IBM starts using Watson AI to buy online media in the UK

IBM has started to use its artificial intelligence programme, Watson, to plan and buy media in the UK. It's something the tech giant has been doing in the US for over 18 months and has thus far delivered massive gains in the performance of its online ad campaigns, according to the business. Sitting within The Trade Desk – its media planning platform – Watson over time learns how effectively a campaign is performing for different audiences at different times, locations, devices and browser. Based on this information, it will then only bid on inventory that aligns to any given audience, and even then will consider the size of an ad and how effective it will be in relation to those other factors. In the US, IBM claims this has reduced its cost per click by as much as 71%, although the average hovers around the 31% mark.