Two standards landed within a month of each other in late 2025. Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) arrived in October, backed by the Agent Advertising Organization and Brian O'Kelley, founder of adtech firm Scope3. Agentic RTB Framework (ARTF) followed in November, from the IAB Tech Lab.
Both use the word "agent." The market has read them as competitors ever since. They work in different places.
AdCP is an orchestration layer. It automates the everyday work of ad operations: media planning, audience planning, campaign setup, deal ID creation, price negotiation.
ARTF is a component that modifies and enriches the bidstream, meaning the ad request and response, to improve monetization for publishers and buying for agencies and advertisers. It runs inside the oRTB transaction, to the millisecond.
The word "agent" also means two different things. In AdCP it means an AI agent with reasoning capability, connected to an LLM and able to execute tasks. In ARTF it is broader: any logic script that can produce outputs and datapoints.
AdCP sits above oRTB and configures DSPs and SSPs. ARTF lives inside the oRTB flow and rewrites the bid request and response.
Side by side
Feature | Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) | Agentic RTB Framework (ARTF) |
Main role | Workflow orchestration and automation | Data enrichment and real-time decisioning |
Where it runs | Above the platforms and the oRTB transaction | Inside the oRTB bidstream, at the moment of the bid |
Type of agent | AI agent running on an LLM | Any script that produces an output |
Latency | Seconds to minutes, thinking time | Milliseconds, auction time |
Sample instruction | "Find me a sports audience and set up the campaign" | "Check whether this URL is fraudulent before bidding" |
Two complementary protocols, and a full agentic stack
The value shows up when both run together, in one unbroken chain from strategy to impression. AdCP sets the strategy and ARTF handles the technical safety.
Strategy (AdCP). An agency's AI agent takes a brief: target premium finance audiences, with no fraud risk.
Setup (AdCP to DSP). The AdCP agent connects to the DSP and configures the campaign. It can't check every impression itself, but it can switch on the right tools.
Instruction (AdCP to ARTF). The AdCP agent selects and activates the fraud detection and brand safety ARTF agents inside the DSP for that campaign.
Execution (ARTF). When a bid request comes in, the ARTF container runs the check in real time. If it detects fraud, it blocks the bid through the oRTB patch.
AdCP replaces mouse clicks and emails, which cuts operational cost. ARTF replaces slow, expensive API integrations, which cuts technical latency. Together they form the plumbing of the next phase: AdCP as the brain, ARTF as the reflexes.
