As the technology improves, these pairings will only grow more precise, said Matthew Kramer, the head of brand investment at Media.Monks.

The more metadata gen AI technology can gather, the more information it can pass in the bidstream, allowing marketers to even more granularly target ads that match the emotion and subject matter of the content. And 2024 will bring more data.

IAB recently released its digital advertising report ahead of NewFronts presentations, indicating generative AI was one of the trends to watch for in the upcoming year.

But while the technology is sophisticated, its efficacy is rooted in the commonsense nature of contextual advertising. 

“If the last few years have been all about data, we are now seeing a swing back toward the intuitive logic of contextual relevance,” Kramer said. “Being in the middle of those two poles is exactly where ads are most effective.”