Brand Agent | People Inc.
People Inc’s agentic AI-powered ad unit that adapts to each user’s context in real time.
Overview
Brand Agent is an AI ad unit that reads the content of the page it runs on and generates prompts and responses to match both the editorial context and pre-configured advertiser personas.
Why it matters
As digital advertising has matured, traditional display ads increasingly struggle to break through in contextually relevant, trust-driven editorial environments. People Inc. needed an ad unit that could:
Move beyond static creative to deliver personalized, conversational experiences
Leverage contextual signals from premium editorial content without relying on cookies or PII
Scale across People Inc.'s broad portfolio of brands
Exploration & discovery
I joined this project shortly after it began and was tasked with redesigning the first iteration of this ad unit. Because this format of agentic AI advertising was so new, I knew that user testing and campaign performance data would be especially insightful.
We conducted an unmoderated study with 13 participants. Users recorded their audio and screen so that we could observe how they interacted to the ad unit on an article. They were encouraged to speak aloud about what they were thinking as they completed tasks.
While watching these sessions, I created an empathy map of what I observed. I identified several opportunities for improvement: it wasn’t clear where links led, CTA button placement created confusion, the inline text link styling was perceived as untrustworthy, and some users didn’t notice the ad.
The original design ran in Q1 and Q2 of 2025. I used insights from the study to inform my redesign, which launched in Q3. The redesign drove a significant increase in total traffic clicks. Citation link clicks rose from a 12.7% (Q1) and 12.8% (Q2) click-through rate to 38.6% in Q3. Users also spent more time engaging with the ad. This performance data validated the design improvements I had made based on the user study.
Final design
The final design inherits the fonts and colors of the brand article it lives on. This brings trust from our established brands (ex. PEOPLE, Better Homes & Gardens, AllRecipes) and also helps combat ad blindness by appearing native to the article. Another benefit, using the existing brand styles creates minimal design and development work.
There’s two templates to choose from depending on a campaign’s KPI. The lower funnel template encourages off-platforms clicks. The upper funnel template encourages exploring information within the ad unit.
Results
The unit is being sold to a growing roster of major advertisers. Some clients include Sephora, Pandora, GetYourGuide, American Airlines, and Citizens Bank.
