• by Laurie Sullivan , June 11, 2024

Yahoo Advertising released Blueprint Performance, a media buying tool similar to Performance Max and Meta Advantage+. The tool is an update to its AI engine, Yahoo Blueprint, which launched in December.

Blueprint Performance relies on an advanced AI model to support enhanced campaign efficiencies through AI-powered features. Early testers have seen up to 30% improvement in campaign performance, the company said.

Advanced AI-powered predictions give the platform the ability to process 10 times more data signals more accurately across fluctuating traffic patterns. Smarter buying improves on the precision of bid placements with 90% faster feedback loops for greater control on budget delivery.

The tool and features capitalize over 20 years of development in AI and machine learning, as well as proprietary data derived from more than 335 million logged-in users globally. ‍

Yahoo revealed it has nearly 570 patents for AI and machine learning. The Yahoo DSP showcases many of those. There are plans to continue advancements for Yahoo Blueprint and Yahoo Blueprint Performance, especially in connected television. 

Then on Tuesday, Rob Gelick, GM at Yahoo Mail, told Media Daily News about the company's most "significant updates" to its desktop email platform that has evolved into a personal inbox supported by AI.

Gelick said Yahoo tested the Mail service with a variety of users. Most have been excited about the quick action buttons, AI message summaries and overall clean and simple redesign. 

“We’ve put a lot of work into our Mail Intelligence ML model over the last few years to best classify email types,” he said. “Select emails that fall within the Priority Inbox, will have summaries. For example, a post-purchase email or long email from a school will likely have a summary.”

When asked if Yahoo Mail uses trigger keywords for the summary feature to target ads, Gelick said “we always take a consumer-first approach, and make it easy for them to control their experiences in ways they choose. We always respect user preferences first. Users can control their privacy settings in the privacy dashboard.”

When people log into their email account, they will see a new design and AI-powered features.

Gelick said to think of it as a personal assistant through a new Priority inbox tab that automatically highlights the most important messages first, along with AI-generated one-line summaries of an email’s contents. The features will summarize messages similar to Google Gmail, organize and highlight information, and provide easy ways to take action or complete tasks. 

The desktop experience will be available to new users beginning today and will gradually roll out to existing users.

More than 361 billion emails per day have been sent and received globally this year, up 4.1% from 2023, according to The Radacati Group Email Statistics Report, 2023-2027. Despite the growth of messaging apps like Slack and WhatsApp, that figure is projected to exceed 400 billion by 2027.