To help media outlets optimize revenue in the face of crisis, adtech firm Sparteo is launching Fred, an artificial intelligence agent designed to automate advertising management and free up technical teams to focus on new growth drivers.

The media industry is navigating a period of intense economic turbulence, characterized by declining audiences, pressure from major platforms, and waves of layoffs. To secure and optimize their revenue, some publishers—such as Reworld Media—have chosen to fully outsource their digital monetization to Sparteo. Taking this a step further, the tech company is now launching Fred, an AI agent designed to rethink how data and advertising campaigns are managed within newsrooms.

Fred: The newsroom's new conversational data analyst

According to Benjamin Tolman, co-founder of Sparteo, Fred is not merely a generative AI layer, but a shift toward agentic AI. Initially, this solution acts as a data analyst accessible via natural language. Given the complexity of current analytics platforms, the agent simplifies access to information.

Antoine Aillard, VP of Product at Sparteo, explains the product's philosophy:
"Our clients are often lost when facing analytics tools. With Fred, they simply ask a question in plain English (or French), and the AI generates charts, analyzes audience trends over the last 30 days, and highlights recommendations—saving them countless clicks and data exports."

From conversation to action

The major stakes for Fred lie in its imminent evolution. By the end of the year, the agent will do more than just answer questions; it will be capable of acting autonomously across platforms.

Benjamin Tolman illustrates this next phase with a concrete use case: "Tomorrow, a publisher could ask Fred to run an A/B test on the color of a cookie consent button to evaluate its impact on revenue. The agent will create the variants, measure performance, and propose deploying the best option." 

This process, which previously required nearly a month of work and multiple teams, will now be completed in just three queries. The user shifts from being an executor to an orchestrator.

Towards an essential shift in roles

Automating technical tasks raises organizational questions. According to Sparteo's co-founder, an AI like Fred has the capacity to perform the work of 30 people (developers, AdOps, project managers) within a media group. However, Tolman is firm: there is no narrative of layoffs behind this evolution.

Rather than simple downsizing, he describes an essential mutation of work. The goal is to transform digital managers—who were previously "conductors"—into "DJs" who compose their strategy solo using intelligent tools. Employees, freed from low-value manual configuration tasks, can be reassigned to strategic, revenue-generating levers such as GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), Connected TV (CTV), or social platforms.

A unified and proprietary infrastructure

Sparteo has succeeded where others have struggled due to two major strategic decisions. First, the company completely rebuilt its monetization tech stack to standardize all data from A to Z. Unlike publishers who stack disparate solutions with incompatible calculation rules, Sparteo centralizes everything so the AI isn't "comparing apples to oranges."

Secondly, Sparteo chose total independence by becoming its own cloud provider.

"Unlike our competitors, we own our own servers and Nvidia GPUs. This choice allows us to avoid the skyrocketing costs associated with Amazon or Google Cloud, enabling us to offer this AI to our clients for free and return more money to them," emphasizes Benjamin Tolman.

Sparteo’s business model is based on value sharing: the company earns 30% of the growth generated by its technology. Publishers never lose money, as the company claims a revenue increase of at least 30% for clients who entrust them with their monetization.

Already multilingual, Fred is now set to support Sparteo’s international expansion, as the company opens its first U.S. subsidiary this month.

Read the story on Minted (in french) : https://www.mntd.fr/avec-son-nouvel-agent-ia-fred-sparteo-rend-la-monetisation-des-medias-plus-autonome/