IAB Tech Lab Summit 2025: "Through the Looking Glass" Tackles AI, Identity, Connected TV, Regulation & Reality

June 4 in New York City – A Frontline Look at the New Rules of Digital Advertising

NEW YORK, May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As digital advertising enters a new era shaped by AI, privacy enforcement, and the unraveling of traditional identity systems, IAB Tech Lab Summit 2025 will take the industry "Through the Looking Glass" on June 4 at Convene, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. This one-day event brings together technology, product, and policy leaders to explore the open standards and technical foundations critical to the future of digital media.

"The way things have worked for the past twenty-five years is not how they will work for the next twenty-five. We are already operating in a new normal, and not just in advertising. The world has changed," said Anthony Katsur, CEO, IAB Tech Lab. "Privacy is real, advertising signals are disappearing, streaming TV continues on its phenomenal growth curve, and AI is generating both code and content. This summit is about rethinking what it takes to make digital advertising take the next leap — technically, commercially, and sustainably."

Spotlight Conversation: Peter Zeihan on Global Disruption

One of the day's most anticipated moments is a fireside chat with Peter Zeihan, globally recognized geopolitical strategist and best-selling author. In conversation with Katsur, Zeihan will offer a candid, data-rich perspective on the global forces reshaping markets, governance, and innovation, impacting the future of artificial intelligence, technical infrastructure, global supply chain realignment, and the downstream impact on consumers and businesses.

Deep Dives on AI, Identity & Innovation

Reflecting the industry's pivot to intelligent systems and adaptive infrastructure, this year's program features a strong emphasis on AI's transformative potential:

• Unlocking Innovation: From Word Models to World Models 
  Nikhila Ravi, Research Lead at FAIR (Meta's AI research group), explores how agentic AI is enabling new forms of planning, reasoning, and collaboration across the marketing ecosystem.
• Reimagining Context with AI
  Jonah Goodhart, CEO of Mobian, discusses how AI is redefining contextual relevance by decoding emotion, sentiment, and consumer mindset in real time.
• AI-Driven Identity Infrastructure
  A panel featuring leaders from LiveRamp, Optable, and ID5 explores how adaptive identity solutions are streamlining compliance while unifying identity across CTV, mobile, and desktop environments.

Industry Voices & New Perspectives

In addition to keynote speakers Zeihan, Ravi, and Goodhart, the Summit will feature insights from a powerful lineup of voices shaping the future of digital advertising.

Notably, Thomas Huynh from the New Jersey Attorney General's Office will join the conversation, bringing a critical privacy enforcement and regulatory perspective to the forefront. As state-level privacy laws expand and enforcement intensifies, this session offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from those helping to define the legal boundaries of data use, identity, and consent in digital media.

Executives from The Trade Desk, OpenX, LiveRamp, Optable, ID5, VideoStorm, and Didomi, will also share insights, offering a rich cross-section of expertise from across the digital ecosystem.

Breakouts & Tactical Sessions

Designed for engineering, product, and strategy teams, the Summit's breakout sessions provide practical frameworks for implementation. Topics include:

• Programmatic monetization and signal optimization with Trusted Server – Learn how to sustain performance in a signal-constrained environment.
• Server-side privacy enforcement and data control – Explore frameworks that align with global compliance requirements while maintaining campaign effectiveness.
• Real-time ad delivery for live events – Discover how advanced infrastructure is enabling frame-accurate ad insertions and dynamic creative switching in live sports, news, and streaming, driving maximum viewer engagement and monetization.
• Trusted server infrastructure and open Conversion APIs (CAPIs) – Get hands-on with CAPIs and learn how they're helping marketers recover lost attribution, improve measurement accuracy, and enhance campaign performance in a privacy-safe, browserless environment.
• Monetization Strategies in a world driven by Agentic AI and LLMs – Explore an actionable framework for publishers to deploy mechanisms for enforcing fair compensation from AI bots and content scrapers and for brands to protect brand reputation in the face of zero click search and changing consumer behavior with AI agents.
• Standardizing CTV creative ad portfolio through the Ad Format Hero initiative – Improve operational efficiency and creative consistency across platforms.

Join Us

Since its inception, IAB Tech Lab Summit has brought together the teams building the digital ad infrastructure of tomorrow. This year's event continues that tradition with honest conversations, deep technical insights, and meaningful collaboration.

"Come join us in pressure-testing what can work in this new world in which we're operating," Katsur concluded. "We are through the looking glass. It's time to retool with clarity, practical thinking, and real alignment across the digital ad economy supply chain as we enter this new socio-political and economic global paradigm."

Secure your spot today at the IAB Tech Lab Summit and join the teams building what comes next in digital advertising.

About IAB Technology Laboratory
Established in 2014, the IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a non-profit consortium that engages a member community globally to develop foundational technology and standards that enable growth and trust in the digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, marketers, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focuses on solutions for brand safety and ad fraud; identity, data, and consumer privacy; ad experiences and measurement; and programmatic effectiveness. Its work includes the OpenRTB real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, VAST video specification, and Project Rearc initiative for privacy-centric addressability. Board members/companies are listed at https://iabtechlab.com/about-the-iab-tech-lab/tech-lab-leadership/. For more information, please visit https://iabtechlab.com.

SOURCE IAB Tech Lab