Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Adgorithms CEO Or Shani (Part 1)

I believe, over time, the entire profession of media buying will be obliterated. Algorithms will do all the work. This is one of the sectors most vulnerable to be entirely automated by AI. Or Shani speaks on the theme and provides a great example of what is already happening.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as your company. Tell us a bit about both.

Or Shani: I started off in marketing almost 10 years ago in the lowest position possible. Then I worked my way up and became a data scientist at a number of companies mostly working with big brands across various countries and continents. Everything was already digital at that time. By the time I decided to leave marketing, I was in a VP Marketing position. I was in charge of huge advertising budgets and leading large teams across countries.

I went into marketing because I had envisioned digital advertising as something sexy and new. But what became very clear to me within the first few months of taking my first job was that this new type of advertising was old school. As I moved into the day-to-day tasks and learned what people did to run their programs and campaigns. I realised that everything was still so manual –  not a smart use of digital technology.

As I became more senior, I realised that not only were the campaigns manual and unsophisticated, the results weren’t good enough. They weren’t the results we wanted. It was amazing for me because it’s what’s inspired me to start Adgorithms. It’s why we built Albert – our artificial intelligence-driven ad and marketing technology named after Albert Einstein.

The main idea was to take this problem of unsophisticated digital advertising platforms and simplify them for the operator. Basically, make the machine work for you behind the scenes. Marketing, in general, is divided into two main areas. One is the creative.

The other one is the actual data and execution of things. The creative area is very much a human task. This is what’s going to stay human for many years. Everything that has to do with data and execution, however, is perfect for machines. That was clear to us.

This is what we started to do six years ago when we started the company. Today, we’re 80 employees. We have offices in Tel Aviv, New York, and Netherlands. Most of the people in the company are quant-related. We have mathematicians, algorithm researchers, engineers, product people. Everybody is, very much, dedicated to working on the product.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Adgorithms CEO Or Shani
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