Cognitiv, the leading advanced performance partner powered by deep learning, launched a major upgrade to ContextGPT™, bringing new levels of precision to contextual audience targeting. AI now provides an unprecedented breadth of world knowledge, depth of page-level comprehension, and the ability to reason about audiences and intent, and Cognitiv is leading the way by applying that power to contextual targeting. The platform is now up to 40% more accurate in connecting advertisers with custom-defined audiences using the relevant content they consume—without relying on cookies, pixels, or user IDs.

At the core of the upgrade is Interactive Audience Exploration, a breakthrough capability that lets media planners describe their target audiences in plain language. ContextGPT then uses advanced reasoning models to interpret this intent and recommend the most effective contextual environments. The process is transparent, showing how recommendations are made and giving advertisers a number of tailored content segments to choose from and refine in real time. This collaboration between human judgment and AI insight ensures recommendations are both actionable and fully customizable.

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Originally launched in 2023, ContextGPT, an industry-first solution, applies advanced AI reasoning and Cognitiv’s deep-learning expertise to interpret content with human-like discernment, far beyond keyword targeting. This privacy-first approach helps advertisers reach people based on the content they are engaging with in real time, turning contextual from a brand-safety checkbox into a true performance driver. This technology now allows advertisers to surround a refined, targeted consumer audience by advertising on pages with very specific content, giving scale without the waste of broad topic or inaccurate keyword targeting.

“ContextGPT has transformed the way we translate client and brand needs into precise targeting tactics, preserving the nuances that often get lost along the way,” said Andrew Sisk, Manager, Performance Planning at IPG’s Initiative. “Its advanced content intelligence has elevated both relevance and campaign performance, taking our targeting accuracy to the next level. In pharma advertising, audiences may be found alongside endemic content but also extend far beyond it. ContextGPT ensures we can reach the right people in brand-safe, impactful environments across the entire digital landscape.”

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Another key improvement in ContextGPT is its upgraded Relevance Engine, which significantly strengthens the match between an advertiser’s prompt and truly relevant content. Traditional contextual tools rely on a single, rigid definition of relevance. ContextGPT is different: it uses lightweight models informed by large language models (LLMs) that adapt to the advertiser’s intent—whether relevance depends on audience, style, content type, or semantic meaning. For example, a media planner can specify in a conversational style that they want sports related content, focused on football, optimized for Gen Z consumers. Cognitiv’s engine will then prioritize pages that meet those parameters—all in a privacy-safe, ID-less way. Early results show the new system delivers up to 40% greater accuracy than standard relevance methods. Advertisers still retain full control, tuning thresholds to balance scale and precision, with complete URL-level visibility to guide decisions.

“Cognitiv is scaling and innovating our technology to turn AI’s latest advances into real products that marketers can use to buy in real time, right now,” said Aaron Andalman, PhD in Neuroscience, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Cognitiv. “ContextGPT is unlike anything else in the market. It gives brands and agencies both control and customization, blending human oversight with AI’s heavy lifting. This balance allows advertisers to scale their campaigns efficiently while maintaining the transparency to fine-tune—and it is already proven in-market with tangible results.”

In the past year, adoption of the original ContextGPT product has doubled and is driving significant efficiencies for brands. To support this explosive demand and continue scaling the product’s capabilities, Cognitiv announced an expanded collaboration with OpenAI in March.