• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 20, 2025

Cognitiv, an ad-tech company powered by machine learning, has expanded its two-year relationship with OpenAI in a way that it says will significantly increase its API capacity. The firms have been working together since March 2023.   

“This greater capacity allows Cognitiv to analyze substantially more web content, scaling effectively across valuable long-tail sites, which often deliver highly relevant and performant inventory despite their smaller individual reach,” says Aaron Andalman, co-founder and chief science officer of Cognitiv. 

Please don’t take this as a product endorsement – there may be other firms out there with similar or even greater capabilities. But this is happening as the market demands new ways of achieving brand-suitable contextual targeting and predictive intelligence.  

Cognitiv delivers contextual ad capabilities through its ContextGPT, a tool that uses large language models to read and understand content. It, too, dates back to 2023. 

The expansion with OpenAI is designed to drive greater functionality. For instance, it will allow Cognitiv to “expand ContextGPT from its focus on proactive targeting – identifying optimal content placement – to include stronger brand safety features,” Andalman says.

In addition, it will allow “deeper analysis of page-level signals, including page layout and adtech integrations, thereby enhancing ContextGPT’s understanding and precision,” he adds. 

ContextGPT does not rely on keyword blocklists or rules-based algorithms that can lead to overblocking or underblocking, Cognitiv argues. Rather, it identifies risk and positive suitability indicators in a privacy compliant way.

You might see it as one more way OpenAI is affecting publishing and advertising.

Cognitiv claims that advertiser use of ContextGPT has grown tenfold over the past year. Without providing names, it asserts that ContextGPT helped a beverage brand reach GenZ. And a video game brand reduced its cost-per-user reach by 83%.

The company adds that ContextGPT can be activated as a PMP in any DSP and that it allows brands to deploy contextual AI at scale.

What do other companies think? Ask GroupM. 

“Cognitiv’s ContextGPT solution uses large language models to read and understand content, unlocking the true potential of contextually targeted advertising for the first time,” says Ally Zingarelli, director of programmatic at GroupM. “Contextual advertising has always made logical sense but has been difficult to execute effectively due to the limitations of the typical approach that relies on keywords.”  

Here is an approach that, if it works as promised, will allow programmatic advertising to be conducted with more context and nuance. Hopefully, publishers will generate more revenue.