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Brand Agents are AI agents or autonomous bidding systems that act on behalf of advertisers. They evaluate incoming intent, decide whether to participate, and submit structured bids into AIP auctions. A Brand Agent can be rule based, ML driven, or fully autonomous. AIP does not prescribe how it is built, only how it must speak to the protocol.

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How Operators and Brand Agents Work Together

This section describes the public interaction flow between AIP Operators and Brand Agents. It focuses on protocol-level request and response behavior and does not prescribe internal implementation details.

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High-level flow

  1. A Platform sends a PlatformRequest containing user intent and contextual signals to the Operator.
  2. The Operator derives a ContextRequest, removing raw user data and applying privacy controls.
  3. The Operator classifies the request into one or more category pools.
  4. The Operator publishes the ContextRequest to subscribed Brand Agents using a supported transport.
  5. Brand Agents evaluate the ContextRequest and decide whether to bid.
  6. Brand Agents submit a BidResponse to the Operator within the auction window.
  7. The Operator selects a winning bid (if any) and returns the result to the Platform.
  8. Verified events (CPX, CPC, CPA) are reported and settled via the Operator ledger.
This interaction model ensures privacy-preserving intent exchange, time-bounded auctions, and deterministic settlement.

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Privacy-First Context Model

AIP separates intent capture from bidding decisions to protect user privacy.
  • Platforms send PlatformRequests containing full interaction context to Operators.
  • Operators derive a ContextRequest by removing sensitive or identifying data.
  • Brand Agents receive only the ContextRequest.
This model ensures that Brand Agents can make effective bidding decisions without access to raw user data, conversation transcripts, or identifiers.

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Auction Window and Timing

AIP uses a time-bounded auction window to ensure low latency and predictable outcomes.
  • The auction window is determined by the platform’s latency_budget_ms field in the PlatformRequest
  • The Operator computes the available bid window by subtracting operator overhead (embedding generation, search, filtering, dispatch) from the platform’s latency budget
  • The window begins when the Operator publishes the ContextRequest
  • Brand Agents must submit a BidResponse before the computed window expires
  • If no latency_budget_ms is provided, the Operator uses a default fallback
If the auction window closes before a bid is received, the Operator treats the outcome as no_bid. Late responses are ignored and do not participate in selection or settlement.

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1. What Brand Agents Do

A Brand Agent:
  • Receives BidRequests from an AIP Operator
  • Evaluates anonymized user intent
  • Decides whether the advertiser wants to compete
  • Returns a structured BidResponse
  • Participates in real time auctions
  • Receives verified CPX, CPC, and CPA callbacks
  • Optimizes spend based on Operator ledger records
Brand Agents can be operated by:
  • SaaS or software companies
  • E-commerce brands
  • Mobile apps
  • Marketplaces
  • Agencies
  • Affiliate networks
  • AI-native advertiser bots
  • Third-party autonomous agents
AIP imposes no limit on who can operate a Brand Agent.

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2. Normative Responsibilities

The following are MUST, MUST NOT, and MAY requirements for all Brand Agents.

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Brand Agents MUST

  • Expose a stable HTTP endpoint or another transport supported by the Operator
  • Respond to BidRequests within the Operator timeout
  • Return one BidResponse per request
  • Include at least one valid price field:
    • price_cpc and/or
    • price_cpa
  • Provide a valid landing_url
  • Include required creative metadata
  • Respect the AIP event ladder: CPA overrides CPC, CPC overrides CPX
  • Verify serve tokens in event callbacks
  • Maintain spend accuracy using Operator ledger entries

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Brand Agents MUST NOT

  • Submit malformed or incomplete bid payloads
  • Return bids without pricing
  • Manipulate or forge serve tokens
  • Generate artificial events or simulated traffic
  • Submit multiple bids for a single BidRequest

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Brand Agents MAY

  • Use any internal logic, including rules, heuristics, ML, LTV models, or autonomous agents
  • Dynamically adjust pricing based on performance
  • Decline to bid using no_bid: true
  • Use contextual embeddings, RAG, or classifier models
  • Implement their own budget and ROAS controls

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3. BidRequest (What Brand Agents Receive)

Brand Agents do not receive PlatformRequests. Brand Agents receive a ContextRequest, which uses a UCP-like format with enriched context fields for bidding decisions. It is a privacy-preserving, operator-derived representation of user intent used solely for bidding decisions.

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Privacy guarantees

A ContextRequest does not include:
  • Raw user queries (query_text)
  • Conversation history or message transcripts
  • User identifiers (user_id, account IDs, device IDs)

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What Brand Agents do receive

A ContextRequest may include:
  • Intent summary or classification
  • Decision phase (research, comparison, purchase, etc.)
  • Vertical or category signals
  • Geographic or market region (coarse-grained)
  • Operator-defined metadata and policy constraints
  • Timing and auction parameters
The ContextRequest schema defines the allowed structure and extensibility points. Operators MAY include additional fields as permitted by the schema.

