Taboola.com (TBLA) Citi’s 2026 Global TMT Conference summary

Industry trends and market evolution

• Performance advertising has become a stable and growing segment, with increasing demand from companies seeking measurable outcomes beyond Google and Facebook.

• The advertising market is expanding to include apps, OEMs, and utility providers, not just traditional publishers.

• AI is reshaping the industry, enabling conversational ads and new attribution models for more precise targeting and measurement.

• Agencies are developing their own AI-powered buying agents, potentially bypassing traditional DSPs and ad tech stacks.

• The shift from programmatic protocols to agent-based buying is expected to accelerate, impacting the entire ad tech ecosystem.

Product innovation and AI integration

• Launched a Claude skill enabling advertisers to place ads via AI agents, expanding access and automating campaign management.

• DeeperDive, a conversational AI answer engine, is live with major publishers, offering highly targeted ad placements with significantly higher CPMs.

• DeeperDive adoption is growing, with over 10 million users and double-digit engagement rates, and aims to become a top-five global answer engine.

• Realize, the revamped ad platform, supports all ad formats and bidding strategies, aiming to monetize the entire internet and simplify ad buying.

• AI-driven monetization is helping offset declines in search traffic for publishers, with new tools like homepage personalization and conversational search.

Strategic partnerships and business growth

• Secured exclusive monetization partnerships with major publishers such as NBC News, Fox News, and Yahoo, expanding inventory and reach.

• The NBC partnership is expected to triple revenue from those properties, with a goal to replicate this model across more publishers.

• Over 2,000 scaled advertisers are active, with a focus on increasing both advertiser diversity and share of wallet.

• Supply growth is driven by upselling within existing publishers, winning over new partners, and targeting large consumer companies outside the traditional TAM.

• Hired a new Chief Business Officer to strengthen leadership and drive further expansion.