The new Signal & Noise episode with Matt Krepsik and Vas Bakopoulos, “AI Intelligence and Competitive Advantage,” is here, recorded LIVE at Advertising Week in New York City in front of our first live studio audience. Watch (or listen): AI Intelligence & Competitive Advantage: Matt Krepsik & Vas Bakopoulos on Signal & Noise LIVE at Advertising Week 2026.

Matt Krepsik is CEO of MediaRadar, with two decades of experience in advertising technology, data, and analytics, including a long career at Nielsen. Vas Bakopoulos is SVP and Head of Industry Research at MMA Global, with prior research and strategy roles at Digitas, Publicis and Kantar.

Filmed LIVE at Advertising Week 2026 at MCM Creative Studios in New York City, this episode of Signal & Noise brings together hosts Brett House and Rio Longacre with MediaRadar CEO Matt Krepsik and MMA Global’s Vas Bakopoulos. It starts with new MediaRadar research: among 500 industry professionals surveyed in July 2026, 87% actively use AI in advertising and media decisions, and 92% report changes to products, services, or pricing.

If everyone has the same tools, where does the advantage come from? The four make the case that it lives in the data, memory, skills, and guardrails around the models, and in the proprietary knowledge a brand owns.

In the survey, 44.9% said verified proprietary data would increase their confidence. Then comes the idea of the night: when everyone has the same palette, the advantage shifts back to the painter. Taste and craft, Matt says, may be the two most important words in advertising. Vas adds that taste can’t be scaled.

The conversation also takes on agency operating models, in-housing, the ad-tech supply chain, and creative intelligence. Vas shares research on the brands that “defied gravity” by defying category conventions and simplifying their message. It’s thoughtful, provocative, and a lot of fun.

This one was filmed in front of a live audience, so watch the video if you can. Watch (or listen): AI Intelligence & Competitive Advantage LIVE at Advertising Week!

By Rio Longacre

Is it unethical to advertise to AI agents? Rio Longacre’s provocative post set off a debate, and it led him to a bigger question: before agents shop, negotiate, and spend on our behalf, who do they actually work for? His answer is three rules inspired by Isaac Asimov, built for the agentic economy we’re about to live in.

Rio’s rules: Loyalty (an agent represents its user ahead of its provider, advertisers, and merchants), Obedience (it follows instructions faithfully and asks when intent or interests are unclear), and Continuity (it keeps the context that makes it useful, but never gets a right to preserve itself, and you can always shut it down). On advertising, he draws a line between paying to be considered and paying to be preferred, or information versus influence.

Read the article: The Three Rules of Agentic AI