Beyond automation: Nine ways to integrate AI into product development

Beyond automation: Nine ways to integrate AI into product development

Published: 13 Apr 2026

AI isn't a question of 'if' anymore; instead, the question is how and where you use it, and what is actually delivering the most value. To understand where publishers should be targeting their efforts, we reached out to the AOP Associates to discover how they saw publishers enhancing their product development with AI tools. From inventory to data analysis to branded content partnerships, here are nine ways you can leverage AI more effectively in your product development strategy.

Optimise inventory in real-time.

AI is helping publishers evolve from simply monetising inventory to actively shaping how their media is packaged and valued. By analysing rich supply-side signals, such as context, engagement, and inventory characteristics, AI enables publishers to identify new opportunities to build differentiated products and curated marketplaces that better align with buyer demand.

As intelligence moves closer to the impression through sell-side decisioning, publishers can optimise inventory in real time while maintaining transparency and control. This allows them to experiment with new formats, packaging strategies, and audience approaches more quickly, ultimately strengthening the value of the open internet for both buyers and sellers.

Cadi Jones, SVP, EMEA, Index Exchange

Build faster - but know what you're building towards.

AI is giving publishers exciting product development superpowers including faster prototyping, smarter personalisation and better content recommendations. But speed without direction is an expensive way to get lost.

The publishers getting the most from AI are those using it to strengthen two things in parallel: the audience experience that keeps readers coming back and the advertising environment that makes brands want to invest. These shouldn't be separate goals. A stronger editorial product supports a stronger ad proposition.

AI can accelerate the product development process, but publishers must ensure they retain a laser focus on their end goal.

Sean Adams, CMO, Brand Metrics

Drive intelligent product development with a differentiated ad ecosystem.

AI is reshaping how publishers approach product development in several ways, from personalisation to content experiences. One of the most significant shifts is in how advertising products are designed, particularly in response to the commoditisation of inventory. As the market moved towards buying outcomes, the intelligence layer, including signals, data and decisioning, shifted to the buy side, leaving many publisher products looking undifferentiated and priced accordingly.

AI is starting to change how those products are built. It gives publishers a clearer understanding of what drives value and allows them to create more structured and differentiated advertising products around it. In practice, this means moving beyond formats and placements to products defined by data, quality signals and real performance. Rather than simply packaging inventory, publishers can shape how it is understood and valued by buyers. Product development becomes more strategic, focused not just on what is created, but on making its value clear in a decision driven market.

Ronan Murphy, Country Manager, UK, Pubstack

Analyse user behaviour to inform editorial and product strategies.

AI tools are helping publishers gather and analyse user behaviour data to inform content and product decisions with higher precision. Editorial teams can identify trends, content gaps, and audience preferences in real time thanks to AI's data analysis capabilities. At the same time, AI can automate/help produce low-impact but necessary output such as summaries, briefs, and routine updates, significantly reducing newsroom workload. This allows publishers to reallocate time and resources towards high-impact journalism, investigative work, and premium storytelling.

Thuy Ho, Senior Sales Manager, Relevant Digital

Enhance your branded content partnerships with insight-led recommendations.

AI is helping publishers build better products faster and with more confidence. By analysing audience behaviour and campaign performance, publishers can identify which formats and themes will perform, before investing time and budget in developing products. Publishers can shape their product strategy around evidence rather than instinct.

In branded content, that's genuinely changing the client dynamic. Publishers who know what will work before the brief arrives aren't just executing campaigns, they're making insight-led recommendations that add real strategic value. That's what shifts the relationship from one-off supplier to long-term commercial partner.

Better product development isn't just an operational improvement. It's how publishers change the conversation with clients entirely.

Tom Gunter, Co-Founder & Director of New Markets, Avid Collective

Integrate conversational AI tools into your sites.

Many publishers are now treating AI as a core driver of product strategy rather than just content support. The most effective ones are moving beyond basic analytics to real-time, conversational intelligence that reveals exactly what their audiences want and what's missing.

A leading tactic involves embedding generative AI directly into publisher websites, understand what their users are interested in reading and offering them active conversational experiences. Express, Daily Star, USA Today, Huffpost UK and others have integrated Taboola's DeeperDive - an AI answer engine for the open web, allowing readers to ask natural-language questions and receive authoritative answers drawn from the publisher's own journalism.

The rich query data generated gives product and editorial teams immediate insight into emerging interests, content gaps, and unmet reader expectations. Teams are using this intelligence to accelerate feature development, test new content, and prioritise roadmaps with far greater precision. The result is more adaptive, reader-centric digital products that keep audiences on-site longer while informing smarter, faster innovation.

Jason Iliou, Regional Publisher Director, EMEA, Taboola

Leverage real-time intelligence to understand changes in performance.

AI is shifting publishers from reactive inventory management to proactive, data-led product strategy. Real-time demand intelligence now enables publishers to understand market shifts as they happen, rather than relying on static reporting cycles. This means teams can iterate faster, aligning content and monetisation strategies with live buyer behaviour and identifying opportunities that would previously have taken longer to surface. Platforms like PubMatic are applying generative AI to give publishers real-time answers on why performance is changing and where yield opportunities are emerging, helping teams build smarter advertising products grounded in continuous market intelligence.

Sophie Green, Director, Customer Success, PubMatic

Convert 'lost' revenue into a clear product opportunity.

AI is forcing publishers to rethink product development from volume-first to value-first.

The smartest publishers aren't just using AI to generate content faster, they're using it to understand audience behaviour at a deeper level. What keeps people coming back, what drives engagement, and critically, what audiences are currently invisible to their monetisation stack.

That's where the real shift is happening.

AI is enabling publishers to:

• Identify high-intent user segments (not just high-traffic ones)
• Test product experiences dynamically (UX, paywalls, subscription models, content formats)
• Predict churn, loyalty, and engagement patterns in real time

But here's the piece many are still missing:

Not all users are equal and not all are even reachable.

Ad-blocked audiences, what we call "the Unreachables" are often completely excluded from product and revenue strategy. AI now gives publishers the ability to see and quantify that gap, turning what was previously "lost" into a clear product opportunity.

From an Optima perspective, this is where AI meets monetisation strategy:

• It highlights where value exists but isn't being captured
• It supports non-disruptive, experience-led monetisation models
• It enables publishers to build products that work with user behaviour, not against it

In a market where traffic is becoming less predictable (thanks to AI search and changing discovery patterns), publishers need every lever available.

AI is one of those levers. And of course we know Adblock recovery is another.

The publishers winning right now are the ones building holistic product strategies not chasing scale, but maximising value from every audience segment they already have.

Joy Dean, VP Publisher Revenue Growth and Market Expansion, EUK, Optima

Consolidate data into a single, real-time view.

In my experience working with publishers globally, the most successful teams act quickly on data. AI tools allow them to turn audience and engagement signals into clear product decisions-whether that's testing new content formats, refining UX, or optimising monetisation strategies. Platforms like Playwire RAMP make this process tangible by consolidating data from multiple sources into a single, real-time view, enabling publishers to iterate faster, respond to audience trends, and make decisions with confidence.

Richard Jamieson, Head of Enterprise Sales, EMEA, Playwire