Butler/Till and iHeartMedia say they have completed the advertising industry’s first agentic streaming audio campaign. The activation used AI agents to purchase premium streaming audio inventory within objectives, business rules and governance established by the advertiser. Butler/Till ran the campaign for an unnamed U.S. agricultural solutions company.
Agentic media buying moves AI beyond campaign planning and optimization into transaction execution. Unlike conventional automation, which follows predefined workflows, AI agents can evaluate objectives, identify opportunities and make approved buying decisions dynamically. Media professionals retain responsibility for strategy, governance and oversight.
Butler/Till reported that the agentic buy delivered streaming audio 42% more efficiently than the advertiser’s traditional direct-buying benchmark, although the agency did not provide details about how it calculated that figure. In podcasting, 48% of impressions appeared in non-skippable mid-roll positions, compared with 33% allocated to mid-roll in the conventional plan. The companies said the campaign maintained access to comparable premium inventory.
The project could also have implications for broadcast radio advertising. iHeartMedia plans to make its broadcast inventory available through agentic transactions later in 2026, extending the model beyond channels already accessible through programmatic platforms. The move builds on AudioGraph, iHeartMedia’s data and buying platform for applying audience targeting, identity-based planning, measurement and attribution to broadcast radio.
Scott Ensign, chief strategy officer at Butler/Till, placed agentic media alongside earlier changes in media trading, including programmatic buying and private marketplaces. “Agentic media is the next evolution,” he said. “This campaign demonstrates that AI can execute media buying within human-defined strategy and governance, creating a faster, smarter marketplace for advertisers and publishers alike.”
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