Marketecture Podcast: Jackie Paulino on How Pixability’s “Pixie” Uses AI Agents to Transform YouTube Advertising

Host: Ari Paparo
Guest: Jackie Paulino, Chief Product Officer, Pixability
Date: October 27, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Ari Paparo interviews Jackie Paulino, CPO at Pixability, about their latest innovation: Pixie, an AI agent designed to streamline and transform YouTube advertising. The discussion explores the challenges of YouTube media buying, the difference between AI and agentic technologies, the new brand safety realities with AI-generated video, and emerging trends in the YouTube ecosystem for advertisers and creators.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

What Is Pixability & What Does Pixie Do?

[00:38]–[04:30]

• Pixability’s Core Focus:

  • Specializes entirely in YouTube advertising—planning, buying, reporting, and channel management.
  • Works both directly with brands and via agencies.

  “We are basically all things YouTube. So we help brands and agencies get the most out of YouTube from planning, buying, reporting, channel management—all things that help get outcomes out of YouTube.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [01:37]

• The Challenge:

  • Curating YouTube inventory (i.e., choosing the right videos and channels for ad placement) can be highly complex.
  • Existing tools (Google Ads, DV360) are either built for search or display, not optimal for YouTube’s unique needs.

• Agentic Technology vs. Traditional AI:

  • Pixability has used AI in curation for years, but Pixie is their first “agentic” product.
  • AI Agent Distinction: Agents don’t just analyze—they make decisions and take action (e.g., selecting inventory based on prompts).

  “An agent makes decisions and it actually does things for you, right? It actually takes the actions. And that's what Pixie does.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [04:08]

• Scale of the Problem:

  • 1,200+ ways to curate across 30 million+ YouTube channels (i.e., trillions of data points).
  • AI is vital for sifting through this vast landscape in ways that are impossible for humans alone.

How Pixie Works: Human + AI Collaboration

[05:54]–[08:03]

• Manual vs. Agentic Approach:

  • Traditionally: Human strategists research, bring their own biases, dig into competitor and client channels—slow and labor-intensive.
  • With Pixie: Teams upload briefs and use prompts; Pixie agent distills and acts, dramatically speeding up and enhancing the process.

• 80/20 Adoption Philosophy:

  • Agents are meant to get ~80% of the job done; humans add their expertise on top.
  • Full automation impedes adoption—people want the final say.

  “The goal I think of agents broadly should just be to get to 80%...you never ship, you know, think of it as if you're writing an email. You're probably going to go to ChatGPT and ask it for some ideas, but you're going to put your own flavor on it and you're going to read it, hopefully before you send it.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [07:22] & [07:36]

• Pixie’s Personality and Expansion:

  • Internally referred to as “she”; personality mostly neutral, sometimes jokingly envisioned as an “accountant”.
  • Pixie for reporting (“Pixie for Reporting”) in progress—considering giving that agent a sassier personality.

The Explosion of AI-Created Video Content

[08:42]–[12:30]

• Rapid Evolution of Video AI:

  • New tools (e.g., Sora) make it easy to create shockingly realistic content.
  • Concerns about deepfakes and the “brand safety” threat of realistic but misleading or inappropriate content.

  “If you've played around with Sora, it is alarming. It's very easy to put your friends in compromising positions and it looks very real.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [09:06]

• Brand Safety and Sponsorship Challenges:

  • Brands do not want ads next to malicious or misleading AI-created content.
  • The barrier between “real” and “AI-generated” is eroding, making moderation harder.

• Legal and Copyright Issues:

  • Licensing and copyright for AI-created video are looming challenges (e.g., Sora allowing use of known characters).
  • Industry likely awaits legal precedents, as with the early Viacom-YouTube lawsuit.

  “That's certainly going to be a whole new, you know, copyright issue. I'm seeing a lot of that on Sora right now...”
  — Jackie Paulino, [11:36]

YouTube’s Evolution & AI’s Role in Creation and Advertising

[13:01]–[15:38]

• AI Content on YouTube:

  • AI-generated or AI-augmented content is rising, with quality improving rapidly.
  • Google fosters AI-assisted creation (e.g., AI backgrounds for Shorts).

• YouTube Shorts:

  • Shorts started as a distinct medium; now they’re just “part of YouTube” advertising.
  • Main differences: vertical (vs. horizontal) format and usually shorter creative.

  “...when shorts started, everyone was like, how do I, how can I get in the Shorts feed... And now I think it's just more integrated across YouTube's ad products.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [14:07]

• Advertiser Needs:

  • Advertisers balance desire for transparency (knowing where ads run) with performance.
  • Google’s powerful AI ad formats deliver performance, but sometimes at the cost of transparency.

  “The challenge is like, I want the best performance, but I want to know where I'm running, and I want to know that I'm running within the guidelines that my brand has set.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [15:14]

Lightning Round: Pixability’s DNA

[15:45]–[17:30]

• Competitive Advantage:
  “Data. ...We've worked on YouTube for over a decade…we've been working with partnerships to enrich our data set…As we're moving into this, you know, agentic world, AI world, the differentiator becomes data.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [15:48]

• Unique Data:

  • Proprietary campaigns and partnerships provide distinctive datasets beyond public YouTube data.

• Biggest Challenge:
  “Keeping up with all the changes…I mean, a year ago again, a month ago. Everything is so different.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [16:38]

• If Pixability Were an Animal:
  “Elephant. You know, we're lots of data. We're big, thoughtful, smart, and we've got a great team around us. I feel like elephants are, you know, herd animals.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [17:01]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Agentic AI’s Impact:
  “There are things that humans are good at and things that computers are good at and computers are good at searching and understanding trillions of data points. And so that's where the agent really shines.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [04:30]

• On The Dangers of Cheap, Realistic AI Video:
  “It's very easy to put your friends in compromising positions and it looks very real.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [09:06]

• On The Pace of Change:
  “Every day is a new challenge. So that's super exciting.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [16:56]

• On Pixability’s Spirit Animal:
  “Pixie can be an elephant. Love it.”
  — Jackie Paulino, [17:29]

Key Timestamps

• 00:38 – What is Pixie and what problem does it solve
• 04:08 – The difference between AI and AI agents
• 05:54 – Manual vs. agentic media planning
• 07:22 – Why agents should aim for 80% automation, not 100%
• 08:03 – Pixie’s (lack of) personality and reporting capabilities
• 09:06 – AI-created video: new brand safety concerns
• 11:36 – Copyright and licensing risks for AI video
• 14:07 – How advertisers view Shorts vs. regular YouTube videos
• 15:48 – Pixability’s core competitive advantage: Data
• 16:38 – The pace and challenge of industry change
• 17:01 – Pixability’s animal spirit: the elephant

Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is insightful, candid, and occasionally playful—matching the dynamism and rapid change in digital advertising. Jackie Paulino blends strategic perspective with a hands-on understanding of real ad-platform challenges. Listeners will walk away with a clear understanding of agentic AI, how the future of YouTube advertising is unfolding, and the critical importance of both human and machine intelligence in navigating this landscape.