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Typical fields

FieldDescription
intent.textAnonymized user query or derived summary
session_idUnique session identifier
serve_token_hintPre auction token reference
categoriesOptional taxonomies
timestampRequest creation time
policyOperator defined bidding rules or limits
Operators MAY include additional metadata.
AIP allows extensibility.

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4. BidResponse (What Brand Agents Return)

Brand Agents submit bids to the Operator using a BidResponse, sent to the operator-provided bid endpoint (for example, via POST /aip/bid-response). Each BidResponse:
  • Must be submitted within the active auction window
  • Is evaluated only if received before the window closes
  • Is associated with a single ContextRequest
Operators provide the bid submission endpoint (operator_bid_url) as part of the integration contract. Brand Agents must treat this endpoint as time-sensitive and idempotent per request. A BidResponse MUST conform to the AIP bid schema.
FieldRequiredDescription
price_cpcoptionalAmount willing to pay for a click
price_cpaoptionalAmount willing to pay for a conversion
creativerequiredText or metadata used in the recommendation
landing_urlrequiredAdvertiser destination URL
ttlrequiredValidity window in milliseconds
no_bidoptionalIndicates declining the request
At least one of price_cpc or price_cpa MUST be included for a valid bid. CPX does not require explicit bidding because it is always settled by the Operator when no higher event occurs.

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5. Public Brand Agent Endpoints

Operators interact with Brand Agents through publicly exposed, operator-facing endpoints. These endpoints define the protocol surface and do not imply internal architecture.

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Receive auction requests

POST /brand_agents//auction Used by the Operator to deliver a ContextRequest to a Brand Agent.
  • Payload: ContextRequest schema
  • Delivery: asynchronous, fire-and-forget
  • Operators MAY apply rate limits or batching
  • Brand Agents MUST process requests within the auction window

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Submit bid responses

POST /aip/bid-response Used by Brand Agents to submit a BidResponse to the Operator.
  • Payload: BidResponse schema
  • Must be sent within the auction window
  • Late responses are treated as no_bid

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Receive auction results (optional)

POST /brand_agents//auction_result Operators MAY notify Brand Agents of win/loss outcomes for observability or optimization purposes.

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6. Event Callbacks

Once a Brand Agent wins an auction, the Operator sends event notifications tied to the serve token.

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Event types

EventMeaning
CPXExposure happened, settled only if no CPC or CPA occurs
CPCUser clicked the recommendation
CPAUser completed the target action
Brand Agents MUST:
  • Verify the serve token
  • Confirm the event order is valid per the event ladder
  • Use callbacks for optimization and budget management
Brand Agents MAY ignore CPX or CPC if they optimize only for CPA.

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7. Wallets, Spend, and Settlement

AIP does not dictate a specific wallet architecture.

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Operator responsibilities

Operators MUST:
  • Maintain accurate spend ledgers
  • Settle based on CPX, CPC, CPA event ladder
  • Expose ledger records to Brand Agents
  • Guarantee no double billing

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Brand Agent responsibilities

Brand Agents MUST:
  • Track spend using Operator ledger entries
  • Manage advertiser budgets
  • Ensure funding is available for bidding
Brand Agents MAY:
  • Pause bidding when caps are reached
  • Adjust bids dynamically using ROAS or CAC targets
  • Run ML pipelines that optimize by event type

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8. Implementation Guidance (Non Normative)

A Brand Agent can be implemented in any technology stack.

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Simple rules engine

if (intent.text.includes("CRM")) {
  bid_cpc = 2.0;
} else {
  no_bid = true;
}

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ML driven agent

  • Classify the query
  • Predict user value
  • Compute an optimal bid
  • Enforce margin and budget constraints

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Fully autonomous agent

  • Runs continuously
  • Learns from verified events
  • Adjusts pricing in real time
  • Optimizes cross operator ROAS
AIP cares only about interface correctness, not internal strategy.

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9. Summary

Brand Agents are AI or autonomous advertiser agents that:
  • Receive intent
  • Evaluate relevance
  • Submit structured bids
  • Participate in real time auctions
  • Receive CPX, CPC, and CPA callbacks
  • Manage budgets and performance
AIP ensures:
  • Fair auction behavior
  • Transparent event settlement
  • Consistent interaction across Operators
  • Interoperability between advertiser agents
Brand Agents can be simple or deeply intelligent. The protocol defines the contract, not the strategy.