Warner Bros. Discovery Adds Agentic AI Advertising Technology With AWS

Warner Bros. Discovery is developing new agentic AI-powered advertising technology with Amazon Web Services, as the media company continues to update its ad-buying infrastructure across linear and digital channels.

In a June 18 announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery said the new advertising technology is being built with AWS, its preferred cloud provider. The company said the system is designed to support a more unified buying experience across linear and digital advertising, with cloud-scale infrastructure and automated workflows. 

The update follows Warner Bros. Discovery’s May upfront announcement, where the company introduced new contextual, shoppable and agentic advertising products for brands across its media portfolio.

Key Takeaways: Warner Bros. Discovery’s Agentic AI Ad-Tech Update

• Warner Bros. Discovery is developing agentic AI-powered advertising technology with AWS.
• The company said the system is intended to connect linear and digital advertising workflows.
• The rollout includes agentic automation for direct response and commercial workflows.
• Warner Bros. Discovery is also adding advanced audience forecasting, measurement and attribution capabilities.
• A unified media planning tool is planned for Q3 2026, followed by order management, pricing and stewardship features in Q4.

Warner Bros. Discovery Builds Agentic AI Into Advertising Workflows

The technology is expected to bring AI agents into campaign planning, forecasting, optimization and measurement across Warner Bros. Discovery’s advertising business.

It also builds on the company’s May upfront announcement, where Warner Bros. Discovery introduced contextual, shoppable and agentic ad products, including Scene-Level Moments, Shoppable Pause Ads, Dynamic Creative and Agentic Experiences. According to the company, Agentic Experiences will allow AI-powered brand agents to respond in real time within the context of the content viewers are watching.

Dr. Nage Sethu, SVP, Technology – Converged Advertising and Linear Systems at Warner Bros. Discovery, said:

We’re embarking on the next frontier of advertising where convergence brings linear and digital together on a single platform – each retaining its own essence, yet with the fluidity to plan, package, and optimize across both — all measurable and optimizable at cloud scale with agentic, AI-native decisioning. Building with AWS has been critical to streamlining the buyer’s experience across linear and digital, powering critical layers of our data, forecasting, and next-generation agentic advertising stack.

Unified Media Planning Tool Planned for Q3

As part of the next phase, Warner Bros. Discovery plans to introduce unified media planning in Q3 2026. This is expected to be followed by a phased rollout of composable order management, pricing and stewardship features in Q4. Warner Bros. Discovery said these additions are part of its wider advertising transformation built with AWS. AWS said the partnership combines Warner Bros. Discovery’s content portfolio and audience signals with AWS cloud and agentic AI capabilities.

What It Means for Performance Marketing

For performance marketers, the update adds another example of AI being applied to campaign planning, audience forecasting and measurement.

These areas are also relevant to affiliate and partner marketing teams, where reporting and attribution are already changing as more customer journeys involve AI-supported discovery, automated recommendations and fragmented touchpoints. That shift is becoming harder to ignore as AI reshapes influence and attribution in affiliate marketing, especially when automated systems play a larger role before the final click.

The use of agentic workflows also connects to wider questions around traffic quality. As more campaign activity becomes machine-led, advertisers and publishers may need to separate useful automation from unclear traffic signals, including the kind of machine-led activity now shaping discussions around bot traffic and affiliate attribution.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest update places agentic AI deeper inside advertising operations, covering planning, optimization and measurement rather than only creative formats or audience engagement.