Agent Commerce
AdCP
An open standard for agent-to-agent advertising transactions, built on MCP and described as OpenRTB for the AI era: agent-to-agent negotiation rather than impression-level auction. Published by AgenticAdvertising.org, an independent non-profit that describes itself as in its formation phase, with interim advisors Randall Rothenberg, former CEO of the IAB, and Matthew Egol, formerly of Booz & Company, and no seated board; its bylaws set out a 40-director elected board drawn from brands, agencies, publishers and technology providers. Four modules: Signals Activation for audience discovery, Media Buy for campaign execution, Creative for asset management, and a Curation module scheduled for Q2 2026. FreeWheel and NBCUniversal ran the first MCP-based agent-to-agent media buy in January 2026.
Why it matters
It is the first credible attempt to move media buying from auction mechanics to negotiation between agents, which would change what a media buyer's job is rather than just automating it. It is also one of two rival answers: the IAB Tech Lab is building AAMP instead, so this is a standards contest rather than a standard.
In practice
Early and mostly enterprise today. Worth tracking rather than adopting unless you buy premium video or CTV, where the first implementations landed. Ask which of the four modules a vendor means, since they are at different maturities.
Related terms