LAS VEGAS — The advertising industry is rushing to automate video buying, but one agency executive is calling for a more measured approach.
Mike Torreon, head of CTV and video strategy at PMG, believes the real opportunity lies in disrupting repetitive workflows while giving humans greater control over strategy and client outcomes, rather than handing over the keys to the machine.
“Everything we’re considering with AI always involves humans, and what we always want to do is accelerate rather than replace,” Torreon said in a video interview with Beet.TV at CES 2026.
fix what’s broken first
Treon’s philosophy starts at the bottom of the workflow stack and targets the error-prone, mundane tasks that consume a disproportionate amount of a trader’s time. For example, copying and pasting campaigns across multiple platforms represents a broken process that is ripe for automation.
“You can automate it and have a human push the traffic button at the end, and use AI as a backstop to catch human error,” Treon explained. The key is structured data and proper classification to enable alerts when pacing deviates from target or parameters go out of range.
Transaction management has emerged as a particular issue. The process of classification, trafficking including targeting trades, and bid setting requires traders to repeat the same steps three to four times. “That process is really broken, but it’s the core of how we buy CTV and premium video,” Torreon said, adding that PMG is focused on reducing those multi-step workflows to a “single prompt.”
Humans must realize client success
PMG has expanded its unique AI capabilities. The agency’s proprietary operating system, Alli, won the SmartBrief Innovation Award in October 2025.
As the industry considers AI-powered buyer and seller agents to directly negotiate, Treon cautioned against oversimplifying the sales cycle.
“Opportunities are not created by technology; they are enabled and enhanced,” he said. Customer data and success metrics must remain at the heart of negotiations, as the foundation of every deal, not an afterthought.
For Treon, these “micro-conversations” about reach, frequency, incrementality, and price sensitivity represent exactly the kind of strategic work that cannot be replicated by machines. “There are a lot of them that are really hard campaigning and ultimately successful,” Torreon noted.
You’re watching “Change Tailwinds, Beet.TV Leadership Series at CES 2026, Presented by FreeWheel.” For more videos from this summit, check out this page.
