COLOGNE — When Sizmek acquired Rocket Fuel in 2017, it was a deal that reset expectations for the ad-tech outlook, closed a chapter on Rocket Fuel and gave Sizmek access to power artificial intelligence power.

On the first anniversary of that acquisition, Sizmek says the company can now offer a tightly integrated, native AI capability for his ad software.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Sizmek CEO Mark Grether says the company recently relaunched its demand-side platform and its ad server to tie both pieces, plus Sizmek’s data management platform, together in a single user interface.

Talking about how AI fuels that, he says: “Rocket Fuel was really famous for one thing, which was the AI. [But] we have 10x years plus experience in AI, so the system over time got better and better and better, with more and more data.

“So we took basically now this core asset, the AI asset, and almost kind of put it on steroids with all the data that we have now with the ad server. So a client can really benefit from all the data that an ad server is capable to generate.”

Grether predicts further industry consolidation and a new wave of startups launching to attack new ad-tech opportunities. That will produce a balance roster of vendors, big and small, he says.

for its part, Sizmek now counts 1,200 global employees, and Grether says it is important to have boots on the ground to serve markets like China, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Germany and France.

This interview is part of a series titled Advertising Reimagined: The View from DMEXCO 2018, presented by Criteo. Please find more videos from the series here.