Taboola’s Adam Singolda on why publishers, advertisers are leaning in on AIa

In a dynamic conversation with Adam Singolda, Founder and CEO of Taboola, we delve into the company’s innovative use of artificial intelligence, its position as a champion of the open internet, and its vision for the future of content discovery. From adapting to diverse global markets to navigating the challenges of privacy and performance advertising, Singol da offers a wealth of insights into the rapidly evolving digital advertising landscape.

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Artificial intelligence has been central to Taboola’s growth, driving advancements in both publishing and advertising. "We're seeing great adoption of AI by our clients, which is fantastic,” Singolda remarks. “A lot of times, change is hard, and AI is such a new thing. But publishers and advertisers are leaning in because everyone wants to grow their business.”

On the publishing side, Taboola focuses on creating hyper-personalized editorial experiences. Singolda explains, “We have a software called Homepage For You, which is trying to mimic the experience of TikTok or Instagram, where the feed is personalized for you—only with editorial content. You go to a homepage, and everything you see feels like it was made for you.” This approach, he says, has significantly boosted engagement, with publishers using AI to help readers discover content before they navigate away to platforms like Facebook.

In advertising, AI is transforming what has long been a daunting process. “Becoming a successful advertiser is very complicated,” Singolda acknowledges. “You need to figure out your bidding strategy, CPC, CPM, daily budget—there are so many acronyms and things to learn.” To simplify this, Taboola introduced tools like Abby, an AI-driven front-end agent that streamlines campaign creation, and Max Conversion, which automates the bidding process. “Max Conversion has been the fastest-adopted product we’ve ever launched. It’s amazing how AI can make something so complicated much simpler.”

Taboola operates in an industry dominated by the ‘walled gardens’ of Meta and Google, but Singolda is clear about the company’s mission. “Facebook and Google are doing an amazing job serving themselves. We don’t operate within their walls. Instead, we try to learn from them and bring what works to the rest of the world.” He likens Taboola’s role to Robin Hood: “You take from the direction they’ve set and give it to everyone else. Our job is to help thousands of publishers and tens of thousands of advertisers globally.”

Privacy concerns and regulatory changes are reshaping the digital landscape, and Singolda sees this as a positive shift. “I think privacy is a good thing because it’s driven by consumers wanting to feel safe,” he says. “Nobody likes feeling creeped out when an ad follows them around the internet.” Taboola’s reliance on first-party cookies, integrated directly with publishers, ensures personalized experiences while respecting privacy. “We don’t know your name or gender, but we know you’re the same person who clicked on certain content before, so we can recommend things you’ll love.”