Television advertising used to be a game for only the largest brands. High costs and slow production times kept smaller players out. But the rise of connected TV (CTV) has changed this dynamic forever.
Streaming has now overtaken cable and broadcast in total viewing time in the U.S. This shift created a huge opportunity for data-driven marketing. At the heart of this revolution is artificial intelligence (AI), which handles everything from the creative work to the final data.
That means growing brands now have a seat at the table. Advertising platforms powered by AI can help them compete directly with the world’s biggest names.
In this guide, we are going to explore the five best AI-powered platforms that are redefining TV and CTV advertising.
#1 Adwave
For a long time, small businesses viewed TV ads as a distant dream. Production alone often costs between $10,000 and $50,000. This cost put TV out of reach for local restaurants or real estate agents.
Adwave has changed that narrative by launching a platform where you can start a TV campaign for as little as $50.
The core differentiator of the Adwave platform is its AI-powered creative engine that generates broadcast-ready commercials within minutes. All you have to do is simply enter your website URL. The AI crawls your site, analyzes your brand elements, pulls images, and understands your messaging to generate a professional, broadcast-ready TV commercial in minutes.
Adwave makes marketing more accessible by simplifying how you buy ad space, not just how you create ads. Instead of broad, expensive TV ads, you can target specific ZIP codes, cities, or a set distance from your business.
Even with low entry costs, your ads don’t end up on obscure channels. They run on premium networks like NBC, ESPN, and Hulu. This results in a 20% to 30% brand lift compared to standard digital channels.
Evidence from local brands confirms the model’s success. Kaimuki Dental saw a 25% increase in inquiries with a $600 monthly budget. Meanwhile, Mountain Burger achieved 18% growth in weeknight traffic through targeted local video ads.
#2 The Trade Desk
For sophisticated marketers and large-scale agencies, the challenge of CTV is not production. It’s the intelligent management of huge amounts of data and inventory opportunities.
The Trade Desk (TTD) addresses this through its Kokai platform, an AI-powered upgrade launched in mid-2023.
The Kokai platform is driven by Koa, an AI assistant that evaluates 15 million opportunities per second. Koa instantly calculates the value of every impression, ensuring your ads appear where they will be most effective. The Kokai platform has seen rapid adoption. In 2025, about 85% of clients used it as their default.
A key innovation within Kokai is the use of seeds for audience targeting. Advertisers upload their first-party data, such as a list of existing high-value customers, to create a seed segment.
Koa then uses this seed as a North Star to identify lookalike audiences across the open internet who share similar characteristics. This moves away from broad demographic buckets toward a more nuanced, data-driven understanding of customer value.
#3 Tatari
Tatari focuses on making television a performance-driven channel. It unifies linear TV and streaming in one platform. That’s because traditional cable and broadcast still capture 50% of total U.S. TV viewership.
For brands focused on tangible return on investment (ROI), Tatari offers an AI planning engine powered by over 8 years of historical outcome data. The platform processes huge datasets to build highly accurate, predictive media plans. That ensures every cent of a brand’s budget is justified by real-world results.
To solve the problem of media waste, Tatari rejects the standard programmatic stack in favor of direct server-to-server integration. This model guarantees that 100% of your budget goes toward actual media placements. This direct execution not only maximizes budget efficiency but also creates a more secure, fraud-resistant environment for brands.
Tatari offers tools like incrementality measurement and modeled return on ad spend (ROAS). These help brands see the actual business lift caused by their ads. It moves beyond simple engagement metrics like clicks.
#4 StackAdapt
StackAdapt stands out in the programmatic space for its ease of use and seamless multi-channel integration. The platform connects different channels like display, video, and CTV. This helps marketers manage everything in one place.
Ivy is StackAdapt’s AI marketing assistant. It helps brands make faster decisions across the campaign lifecycle. Ivy can provide audience recommendations and write ad copy. It works as an always-on knowledge base for users.
For CTV specifically, Ivy manages complex tasks such as pod bidding and competitive separation. These features ensure that a viewer does not see repetitive ads in the same commercial cycle and prevent competing brands from appearing in close succession. This helps maintain high brand recall and prevent viewer fatigue.
One standout feature is the lack of monthly minimums. This aligns with the seasonal nature of many businesses. It allows smaller agencies to compete with larger ones. Users consistently praise the platform’s intuitive interface. They also value the exceptional customer support provided by the team.
#5 Amazon DSP
The Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP) leverages a data asset that most competitors cannot replicate. That is, a huge ecosystem of over 300 million logged-in users with verified purchase histories.
In early 2025, Amazon Ads announced Brand+, an AI-driven optimization capability specifically for streaming TV and video awareness campaigns. Brand+ analyzes trillions of shopping and streaming signals to identify audiences predicted to be in-market for a specific product within the consideration window.
Brand+ bridges the gap between brand awareness and direct action. In as few as four clicks, advertisers can deploy campaigns that use AI to pivot from broad reach to measurable results. This optimization pays off. Beta participants reported a 10% increase in sales and a huge 70% uptick in site traffic compared to non-AI campaigns.
Amazon’s ‘Complete TV’ solution bridges the gap between traditional and digital media buying. Powered by AI, it analyzes real-time signals to manage budgets across Prime Video, Twitch, and third-party apps.
TV and streaming screens are only getting smarter and advertisers need to keep pace. AI is now a core component of successful TV and CTV campaigns. It’s helping brands cut through the noise, target with surgical precision, and deliver ads that actually resonate with viewers.
The sooner you lean into AI advertising platforms, the better your business will thrive. So, pick a platform today and start reaching your most valuable customers where they are most attentive.