Second Look

Helping publishers maintain control as media buying shifts to AI agents

Second Look helps publishers maintain control, pricing power, and accountability as media buying shifts to autonomous systems.

Early decisions will shape long-term control.

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Why now

The shift is coming faster than most publishers are prepared for

Programmatic scaled faster than the accountability structures built to govern it. Agentic advertising risks doing the same thing again, this time with systems that can negotiate, optimize, and execute decisions at machine speed.

The standards are emerging. The commercial and governance work is still yours.

ReadinessPrepare before agent behavior becomes a pricing or compliance problem.

RevenueProtect premium positioning, negotiated value, and commercial leverage.

GovernanceBuild practical guardrails around targeting, adjacency, escalation, and auditability.

What We Do

Maintain control, pricing power, and accountability in AI-driven media

Second Look helps publishers navigate the business, operational, and governance challenges created by autonomous advertising systems before they become revenue, relationship, or compliance problems.

Establish accountability before something goes wrong

When agent behavior affects pricing, content adjacency, user targeting, or campaign execution, publishers need clarity on ownership, escalation, and auditability before the market forces the issue.

Buyer relationship protection

We help publishers identify where agent-driven buying could weaken premium positioning, erode deal value, or reduce the influence of direct commercial relationships.

AI operational readiness

We help organizations prepare for agent-driven workflows by clarifying what signals matter, what inventory should remain protected, where human oversight still needs to sit, and how commercial, operations, and legal teams should coordinate.

Engagements

How we work

Second Look offers focused advisory engagements designed for organizations that want to prepare thoughtfully, move early, and stay in control.

Recommended starting point

Agent Readiness Assessment

Best for: Publishers who want a clear view of where they may be exposed as agent-driven buying grows.

What’s included:

Stakeholder interviews
Review of current commercial and operational posture
Signal and inventory exposure assessment
Governance and accountability gap analysis
Concise findings readout with recommended priorities

Outcome: A practical view of what needs attention now, what can wait, and where control is most likely to erode first.

Design

Control and Governance Design

Best for: Organizations ready to define how revenue, operations, legal, and policy should work together in an AI-driven media environment.

What’s included:

Pricing control and decision rights: defining where and how you retain pricing authority and deal-making decisions as buying becomes automated
Configuration documentation and version control framework
Escalation and accountability framework
Brand adjacency and targeting guardrail planning
Audit and verification framework
Executive briefing and operating recommendations

Outcome: A working blueprint for how your organization will protect value and make decisions as autonomous systems scale.

Advisory

Ongoing Advisory

Best for: Leadership teams that want independent perspective as standards evolve, internal decisions arise, and market behavior shifts.

What’s included:

Monthly or quarterly advisory sessions
Issue-based guidance on emerging questions
Review of internal plans, partner proposals, and governance decisions
Executive sounding board support

Outcome: A trusted outside perspective to help leadership teams stay ahead of a fast-moving transition.

Insights

Analysis and commentary

Perspectives on agentic advertising, publisher control, and accountability structures in AI-driven media.

Featured insight

Agentic Advertising Is Coming. Are Publishers Ready?

The foundational paper behind Second Look will be published here. Until then, schedule a conversation for early access and context tailored to your organization.

Request the Paper

About

Building accountability structures for AI-driven media

Jesse Cozart founded Second Look to help publishers navigate one of the next major shifts in digital advertising: the move from human-mediated buying to AI agents that can negotiate, optimize, and execute decisions at machine speed.

Jesse Cozart has spent more than two decades in digital advertising and media technology, with leadership experience across major platforms and infrastructure companies including DoubleClick, Google, AppNexus, Microsoft, LiveRamp, and Mediaocean.

Over that time, he saw firsthand how this industry often scales technology faster than it builds the commercial and governance structures needed to manage the consequences. Agentic advertising presents a similar inflection point, but publishers still have an opportunity to prepare earlier and more deliberately.

Second Look exists to help them do that.

DoubleClickGoogleAppNexusMicrosoftLiveRampMediaocean

Why Second Look

The most important questions in agent-driven media are not only technical. They are commercial, operational, and organizational.

How is value communicated to systems that optimize differently than people do?
Who is accountable when something goes wrong?
What requires human judgment, and what should be configured in advance?

Second Look helps leadership teams work through those questions with rigor and clarity.

Contact

Start the conversation

If your organization is starting to think through the business, operational, or governance implications of agent-driven advertising, Jesse Cozart would be glad to talk.

Second Look works with publishers and media organizations preparing for the shift to AI-driven buying systems.