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The Trade Desk has been rolling out Kokai Zuma worldwide since 27 August 2026. The new release of the DSP platform bundles a revised interface, additional measurement features and new agentic AI capabilities around the Koa assistant.
Koa gets specialised AI agents
Koa is meant to support media buyers going forward with campaign setup, audience building, troubleshooting and performance analysis. The Trade Desk describes a conversational assistant, behind which specialised Koa Agents take on individual tasks.
Digiday reports from a product briefing that the campaign agent can, for example, read media plans from spreadsheets, spot missing details and ask follow-up questions. Before a campaign goes live, human approval remains required. Other functions, including parts of troubleshooting and frequency optimisation, are still in beta.
In this, The Trade Desk follows a trend we are already seeing on other advertising platforms: AI is shifting from recommendations to concrete work steps. Why stronger controls become necessary at the same time is shown in our article on cost audits for AI agents in media buying.
Zuma is meant to make Kokai easier to use
Alongside AI, usability is a central part of the release. New overview pages are meant to make pacing, delivery and performance visible faster. An "Applied Settings" view bundles targeting settings, while bulk edits are meant to show, before a change is made, how it is likely to affect delivery.
This is also a response to criticism of Kokai. According to Digiday, agencies complained after the launch 2023 about complicated workflows and a forced migration. Zuma therefore relies more on incremental improvements and user feedback.
The timing matters for The Trade Desk: the company has just announced a worldwide job cut of around 15 percent. The background is covered in our article on The Trade Desk's job cuts 2026.
The Trade Desk reports 32 percent better CPA performance
For the updated Koa optimisation, The Trade Desk cites an average CPA improvement of 32 percent. The figure comes from its own platform analysis of 62 campaigns, in which the new model was compared with the previous model; The Trade Desk describes the result as statistically significant.
This metric should therefore be read as a provider figure, not as a general benchmark for all campaigns. The company is rolling Zuma out globally, but itself points out that some of the announced functions are only generally available, while others are in open or closed beta.
Alongside Koa, Zuma extends conversion lift studies, reporting and a new report builder. This fits the broader development in programmatic buying, where platforms automate more and more optimisation. For advertisers, what remains decisive is whether the automation can be transparently verified – see also our classification why AI in media buying needs control.