The Trade Desk, a leading global advertising technology company, today introduced Kokai Zuma, the new release of its Kokai platform. Introduced in 2023, Kokai is The Trade Desk's platform for planning, buying and measuring advertising across the open internet. The Zuma release makes Kokai easier to navigate, learn and use, bringing together new agentic AI capabilities and a simpler measurement framework.
As advertising becomes increasingly fragmented across channels, formats and devices, media buyers face more complexity in managing campaigns and understanding what drives performance. Zuma is designed to remove that friction, helping traders find what they need faster, make changes with greater confidence, and spend less time managing workflows so they can focus on optimizing campaigns and driving better results.
While the redesigned interface is the most visible change, the larger resource investment has gone into upgrading the platform's forecasting engine and the AI infrastructure underneath the platform – predicting available inventory, modeling campaign outcomes and powering Koa's agentic capabilities in real time. Initial results of Zuma's improved modeling and forecasting capabilities have seen an average 32% improvement in CPA performance. These backend investments are what make the workflow – and campaign – improvements possible, and they mark a strategic shift in how The Trade Desk is investing in the platform going forward.
"Kokai changed the way digital media is bought and sold programmatically, and Zuma builds on that foundation, making our platform faster, simpler and smarter," said Jeff Green, founder and CEO, The Trade Desk. "AI is helping our customers move faster than ever, while making measurement more intuitive and actionable. We're continuing to build the platform that advertisers deserve – one that removes friction from the work, puts agentic AI to practical use and gives them a clearer view of the outcomes their media dollars are driving."
Koa is the artificial intelligence that powers The Trade Desk, helping advertisers make smarter decisions and improve campaign performance through real-time analysis of more than 20 million ad impressions every second. Introduced in 2018, Koa has continuously evolved. Today, Koa powers a growing set of agentic capabilities within Kokai, including a new conversational experience and specialized Koa Agents that help users automate tasks, uncover opportunities, and take action faster.
Key capabilities include:
Koa Assistant: A conversational AI assistant powered by a growing set of specialized Koa Agents that support campaign creation, audience building, troubleshooting, performance analysis, and more.
Audience Creation: Koa identifies previously untapped and highly relevant audiences to expand campaign reach at scale. This is especially relevant for advertisers using Audience Unlimited, available across over 70% of global data providers from The Trade Desk Data Marketplace.
Frequency Optimization: Koa uses AI to optimize frequency settings based on campaign objectives and performance, helping advertisers reduce manual effort while improving campaign delivery.
Zuma also makes measurement easier with Conversion Lift enhancements simplifying lift studies, improved reporting homepage directing users to frequently used reports, and Report Builder offering greater flexibility. A refreshed page design surfaces key metrics and trends, Applied Settings View gives consolidated targeting parameters, and upgraded bulk editing lets users preview potential impact before applying changes.
"This is impressive," said Karsten Weide, Principal and Chief Analyst, W Media Research. "It's great to see The Trade Desk go full-bore on agentic, and the performance gains are real numbers. That's encouraging – this is real change."
About The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk™ is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can create, manage, and optimize digital advertising campaigns across ad formats and devices. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners ensure maximum reach and decisioning capabilities, and enterprise APIs enable custom development on top of the platform. Headquartered in Ventura, CA, The Trade Desk has offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
