In a world where everyone is talking about AI, David Simon, GM for Growth Initiatives at Moloco, believes the real transformative technology is often overlooked.
While generative AI and chat continue to garner headlines, Simon thinks machine learning (ML), which is the fabric of much of AI, could has enormous potential in relatively unsexy areas of media buying.
In this video interview with Beet.TV at Advertising Week New York, Simon explains his vision.
The Hype and Reality of AI
“Generative AI is incredibly cool and interesting, and it’s still so early in that space,” Simon says.
“(But) the places I think that are under hyped are the places where you can take your entire existing infrastructure of data, feed it into machines, and help make smarter decisions,” he asserts.
He underlines the potential of ML in tactical areas such as pricing inventory or building a dynamic media mix model that adapts to changing variables like seasonality, buying patterns, brand size, and brand awareness.
Our Chief Machine Learning Officer, Tal Shaked, shared with @_martechasia his take on the power of machine learning to iteratively make educated guesses to determine what ads will work for which customers.
Read more: https://t.co/BzXopSMMsU— Moloco (@MolocoHQ) October 6, 2023
The Power of Machine Learning in Media
Simon’s perspective is that machine learning (ML) will fundamentally reshape many aspects of our lives, including media buying and selling.
He says marketers can “go from preemptive, cohort-driven upfront decisions to enablement of technology to really make those decisions much more quickly and much more accurately”.
“There are a lot of marketers who are genuinely curious as to how they can harness this stuff and make sense of it,” he adds.
Moloco’s Role in the AI and ML Space
Redwood City, CA-based Moloco, according to Simon, is a company rooted in ML.
“It was started by a handful of machine learning engineers who typically had worked inside of walled gardens and they wanted to build machine learning as a service outside of walled gardens,” he explains.
Hello @Nasdaq! 👋🏽 What a delight to be featured in recognition of Moloco’s latest investors and Moloco’s latest valuation at more than $2 billion. Our commitment to helping companies grow through the power of machine learning is stronger than ever. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/jsrVnutMWL
— Moloco (@MolocoHQ) October 17, 2023
Moloco built an ML platform for seven years before launching a mobile app demand-side platform (DSP) DSP to help app developers drive profitable ad spend.
The company has also built a retail media offering and a streaming ad server using the same ML infrastructure.
“Those are the three products – mobile app DSP, retail media, and streaming ad server,” Simon adds.
