• by Colin Kirkland , 9 hours ago

TikTok is using its time at the Cannes Lions Festival this week to demonstrate how the company is furthering its goals of blending in-app shopping functionality with enhanced brand-creator connections, primarily powered by AI.

Like recent announcements from Pinterest and Snapchat, TikTok is introducing its own AI agent for advertisers. With its “Symphony Agent,” TikTok is attempting to merge advertisers’ campaign objectives with AI-powered insights from the app's leading content and trends in order to pair ad partners with a relevant creator and develop customized video ad content.

According to the company's announcement, the Symphony Agent was built with automatic safeguards to protect advertisers' credibility, such as AI labels, invisible watermarks, and content moderation filters.

TikTok is doubling down on agentic AI technology by integrating its ad agent into the company's Symphony Creative Studio, Content Suite, and “TikTok One,” the company's brand-creator campaign building platform.

To help power its creative ecosystem, TikTok is also integrating its Symphony capabilities into Dentsu's customizable AI-powered SaaS platform, Zoyumi. The partnership will give Dentsu&'s client base direct access to TikTok's AI-powered ad tools, including image-to-video creation.

In the future, Dentsu clients will also gain access to Symphony’s caption removal, dubbing, and digital avatar offerings.

Following the unveiling of LinkedIn's first creator marketplace and the Snap Creator Network,” TikTok has announced the ability for advertisers to build custom creator networks.

Within TikTok’s Content Suite, advertisers can now construct a curated pool of creators, employees, partners, or brand advocates. Ad partners can choose to receive AI-powered campaign briefs or turn existing brand-relevant videos into ads within the collaboration process.

The company will launch its first custom creator network with Starbucks later this summer in an effort to promote the global coffeehouse chain’s “Green Apron Creator Program.”