Subscribe to Agents of Change: Human in the Loop for more honest conversations on what’s real in media, technology, and AI. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #AdTech #AI #Mediaocean

  8. Oct 26

    Gina Cavallo at Advertising Week NY 2026 - Advertising Economic Forum

    Gina Cavallo, CRO at xpln.ai, joins Agents of Change at the Advertising Economic Forum during Advertising Week NY 2026 to talk about why attention is finally getting real as a metric, and the link between creative and media that most measurement stacks miss. Gina explains what brands actually do once they see attention data on a live campaign, and uses a Levi’s example to show how an impression gets wasted when the creative doesn’t get enough time to land. We also get into why everyone claiming to be “an AI company” is saying the same thing, where she’d invest in advertising today, and the change she’s still pushing for: more women in the CRO seat. Plus quick hot takes, from the buzzword she’d retire forever to her backup plan if advertising disappeared tomorrow. In this episode: Why attention matters more now, with consumers flooded by content Moving from basic viewability to real strategic insight The creative and media connection, and the Levi’s example What’s overhyped in the AI conversation Why CTV is where she’d put her money More women in the chief revenue officer seat Hot takes: buzzwords, manners with AI, and dogs and olive oil in Italy Guest: Gina Cavallo, CRO, xpln.ai xpln.ai: https://xpln.ai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginacavallo Subscribe to Agents of Change: Human in the Loop for more honest conversations on what’s real in media, technology, and AI. #AgentsOfChange #HumanInTheLoop #Attention #CTV #AdvertisingWeek #AdTech

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Conversations with people acting as agents of change, and those tracking its ripple effects in real time. Across media, technology, and AI, we unpack what’s real, what’s overhyped, and where human judgment still matters most.

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