Scope3 vs The COOL Company

Introducing Apostra

Scope3 is becoming Apostra. Apostra gives advertisers and their agents direct access to everywhere brands can reach consumers.

Shopify Uses Meta's Muse for Agentic Checkout; O'Kelley's Startup Pivots to AI Agents

The article is a digest covering two separate news items: First, Shopify is integrating Meta's Muse AI model to enable agentic checkout experiences, allowing AI agents to perform purchases on behalf of users. Second, Brian O'Kelley's startup, Scope3, is pivoting to focus on AI agent advertising technology, shifting its core business toward solutions for the growing agentic commerce ecosystem. These developments highlight the increasing role of AI agents in e-commerce and advertising.

• Shopify is integrating Meta's Muse AI model for agentic checkout.
• Brian O'Kelley's startup is pivoting to AI agent technology.
• The digest covers two separate industry news items.

Apostra Bets on Agentic Ad Layer

Scope3 has rebranded as Apostra, pivoting from its original carbon emissions calculator mission to focus on enabling agent-to-agent ad buying and selling. The company, led by adtech veteran Brian O'Kelley, has been building agentic advertising infrastructure since early 2025, including the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) open standard and a platform that allows AI agents to negotiate and execute media buys. Apostra has already managed $1.2 million in media spend over the last three months, with clients in the U.S., U.K., France, Brazil, the Netherlands, and South Africa. The company faces competition from the IAB Tech Lab's AAMP 3.0 standard, which also aims to standardize agentic media buying. O'Kelley acknowledges the shift away from sustainability but argues AI is the biggest growth area. The article questions whether the industry needs such a neutral layer or if open standards suffice.

• Scope3 rebranded to Apostra, shifting focus from sustainability to agentic advertising.
• Apostra's platform manages $1.2 million in media spend over the last three months.
• Apostra launched Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) as an open standard for agent-to-agent media transactions.

The COOL Company AI Challenge Finds 83% Fail to Identify AI Ads

The COOL Company's AI Challenge finds that 83% of consumers fail to identify AI-generated ads as AI reshapes advertising.

The COOL Company AI Challenge Finds 83% Fail to Identify AI Ads

The COOL Company's AI Challenge finds that 83% of consumers fail to identify AI-generated ads as AI reshapes advertising.

Omnichannel AI Breaks Down Agency Silos

The article describes how COOL AI, an omnichannel advertising platform from US ad tech umbrella The COOL Company, uses generative AI to create creatives, run media buys across channels, and perform attribution to optimise campaigns. The platform integrates creative automation and programmatic buying across search, social and programmatic (with integrations with Google and Meta) and plans to add CTV. Agency leaders say tools like COOL AI can relieve manual work, enable smaller markets or retention campaigns to be automated, and help restructure agency workflows by unifying formerly siloed teams. The article also highlights industry challenges such as show-level transparency for CTV buys and buy-side hesitancy around mid-tail CTV inventory.

• COOL AI is an AI-powered omnichannel advertising platform run by US ad tech umbrella group The COOL Company.
• The COOL Company is an amalgamation of multiple businesses: Insticator, COOL Media, Balihoo, OKO Digital and ADventori.
• COOL AI currently operates across search, social and programmatic via integrations with Google and Meta, with CTV slated to be added in the near future.