Fluency vs StackAdapt

Deciding What AI Should Never Control in Advertising

Eric Picard of Fluency argues that while LLMs and AI agents will become part of advertising workflows, the industry must clearly define what parts of campaign operations AI must never control. He warns that LLMs are probabilistic and therefore unsuitable for making irreversible budgetary or execution decisions without human-in-the-loop governance. Picard outlines three lessons from running automated advertising at scale: platform APIs do not teach operational wisdom, governance must be encoded into automation from the start, and the most valuable automation scales a buyer’s strategic thinking while keeping deterministic execution for money-moving systems.

• Opinion piece by Eric Picard (Fluency) published on August 17, 2026.
• The article argues LLMs are probabilistic and should not be allowed to make irreversible advertising spend or execution decisions without human oversight.
• Picard presents three lessons from running automated advertising at scale: API knowledge ≠ operational know-how; automation requires built-in governance; and automation should scale a buyer's strategic intent with deterministic execution.

StackAdapt co-founder and CEO Vitaly Pecherskiy named to Canada's Top 40 Under 40®

StackAdapt co-founder and CEO Vitaly Pecherskiy named to Canada's Top 40 Under 40®. Also, StackAdapt wins gold at Marketech advertising awards for AdTech team of the year.

Urban Sports Club B2B Campaign Mixes DOOH, Native, Display

Urban Sports Club, a corporate fitness platform, aimed to boost brand awareness among business decision-makers in Cologne, Germany. Partnering with StackAdapt, they executed a programmatic campaign combining Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH), native, and display advertising. The strategy targeted executives commuting through office districts, using DOOH screens within a 100-meter radius of selected companies' offices during peak hours. Device IDs from DOOH impressions were then used for retargeting via native and display. The campaign achieved 9.83 million impressions (4.98 million from DOOH, 4.85 million from native/display), a 50% increase in website traffic, a 50% rise in keyword searches, and a 50% higher click-through volume. The average DOOH CPM was 15.99 euros. Measurement was supported by ABM Lead Forensics, allowing real-time tracking of target company engagement. Urban Sports Club and StackAdapt plan to replicate this approach in other German cities and potentially other countries.

• Urban Sports Club and StackAdapt launched a combined DOOH, native, and display campaign targeting B2B decision-makers in Cologne.
• Campaign generated 9.83 million total impressions: 4.98 million from DOOH and 4.85 million from native/display.
• DOOH ads were placed on 225 screens within 100 meters of target companies' offices, running weekdays from 7-11 AM and 5-8 PM.

StackAdapt welcomes Shopify President Harley Finkelstein as strategic advisor

StackAdapt announces that Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has joined as a strategic advisor, as reported via Business Wire on September 15, 2026.