Over the past year at FOX, we’ve been focused on a simple but powerful question:
What if the biggest unlock in advertising isn’t better data or better targeting, but better operations?
Like many large media organizations, our ad sales ecosystem has evolved over time. With that evolution comes complexity: multiple systems, manual workflows, and what many in our business know all too well: “swivel chairing.” Highly capable young talent is spending valuable time moving between systems, re-entering data, and stitching together insights over and over again. From my vantage point leading revenue operations, it became clear that unlocking growth wasn’t about asking more of our teams; it was about redesigning how the system works around them.
We saw an opportunity to rethink that entirely…
Building an AI Layer Around the System
Rather than replacing our existing infrastructure, we took a different approach. We began building a layer of AI-driven automation around our systems, designed to eliminate friction across the workflow. The tool is appropriately called Campaign 360, and it is already in the hands of our team. This journey began with a deep process mapping initiative that looked at every step, keystroke, and transaction across the ad sales organization in painful detail. The goal was not just efficiency; it was the liberation of time and talent. By reducing manual tasks, we have been able to give our account managers and coordinators back meaningful time every day, every week, and every quarter that is quantifiable thanks to analytic tools.
So now, that energy can be redirected toward:
- Informing sales strategy
- Identifying new business opportunities
- Covering more clients with greater depth
- Becoming more consultative partners to advertisers
From Execution to Insight
One of the most exciting shifts has been the ability to move from execution to insight. What we didn’t fully anticipate, but quickly realized, was how much this would change the nature of the work itself. Tasks that previously required hours (and, in some cases, weeks) of manual effort can now be completed in minutes or even seconds. For example, tools we’ve implemented can generate campaign wrap reports in 30 seconds or less, providing not just performance summaries, but forward-looking recommendations on how to optimize plans. This fundamentally changes the role of the team. Instead of just reporting on what happened and moving on to the next task, they are now actively shaping what happens next. And while this work is happening inside FOX, it is built through a client-first lens, driving better service, richer insights, and adaptability. All of this leads to our north star, which is a deeper relationship with our customers.
A System That Scales Across the Organization
What started within our Client Services team will soon be expanding. We are extending this approach across multiple disciplines, inclusive of revenue analysis, traffic, pricing & planning, and eventually frontline sales to ensure our Account Executives can focus on what they do best: selling. The long-term vision is to create a unified operating environment where any team touching ad sales works within a connected system that we think of as a true end-to-end platform. All of this leads to something potentially game-changing.
The Bigger Idea
AI in advertising is often discussed in terms of targeting, creative, or media optimization. Those are important, but there is another layer that may be even more impactful: how the business actually operates. When you remove friction from the system, you don’t just make processes faster; you elevate the role of the people inside it. The real promise of AI in our industry isn’t about doing the same work more efficiently; it’s about enabling teams to do better, more strategic work at scale. The future of advertising won’t be won by better targeting; it will be won by better operating systems. In a business driven by relationships, insight, and speed, that may be the most meaningful transformation of all.