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Episode Summary — Tim and Chris Vanderhook on Viant’s Lattice Brain: How Autonomous Advertising Beats Human Traders

Published January 12, 2026 | Host: Ari Paparo | Guests: Tim & Chris Vanderhook (Viant)

Episode Overview

This episode focuses on the Viant Lattice Brain—Viant’s new fully autonomous advertising AI—and its new product “Outcomes.” Host Ari Paparo speaks with Viant co-founders Tim and Chris Vanderhook, live from CES in Las Vegas, about their unconventional AI-powered product launch (including a music video), how Lattice Brain literally beats humans at ad trading, and what full AI-driven outcomes mean for advertisers and the open internet. The conversation covers technical details, real world results, transparency, and the future of autonomous advertising.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Creative Product Launch: “Lattice Brain” Song

• Instead of the usual swag or parties at CES, Viant released a song made with 98% AI and 2% human editing to announce the Lattice Brain.
  • Chris Vanderhook: “We just tried to get creative…used Grok to come up with lyrics, did some editing in ChatGPT, worked with Suno AI. In about three days…using 98% AI and about 2% human editing. Just a fun, creative way to launch a product.” (01:33)
• Purpose: Stand out amid the “noise” of CES tech launches.

2. What Is Lattice Brain? The Autonomous Ad Platform

• Viant’s vision is full autonomous advertising—moving from human-controlled DSPs to an AI that plans, bids, measures, and decides without manual intervention.
• Outcomes: The first Viant product to run fully autonomous campaigns.
  • Marketers provide 4 inputs: advertiser URL, flight dates, budget, and outcome (CPA, ROAS, etc). The system handles the rest, making all real-time decisions (audiences, placements, bidding, frequency).
  • Competes with black-box solutions like Google PMAX and Meta Advantage+, but is positioned as the first fully autonomous product for the open internet.
  • Chris: “You give us four pieces of information…and then the Outcomes product runs fully autonomous and makes all decisions from planning all the way through measurement.” (02:47)
• Still offers self-service for those who want granular control.

3. Measuring Incrementality and Outcomes

• Currently optimizes to CPA/ROAS using platform-tracked conversions; incrementality measurement is included but not the primary focus—yet.
  • Tim: “We are measuring incrementality also…That will be the next phase. But rather than selling two things at once, we said, let’s hit the lowest common denominator of CPA or roas, and then we’ll bring incrementality once customers trust that the outcomes are actually happening.” (04:44)

4. Human Versus Machine: The AI Challenge

• Viant ran a “human vs AI” challenge: a veteran human trader versus Lattice Brain, on the same brief for client Mackenzie Childs, e-commerce, with CPA goal:
  • The human had full access to campaign history and retargeting.
  • The AI was intentionally handicapped — no access to retargeting or past pixel data.
  • Result: Viant AI delivered a $15 CPA versus the human’s $45 CPA (with retargeting). (07:03–09:14)
  • More impressive, 45% of AI conversions were click-based (i.e., direct action), compared to the human campaign’s 95% view-based.
    • Tim: “That’s the signal within the signal that this thing is striking gold… it’s actually finding the locations that are driving click-to-convert transactions.” (09:14)
• Out of 20 internal pilots, AI lost three—demonstrating robust but not perfect dominance. (10:28)
• Key learning: Autonomy removes “decision latency”—AI can make and execute thousands of changes in a campaign daily versus dozens for a human, leading to consistent performance gains.

5. Transparency, Not Black Box

• Unlike PMAX/Advantage+, Lattice Brain offers full transparency with no manual override:
  • Marketers see which sites, formats, apps their budget is spent on—but can’t tweak individual settings.
  • Chris: “You get to know all the things you’re used to in a self-service campaign but you don’t get the control to change it.” (12:46)
  • Can set basic includes/excludes, but can’t override AI optimization (e.g., strict frequency cap or forced creative).
  • If you need full manual control, use the self-service DSP.

6. Autonomous Advantage on the Open Web

• Lattice Brain is designed to bring PMAX-like capabilities to the open web—not just walled gardens.
• Real-time, autonomous decisions are built on Viant’s proprietary data (e.g., household ID, content signals, supply quality).
  • Chris: “It needs to be able to make a decision in real time. So in terms of performance for the open Internet, this is where we have to get to.” (15:30)
• Addresses entrenched belief that “the open web doesn’t perform” versus platforms like Meta, Google.
  • Tim: “We actually think that the open Internet has a chance to go after [performance budgets], but I think these autonomous systems…are required in order to compete with those walled garden offerings.” (16:55)

7. Will Advertisers Go “Full AI”?

• Expect a hybrid for now: many will retain manual/contract deals (e.g., CTV upfronts) for upper funnel; autonomous outcomes more for lower funnel, e-commerce acceleration.
  • Chris: “We will see a hybrid approach and for good reason too.…those clients…have budgets for driving e-commerce transactions. We just want to have an offering that goes after that.” (18:00)

8. The Animal Metaphor

• Tim’s pick: Cheetah.
  • Tim: “It runs a million miles an hour. Wherever the fastest animal on earth is. I’m going with the cheetah…removing that latency in decision making, performance goes up quite a bit.” (18:45)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We decided, let’s release a song…using 98% AI and about 2% human editing. So just a fun, creative way to launch a product.”
  — Chris Vanderhook (01:33)

• “We wanted to launch the first fully autonomous ad product for the open Internet.”
  — Chris Vanderhook (03:24)

• “The cool thing of excluding retargeting is…these results are really good. That was the signal within the signal that this thing is gold.”
  — Tim Vanderhook (09:08)

• “Autonomy—once you implement an autonomous brain, you remove decision latency. And latency is where campaign performance leaks.”
  — Tim Vanderhook (10:49)

• “Unlike PMAX or Advantage Plus…this is not a black box AI solution. It’s full transparency but no control.”
  — Tim Vanderhook (12:46)

• “The open Internet…must be shown to a real person. They must actually see the ad. The ad must be relevant to the content that’s on the screen.”
  — Chris Vanderhook (16:10)

• “Cheetah—it runs a million miles an hour…removing that latency in decision-making, performance goes up quite a bit.”
  — Tim Vanderhook (18:45)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:33] – Launching Lattice Brain via AI-generated music video
• [02:47] – What is Lattice Brain? Four inputs for full campaign autonomy
• [04:44] – Measuring outcomes: CPA/ROAS vs. incrementality
• [06:02–09:14] – Human vs. AI trading challenge case study
• [10:49] – Why AI outperforms humans: decision latency
• [12:46] – Transparency without manual override: how Lattice Brain differs from black box platforms
• [14:52] – Can AI bring outcome-based performance to the open web?
• [17:45] – Will marketers shift fully to AI-driven campaigns?
• [18:45] – The “animal” of autonomous outcomes: cheetah

The “Lattice Brain” Song

• An AI-generated anthem for autonomous ad tech, referencing household IDs, AI never blinking, and outperforming humans and “the street.”
  • “No co-pilot, no chat, just a clean rose recording. You want more than that. Trillions of signals cooked into one decision engine…” (19:23)

Conclusion

Viant’s Lattice Brain represents a leap in autonomous, outcome-driven advertising for the open web—delivering transparent, measurable results at a speed that humans simply can’t match. The Vanderhook brothers emphasize that while AI isn’t perfect, its ability to make rapid, data-driven decisions will reshape digital ad trading—provided marketers are ready to let go of granular control in pursuit of true performance.