Navigating the Future of AdTech with Ownership, Connection, and Trust

Navigating the Future of AdTech with Ownership, Connection, and Trust

Key Takeaways from the AdTech Economic Forum 2025

This week’s AdTech Economic Forum offered a powerful lens into where the industry is heading—and what’s required to thrive. From shifting investor priorities to the accelerating impact of AI, one session stood out for framing the future not just in terms of technology, but in terms of values: Rishad Tobaccowala’s keynote on The Present and Future of AdTech.

Rishad outlined three essential pillars for navigating this next chapter: ownership, connection, and trust. These values are deeply embedded in the work we do at ID5, and they serve as both validation and inspiration as we continue to help shape the future of identity infrastructure.

Ownership: The Value of the Network

Rishad highlighted a shift from owning isolated tools to owning networks—systems that generate value through scale, participation, and connectivity. That’s exactly where ID5 delivers. We’ve built one of the most widely adopted identity infrastructures in the market, with global reach and deep integrations across the ecosystem.

Our value doesn’t come from a single product—it comes from operating a privacy-first network that connects publishers, advertisers, and platforms through a unified framework. The more participants in the network, the more value it creates: better match rates, broader addressability, and improved performance across channels. That network scale isn’t just a competitive advantage—it’s a foundational asset for a more open, efficient digital advertising ecosystem. Partnering with ID5 means tapping into that infrastructure and benefiting from the compounding value it delivers.

Connection: Powering the Infrastructure That Holds the Ecosystem Together

As interfaces evolve and AI agents become central to how people navigate digital spaces, Rishad emphasized that the future belongs to systems that connect—seamlessly and intelligently. Efficiency won’t come from controlling every piece, but from enabling everything to work together, reliably and securely.

That’s exactly where ID5 excels. As a pure-play, independent identity solution with no media, data, or activation conflicts, ID5 serves as the connective infrastructure—the backbone—of the addressable advertising ecosystem. Our role is to unify, not compete. We provide the consistent, privacy-conscious identity layer that underpins cross-device recognition, cross-channel measurement, and frequency management across environments like Safari, CTV, and beyond.

In a fragmented landscape, we enable interoperability. In a regulated world, we ensure compliance. And in an increasingly complex industry, we bring simplicity and consistency to the systems that need to talk to each other. This is how ID5 powers real efficiency—by helping the industry move together, not apart.

Trust: The Hardest Currency in the Age of AI

In an era where AI is generating more content—and noise—than ever before, trust becomes the most fragile and vital currency. As Rishad put it bluntly: Everyone is going to be optimizing crap. What breaks through isn’t just speed or scale, but credibility.

At ID5, trust isn’t a side benefit—it’s foundational. From the start, we’ve invested in privacy-enhancing technologies, built for compliance across jurisdictions, and prioritized transparency in how identity is managed. Our leadership in environments like Safari and our commitment to global scale reinforce why our partners rely on us—not just to perform, but to protect their long-term interests.

In a market flooded with optimization, the differentiator isn’t just performance—it’s credibility. And credibility is earned through trust that compounds over time. This is why our partners choose ID5 not only to improve results today, but to ensure readiness for what’s coming next.

Looking Ahead: Infrastructure for What’s Next

The future of digital advertising is being shaped right now—by investment decisions, by emerging technologies, and by the foundational infrastructure that makes it all work. As the ecosystem moves toward a more agentic, AI-driven reality, the companies that will lead are the ones that stay grounded in core principles and build for scale, interoperability, and accountability.

That’s where ID5 is focused. We’re not layering identity onto yesterday’s systems—we’re building the infrastructure layer for tomorrow’s. With no media conflicts, no data lock-in, and a mission to support the open web, we deliver identity solutions that the entire ecosystem can trust, adopt, and scale.

We remain committed to the values that matter most:

• Ownership: Delivering the scale and resilience of a trusted identity network.

• Connection: Powering seamless, privacy-conscious interoperability across platforms and partners.

• Trust: Operating transparently, independently, and with accountability at the core.

These aren’t just values we talk about—they’re what we build. And we’ll continue building what the future needs, starting now.