How Acxiom and Fundamental Group are solving for the Outcomes Era

The advertising industry is at an inflection point. As Ruowen Liscio (Acxiom’s VP Global Partnerships) at our recent Data Collaboration Summit in NYC put it, we’re at the "exact same time where people will need to figure out how to adapt, much like when programmatic advertising first arrived.”

We explored this transformation in a candid panel with Ruowen and Angus Maclaine (Founder at Fundamental Group), moderated by Art Zeidman (MD, Agency & Programmatic Sales at Permutive). The conversation focused on the practical solutions already winning in-market: predictive targeting, true curation, and a radical new approach to AI.

From IDs to predictive outcomes

The panel discussed how the industry is already moving beyond its focus on fragmented IDs and leaping toward a more effective future. This new approach trades deterministic data for predictive and "psychographic targeting, replacing outdated metrics like CPA with privacy-first measures of real engagement, such as cost per active visit.

Curation as the future of digital advertising

Ruowen identified curation as the future of digital advertising, explaining it's the key strategy for packaging these new signals and is already significantly outperforming traditional methods.

AI as the essential accelerator

Finally, both panelists agreed that AI is essential to manage this new complexity, with Angus noting that AI agents could "take five years off our dev roadmap" and scale this sophisticated new ecosystem.

Watch the full recording of the panel from the Data Collaboration Summit to get all the insights.