Google Is Adding a Gemini Agent to Ad Manager

Google is adding a conversational AI agent to Google Ad Manager, its platform for publishers that sell ad inventory, letting them query their own data in natural language. The agent, called Ask Ad Manager and built on Google's Gemini models, enters beta this month, according to Google.

What Ask Ad Manager Does

Ask Ad Manager is a multi-turn agent, so publishers can ask follow-up questions within a single conversation. Google describes three initial capabilities. The agent can troubleshoot a problem with a line item in real time, surfacing what is wrong and guiding the user toward a fix rather than requiring them to generate and read through reports by hand.

The AI agent can produce a custom report, table, or comparative benchmark from a single prompt. And it can navigate the platform on a publisher's behalf, loading the relevant filters and settings based on the conversation. Google says the agent draws only on each publisher's own data and keeps that data within the publisher's control.

Extending Agentic AI to Publishers

Ask Ad Manager is Google's first agentic AI tool aimed at the publisher side of its ad business, distinct from the Gemini features it has added to Google Ads for advertisers.

The company says it will release developer tools later this year, including REST APIs and an MCP server, to support trafficking workflows, and is building specialized agents for publishers and agencies to handle inventory discovery, negotiation, and campaign execution. The MCP server is the notable piece, since it signals Google intends to let third-party agents interact with Ad Manager rather than confining automation to its own tools.

Part of a Wider Agent Shift

The move tracks an industry shift toward agent interoperability in ad tech. The same week, Yahoo DSP opened its platform to third-party AI agents, and Google's own post notes that Yahoo already integrates Ad Manager into custom agents for forecasting and reporting. TikTok made a comparable move when it opened its ad platform to third-party AI agents.

For publishers, the immediate change is a faster way to interrogate Ad Manager data without building reports by hand. The larger question is how much of the ad-operations workflow Google ultimately hands to agents, and whether the planned MCP server turns Ad Manager into a hub that outside tools plug into.