When a software update arrives with promises of simplicity and control, it is often because the previous version delivered neither.
The Trade Desk is rolling out a refresh of its Kokai buying platform, called Zuma, that amounts to an extended apology tour for what happened when Kokai first appeared three years ago. Buyers at the time complained that they had been pushed onto a system that did not match how they actually worked, and some of them took their spending elsewhere. The resulting revenue miss sent the company's stock down 33 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, a reminder that even the most dominant players in programmatic advertising can stub their toes when they move too fast.
"UX is a key focus for the Zuma release of Kokai," said Samantha Ross, senior director of product marketing at The Trade Desk, during a briefing. "Users appreciate the power of Kokai, but they want it to be easier to use."
(One might note that "easier to use" is not typically something companies emphasize unless the previous version was, in fact, difficult to use.)
The changes address the daily friction points that have become familiar complaints among traders: landing pages that surface pacing and delivery problems immediately, bulk edits that show the consequences before they go live, and a troubleshooting view that no longer requires buyers to dig through raw settings tables. Haley Feazell, vice president for global media at Mindgruve, described the evolution as "steady" rather than dramatic — "a lot of smaller improvements and refinements."
The more ambitious piece is an artificial intelligence assistant called Koa, now entering closed beta. It can read a media plan, flag inconsistencies, and build out campaign structures, though humans must still approve everything before it runs. The Trade Desk said the ability for Koa to apply fixes on its own is coming later.
"The Trade Desk seems to still be playing catch up in terms of their AI features," said Dominic Johnson, associate director of brand media at Collective Measures, noting that some capabilities still in beta at The Trade Desk are already live on rival platforms.
Perhaps more telling is The Trade Desk's decision to let clients route its AI agents through whatever tools they already use — Claude, for instance — rather than insisting everyone work inside Kokai. It is the kind of concession a company makes when it has already won the underlying battle and no longer needs to win every skirmish.
Original story published in Digiday: "Three years after Kokai, The Trade Desk is betting on refinement with Zuma"