Intersection opens OOH ad network to AI booking tools
Wed, 13th May 2026 (Today)
Intersection has opened its street-level out-of-home advertising network to AI platforms including ChatGPT and Claude for campaign planning and booking. The move gives brands and agencies access to more than 7,000 digital screens across 13 major US markets.
Its Order Management System can now be accessed through AI tools and agents via a Model Context Protocol server, allowing users to discover inventory, check availability, build media plans and submit campaigns for reservation through a conversational interface.
The development addresses a long-standing friction point in out-of-home advertising, where buyers often manage campaigns through a patchwork of emails, phone calls, spreadsheets and multiple software systems. Intersection aims to shift that workflow into a single interface that combines planning and reservation.
The system is based on the IAB Tech Lab's OpenDirect 2.0 specification and provides real-time pricing and availability, with human review required for final booking approvals.
Current access covers digital screens, including LinkNYC, and the same API is expected to extend later to static formats such as bus wraps and two-sheet panels. Agencies and brands can also use first-party data and request-for-proposal materials within their AI platform while reviewing campaign options and costs.
The approach reflects a broader shift in advertising as media buyers test generative AI for planning and activation. Intersection cited the IAB's 2026 Outlook Report, which found that nearly eight in 10 media buyers are already using or exploring the technology for those tasks, while still prioritising human oversight, transparency and brand safety controls.
Workflow change
For media agencies and advertisers, the significance lies less in the use of AI chat interfaces than in whether they can complete a transaction without leaving the system. Many AI tools in advertising have so far focused on recommendations, draft plans or analytics summaries rather than direct campaign reservation.
Intersection's platform is designed to move beyond that by allowing buyers to go from search and planning to a reservation request within the same workflow. That could shorten the time needed to respond to changing market conditions, audience behaviour or fast-moving cultural moments.
"Brands can now do in minutes what used to take days of emails, calls, and spreadsheets," said Nitin Shriram, chief technology officer at Intersection.
"By compressing the planning and reservation process, brands can move more quickly, respond to culture in near real time, and spend more of their energy and resources on creative thinking, audience strategy, and ambitious activations, rather than operational workflows," he said.
Control points
Intersection also framed the system as a way to limit the movement of sensitive planning information across multiple vendors and platforms. By keeping inventory discovery, pricing review and reservation steps within one conversational environment, agencies may reduce the number of external handoffs in a campaign workflow.
At the same time, requiring human approval before final booking addresses one of the main concerns around AI use in media buying: whether automated systems should be able to commit budget without review. Those safeguards are built into the process even as pricing and availability update in real time.
The launch places Intersection among media owners and ad technology groups adapting their systems to AI-native workflows rather than requiring agencies to use conventional dashboards. In out-of-home advertising, where fragmentation remains a structural challenge, that could prove especially relevant if buyers begin to expect inventory access through the same interfaces they use for planning across other channels.
The platform is currently available in beta for agencies and brands seeking access and integration.