Signal Break: Agentic Trading Is Here

This week, the future of digital advertising arrived.Following Boostr and Vox Media’s landmark announcement of one of the industry’s first public agentic media buys using AdCP, Signal & Noise sits down for an exclusive conversation with Patrick O’Leary, Founder & CEO of Boostr, to unpack exactly what happened—and why it matters.For months, we’ve argued that agentic trading wasn’t a distant vision. It was already beginning. This announcement is one of the clearest signals yet that AI agents are moving beyond copilots and into autonomous negotiation, with buyer and seller agents working directly together to execute media transactions.This isn’t another AI hype discussion.Patrick walks us through the transaction in detail: how the agents negotiated, what humans still controlled, how long the process took, what the pilot revealed, and why this could fundamentally reshape the economics of digital advertising.We also tackle the bigger questions:Does agentic trading replace programmatic or evolve alongside it?What happens to DSPs, SSPs, and today’s ad tech ecosystem?How do identity, fraud prevention, brand safety, and measurement work in an agent-driven world?Which companies stand to benefit—and which business models are suddenly at risk?At Signal & Noise, we don’t do hot takes. We bring together the people who are actually building the future and give them the time to explain what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and what it means for the rest of the industry.If you’ve been wondering whether agentic trading is real, this is the conversation you’ve been waiting for.Guest: Patrick O’Leary, Founder & CEO, BoostrIf you enjoy conversations that go beyond the headlines, subscribe to Signal & Noise on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or visit SignalAndNoise.ai for more executive interviews, analysis, and original research.