Digiday
Nov 5, 2025
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For marketers with a keen eye on brand safety and suitability, inclusion lists are something of a gold standard. And like gold, they’re expensive.
Excerpt:
While the rhythm of the process is the same as before, the AI element allows agencies to expand a list faster than they’d be able to with only human analysts. “If you’re dealing with 100,000 plus domains, it’s very hard to go through it manually,” said Blodwell.
According to Taji Zaminasli, co-founder and managing partner at media agency AxM, “It’s really helpful at uncovering ideas we might not have tested out.”
It’s not foolproof, however. “We always need to keep a really fine eye on it because some of the recommendations aren’t a fit,” noted Zaminasli, who told Digiday her agency had been using the strategy for over a year. She estimated it had made the compilation process 30% faster.
“We’re still working with LLMs – they’re not perfect,” said Lathrop.
Though AxM, Assembly and Mediassociates hadn’t held back, other media agency execs said their skepticism of gen AI had led them to limit its use. One executive, who exchanged anonymity for candor, said their agency was using gen AI tools to categorize and sort the publishers within an inclusion list – but not to compile them.