Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast. Tim and Chris Vanderhook on Viant’s Lattice Brain: How Autonomous Advertising Beats Human Traders
Jan 12, 2026
At CES, Tim and Chris Vanderhook explain Viant's Lattice Brain, an AI-driven system that automates ad optimization. They reveal how automated campaigns outperformed human-managed ones by eliminating decision latency. Their unique workflow, Outcomes, sets advertising goals and optimizes performance in real-time, providing transparency but limiting control over tweaks. As they anticipate a mix of manual and automated strategies, they liken Outcomes' speed to that of a cheetah, showcasing the efficiency of tech over traditional methods.
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A Song To Launch Lattice Brain
- Viant used AI tools like Grok, ChatGPT and Suno AI to produce a promotional song called 'Lattice Brain' for the product launch.
- The track was roughly 98% AI-generated with minimal human editing.
Full Autonomous Campaign Launch
- Viant launched Outcomes as a fully autonomous ad product that only needs URL, product, dates, budget and a CPA/ROAS goal.
- The system plans, bids, measures and makes all decisions without trader overrides to reach the target.
Human Versus Machine Test
- Viant ran a head-to-head test with an experienced trader on McKenzie Childs e-commerce CPA goals and excluded retargeting for the AI.
- The autonomous campaign hit near-target from cold start and finished at ~$15 CPA versus the human's ~$45 CPA.