Palantir, a controversial software company with ties to the intelligence community, is turning to the intelligence community as part of its ongoing efforts to grow its commercial business.
The company, co-founded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, pitched advertising agencies to use its year-old AI platform, AIP, according to two executives from various agencies who participated in the pitch.
In a pitch deck shared with Marketing Brew, Palantir showcases AIP’s “wide range of use cases and applications” for tasks such as “pricing and inventory planning,” “programmatic sales,” and “campaign optimization.” .
Palantir received early funding from the CIA, and its pitch deck describes itself as a builder of “the leading software platform for data-driven operations and decision-making.” Over the years, the company has become known for working with intelligence agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has faced criticism and human rights groups have expressed concerns.
That hasn’t stopped big brands from using Palantir’s software. In 2018, Palantir announced a “strategic relationship” with United Airlines focused on data organization, and Tyson Foods tapped Palantir to help with trucking logistics. Other customers include Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors, Hertz, ExxonMobil and Phillips, according to PitchDeck. Specifically regarding his AIP, Lowe’s, General Mills, and OpenAI are all using the technology, according to a March press release.
The company is now turning to media agencies as intermediaries in the industry. Media agencies are primarily responsible for planning, organizing, and purchasing advertising on behalf of major brands.
Palantir spokeswoman Rita Devlin-Marie told Marketing Brew in an email that the company does not comment on “current or potential sales prospects.”
What was thrown?
Executives said Palantir’s pitch is broad, with Palantir representatives highlighting the potential for the company to use its platform to find efficiencies and derive insights from customer data about advertisers’ audiences and customers. He said he suggested it.
Some of the materials suggest use cases such as “supply chain operations” and “customer service,” while one slide suggests “ad sales,” “marketing,” “digital (OTT and streaming),” etc. describes its applications in “media and entertainment.” ” In another slide, “a major broadcast network” with its own OTT platform uses his Palantir to organize viewers into groups, track customers’ journeys, and “in one campaign. Target claims his group’s engagement has increased by 300%.
The final slide of the deck invites potential customers to enroll in the “AIP Bootcamp.” This is to “experience generative AI in the context of your business, build live against Palantir SMEs, and deploy operational AI to solve your toughest problems,” the slide says. . There’s a problem. ”
One executive said the proposal was persuasive. They suggested that Palantir could be a differentiator for agencies, as other companies seem to be partnering with big tech companies like Adobe, Google, and Meta that make a living from advertising.
Do you turn a blind eye?
Palantir has prioritized commercial expansion in recent months as “revenue growth from U.S. government contracts has slowed in recent quarters,” according to the Wall Street Journal. . Palantir’s commercial business grew by 20% over the previous year, generating more than $1 billion in revenue in 2023. Ryan Taylor, chief revenue and chief legal officer, told analysts during the company’s most recent earnings call in February that AIP is expected to be at the center of this expansion.
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Meanwhile, advertisers and agencies are under-utilizing artificial intelligence, and tech and advertising giants like Meta, Google and Amazon are rapidly incorporating the technology into their platforms.
Materials shared with Marketing Brew do not highlight the company’s work for the government, beyond indicating that “defense partners” are using the technology for “sales and marketing.” However, one executive Marketing Brew spoke to said at the meeting that the company: I didn’t hesitate to do that.
The company’s background was “the elephant that everyone knew was in the room,” including helping the National Security Agency “expand and accelerate,” one advertising executive told Marketing Brew. And AIP technology is already controversial for its potential uses. In AIP’s demo video, the company details its military applications, which Vice reports include “using a ChatGPT-style chatbot to order drone reconnaissance and create several attack plans.” and organize enemy communication jamming.”
(In the demo video, the company claims that the tool is controlled to “ensure it is used in a legal and ethical manner.”)
Palantir’s work could pose an “element of reputational risk” for brands and agencies, said former chief privacy officer at UM Worldwide and current director of intelligence at industry watchdog nonprofit Check My Ads. Ariel Garcia, director of the Although he suggested that some in the industry may question how working with Palantir differs from “other common practices within the industry” such as location tracking, “Two wrongs do not make a right.” .
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the advertising industry to tell where one industrial complex begins and another ends,” Garcia said. “I don’t understand why, in an industry that is desperately trying to distance itself from terms like commercial surveillance and surveillance advertising, it seems like a good idea to work with a company that’s focused on the surveillance business.”
