Playwire with Jayson Dubin: Human Intelligence vs Machine Learning in AdTech at Marketecture Live

On Marketecture Live, Jayson Dubin, CEO and Founder of Playwire, explains how publishers can grow revenue and improve performance by combining machine learning with human intelligence. He shares concrete results from AI-driven traffic shaping and price floor optimization, walks through Playwire’s Quality, Performance, Transparency (QPT) initiative, and discusses major ecosystem issues like supply chain opacity, malicious ads, and the shifting realities of AI-driven discovery. He also introduces RAMP, Playwire’s Revenue Amplification Management Platform, built to give enterprise publishers control, visibility, and optional AI automation. Takeaways

• AI is best for repetitive, rapid decisions; humans are best for contextual strategy and judgment in a gray, complex ad ecosystem.
• AI traffic shaping drove a 21% lift in Revenue Per Session versus 9% without it.
• AI price flooring delivered about a 20% uplift in RPM through multidimensional, per-request adjustments.
• Cutting bid requests can increase performance and revenue while also improving page speed and traffic.
• QPT shifted Playwire from quantity to quality, strengthening trust with buyers and partners.
• Transparency remains uneven: publishers still struggle to identify buyers and stop malicious ads across the bidstream.
• RAMP unifies traffic shaping, bid shaping, and flooring into a platform designed for enterprise publisher control and visibility.

Chapters

00:00 Intro Jayson Dubin and the core theme

00:55 What Playwire does and why automation matters at scale

01:23 The false choice: automation vs human involvement

01:38 Decision framework where AI wins vs where humans win

02:31 Traffic shaping explained feed DSPs and SSPs what they eat

03:15 Traffic shaping results 21% RPS lift and fewer bid requests

04:01 AI price flooring moving beyond GAM rule limits

05:23 Origin story industry feedback and the shift to quality

05:57 QPT Quality Performance Transparency

06:57 Two-year impact: fewer requests, higher CPM, higher revenue

09:37 Marketecture Live Q&A: What AI means for publishers now

18:56 Scale and leverage who gets to command better terms

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