On this episode of the Aperiam Podcast, Corey Ferengul and Joe Zawadzki sit down with Michael Richardson, VP of Product at Index Exchange to break down ARTF — the Agentic Real-Time Framework.

Michael walks through what ARTF actually is, why ad tech needed a new interoperability standard beyond OpenRTB, and how containerization is enabling companies to run custom logic directly inside publisher infrastructure at scale. Also, how ARTF fits alongside emerging standards like AdCP, why agencies should be paying attention right now.

If you're building in ad tech, running a curation business, or just trying to understand where the open web goes from here — this one is essential listening.

Hosts Corey Ferengul and Joe Zawadzki are joined by Joe Hirsch, founder and CEO of Swivel, to explore AdCP—the Ad Context Protocol. AdCP represents a new standard for agentic ad buying in the advertising industry, drawing inspiration from the Model Context Protocol (MCP). As AI agents become more prevalent in advertising operations, the need for standardized protocols has never been more critical.

In this episode, the Joes dive into the technical foundations and practical implications of this emerging standard, discussing how AdCP aims to streamline and standardize the way AI agents interact with advertising platforms and execute media buys.

Ravi Patel, founder of SWYM, joins the pod to discuss why programmatic wastes money, how supply control fixes broken auctions, and what disciplined, capital-efficient ad tech building really looks like.

Gareth Glaser, CEO and founder of Gamera, joins Corey and Joe fresh off announcing his fundraise. Gareth—former chair of Prebid.js and founder of RTK—explains Gamera's mission: creating a shared inventory identifier so buyers actually know what placements their ads run on. They discuss why the sell side has been "the Wild West," how the MFA crackdown proved transparency works, and why his "Gareth Hates Ad Tech" blog built trust before he hired salespeople. The goal? Make the open web work as efficiently as walled gardens—without taking sides.

Fresh from the show floor, Joe Z and Erica Chriss join Corey Ferengul to break down CES 2026. This year felt different—less hype, more real momentum behind AI transformation. From seamless home habitats to ad tech innovations with actual case studies, the team explores why this CES marked a turning point. They discuss the collapse of the "tale of two shows," agencies finally leaning forward on transformation, and why human connection matters more than ever as we navigate historic change. Plus: Why is there so much smoke at CES? And who's still booking bands for 50-year-olds?

Corey Ferengul and Joe Zawadzki wrap up the year by breaking down the biggest shifts in advertising and marketing technology—and what they signal for 2026. They discuss the TVScientific–Pinterest acquisition, trends in ad-tech investing, the rise of AI and agents across the ad stack, growing bot traffic, and mounting pressure on legacy platforms. The episode closes with predictions on LLM ad models, creative disruption, and an expected wave of M&A

Joe and Corey speak with Heather Macaulay, co-founder of MADConnect and Audience Choice winner at the Marketecture Startup Challenge.

There is a problem that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: integration debt. Every audience sync, conversion pull, and cross-platform workflow depends on APIs that are expensive to build, harder to maintain, and constantly breaking. That hidden “connectivity tax” is quietly draining engineering time across AdTech and MarTech.

When the plumbing underneath isn’t solid, everything above it stalls. Learn more about what is needed from the underlying infrastructure to enable data to really work for a company.

AI is reshaping every corner of the advertising ecosystem—faster than most organizations can absorb. Joe and Corey dig into what they're seeing on the ground: agencies rethinking their operating models, brands finally experimenting with AI in planning and measurement, and programmatic moving toward a more automated, decision-driven future.

The through-line: this isn’t about replacing people overnight. It’s about rebuilding workflows, challenging long-held assumptions, and getting comfortable experimenting with tools that didn’t exist a year ago.

If you’re not testing, learning, and pushing your teams to understand what AI can unlock, you’re already behind. The companies leaning in now will define what the next era of marketing looks like.