Issue #70: The AI Intent Opportunity

☕ Hello there, algorithm artisans

This is First Impressions - a weekly spotlight on adtech start-up stories.

📖 First Impressions - Adgent

In our latest First Impressions, we spoke with Rishan Chopra, CEO & Co-founder at Adgent, about the rise of AI-referred traffic, why valuable intent is being formed inside AI environments before users ever reach the open web, and how his company is turning that overlooked signal into a programmatic opportunity.

What problem did you become obsessed with and why?

AI is fundamentally changing how people discover and make decisions but advertising hasn't caught up. Users are increasingly arriving at the open web having already formed intent inside AI environments like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. That intent is rich, specific, and commercially valuable, yet it's invisible to every DSP, agency, and advertiser today. I became obsessed with the question: how do you capture and activate a signal that the whole industry is ignoring?

How does your company solve this problem?

Adgent identifies and segments users who have transitioned from AI environments to the open web - what we call AI-referred traffic. We build contextual segments around that intent and make them addressable programmatically, sitting within existing SSP infrastructure so agencies can activate against them through the pipes they already use. No new workflows. Just a smarter signal.

What do you do differently from other businesses trying to solve this problem?

Most players in this space are focused on AI search optimisation - helping brands appear inside AI answers. We're focused on what happens after - when that high-intent user leaves the AI environment and enters the open web. That's the moment of action, and it's the moment no one is monetising. We're also the only company building this as a programmatic product, not a content or SEO play.

What do you get right early on to build the best vendor-client partnerships?

Specificity over scale. Early on, we don't try to boil the ocean - we identify one clear use case for a partner, run a contained pilot, and let the data do the talking. Our travel pilot delivered 2× higher CTR and 64% lower CPC. Those numbers open doors and build trust faster than any deck. We also think hard about aligning on what success looks like before we start, so there's no ambiguity at readout.

What are you paying closest attention to in adtech over the next 12 months?

Two things. First, the growth of AI-referred traffic as a share of total web traffic - it's accelerating faster than most people in the industry appreciate. Second, the emerging conversation around ads within AI environments themselves - how platforms like ChatGPT start to commercialise their inventory, what formats work, and what performance looks like.

Which other companies in adtech do you admire, and what do they do well?

MiQ stands out above all. Bootstrapped to a valuation north of £1B - that's rare for a UK adtech business. I had the privilege of working there, and I can say without hesitation it had the best culture of any workplace I've experienced. They understood early that if you get the people and the environment right, commercial performance follows. That's not a soft insight, it's a strategic one, and MiQ executed it at scale. For a founder building from scratch, that's the model I keep coming back to.

Got feedback, suggestions or interested in partnerships? Hit reply and let us know.

See you next time,

Access Adtech