Why Publicis is betting its agentic chips on LiveRamp

Earlier this year, LiveRamp launched new AI capabilities for its partners. First, in January, it expanded its Data Marketplace to include data and models for AI; then, in March, it introduced agent-enabled access to its platform.

This week, Publicis announced that it would acquire LiveRamp for over $2 billion, painting the deal, in part, as unlocking “new opportunities for the agentic era” and “boosting its ability to accelerate clients’ agentic business transformation.”

Much of the conversation around the blockbuster acquisition has focused on whether LiveRamp — a leader in data collaboration — can remain neutral, despite Publicis’ assurances that it will. As we previously reported, many in the ad industry are skeptical.

But the agentic rationale behind the deal has sparked further discourse, especially if LiveRamp’s independence is put to the test (LiveRamp declined to comment for this story, but CEO Scott Howe posted on LinkedIn that “neutrality is a foundation of the agreement”).

“Publicis is betting marketing’s future runs on agents, and they’re probably right,” said Tejas Manohar, co-CEO of Hightouch. “The question for me is whether brands will cede control or seek to stay in control [of their data].”

What agentic advantage does LiveRamp give Publicis?

LiveRamp’s agentic offerings go back further than this year. In November, for instance, it donated its User Context Protocol (UCP) to the IAB Tech Lab — an open standard defining how agents exchange real-time consumer signals. (The Tech Lab declined to comment on the Publicis acquisition).

Experts say LiveRamp’s data infrastructure and identity framework could become a significant asset in the race toward agentic advertising.

“LiveRamp gives Publicis a serious context arsenal. RampID is a pseudonymous spine for joining brand, publisher, and partner data…,” Manohar said. “Stacked on Epsilon and Lotame, Publicis now owns one of the most vertically integrated context layers in the adtech industry across brands, publishers and platforms.”

“Publicis is betting on data enrichment and the identity layer being the differentiator [compared to media planning and creative],” said Mary Gabrielyan, chief strategy officer at AI Digital. “Data is the hardest part when consumer journeys are so fragmented.”

In other words, LiveRamp’s data prowess is what will now set Publicis apart from its competitors, as it looks to establish its agentic superiority.

Tim Spratt, co-founder of Permutive, said that the acquisition confirms that holding companies are racing to build agentic systems with data collaboration at the core.

“The question for every other holdco and agency is how quickly they can stand up something comparable for their clients.”

But it’s not that simple: Building in-house or making a splashy acquisition is “expensive, risks pulling agencies away from a position of neutrality and most importantly, is slow — right when the window to deliver on agentic buying is narrowing.”

“The faster path is partnering with neutral collaboration infrastructure that already connects across the supply landscape,” Spratt added, and “if I was a non-Publicis agency, I would be thinking about [LiveRamp’s neutrality].”

Still, just because Publicis has touted the acquisition as accelerating its agentic strategy, doesn’t mean the shift will happen overnight, cautioned Gabrielyan. She noted that agentic advertising is far from scaled across the industry, despite the hype cycle.

“This is a very strong signal about where we are heading, but it’s not here yet,” she said. “It’s showing a vague shape of the industry’s future.”

Should brands be concerned about giving up control over their data?

While the LiveRamp deal gives Publicis an advantage in data-powered agentic AI, some experts The Current spoke with aren’t entirely convinced that’s a good thing for the larger industry.

“To me, the infrastructure of advertising should be neutral, and a brand’s context should convey pricing power and autonomy to that brand, not its service providers,” Hightouch’s Manohar said.

Krystal Olivieri, chief strategy officer of Experian Marketing Services, argued that brands should be wary of whose business interests are being served when AI decisioning tools and customer data sit too close together in the same system.

“Before these systems start making more decisions on a brand’s behalf, marketers need to know which parts of their customer understanding they actually own, can move, check and measure independently, and which they are borrowing from partners whose business interests may not always align with theirs,” Olivieri said.

The industry leaders that spoke to The Current all agree that the LiveRamp acquisition will impact the entire advertising ecosystem, from agencies to buyers to publishers.

Vlad Stesin, co-founder and CEO of Optable, said that it’s more important than ever for quality, first-party data from publishers to be interoperable and controlled.

“The more high-quality publisher signal flows into decisioning, the more competitive the open internet becomes against the walled gardens, and the more leverage publishers retain over their own audience economics,” Stesin said. “That is the counterweight to a world where one holding company owns the dominant identity and connectivity layer.”