Published: 17 September 2026

TL;DR: Three specific capabilities distinguish Alkimi from existing programmatic infrastructure. First: bilateral deal records, where both buyer and publisher hold the same DealSheet written at negotiation time. Conventional programmatic cannot produce this because the DSP and SSP hold separate records. Second: neutral deal record holding, where a party with no financial stake in deal terms holds the record. A DSP or SSP holding the record has a conflict of interest. Third: cross-platform agent-to-agent negotiation, where an AdCP-compliant buy-side agent can negotiate with any AdCP-compliant sell-side agent through Alkimi, regardless of which platform built each agent.

The instinct when evaluating a new advertising technology platform is to ask what it does that existing tools cannot, and then to ask whether that difference justifies the operational cost of adopting it. For Alkimi, the answer is specific. Three capabilities it provides are structural properties of the bilateral, agent-to-agent model. They are not features that can be added to existing programmatic infrastructure through configuration or integration.

Capability One: Bilateral Deal Records

In conventional programmatic, the buyer's DSP holds the buyer's record of a transaction. The publisher's SSP holds the publisher's record. These records are created independently by separate systems. They may agree, but they are not the same record. Post-campaign reconciliation means comparing two independent datasets and resolving discrepancies.

The DSP's record cannot be the same record as the SSP's record because the two platforms serve different commercial interests and hold data independently. This is not a technical limitation that integration could solve. It is a structural property of the conventional two-platform model.

Alkimi produces a DealSheet that is bilateral from the moment it is written. When a buy-side agent and a sell-side agent reach agreement through Alkimi, the agreed terms are written to a single record that both parties hold simultaneously. There is no DSP record and SSP record to reconcile. There is one record, written at agreement time, held equally by both parties.

Why this matters: Post-campaign, both buyer and publisher refer to the same record. Delivery comparison works from a common baseline. Disputes about what was agreed are resolved by reference to a shared record, not by comparing two independent records that may differ.

Capability Two: Neutral Deal Record Holding

A deal record held by a DSP has a structural limitation: the DSP is the buyer's commercial partner. The DSP earns a percentage of the buyer's spend. If the DSP's record shows higher spend than actually occurred, the DSP earns more. The DSP is not a neutral party to the record it holds.

The same applies to a deal record held by an SSP: the SSP is the publisher's commercial partner. The SSP earns a percentage of the publisher's revenue. The SSP is not a neutral party to the record it holds.

Alkimi holds the DealSheet as a neutral party. Alkimi earns a fixed fee per deal, not a percentage of deal value. Whether the record shows a higher or lower CPM does not affect Alkimi's fee. Alkimi has no financial interest in the contents of the record it holds.

Why this matters: A deal record held by a neutral party with no financial stake in its contents is credible to both sides. A buyer and a publisher who need to resolve a post-campaign discrepancy can both trust that the DealSheet Alkimi holds reflects the terms that were agreed, not the terms that would benefit one party's commercial partner.

This credibility is not available from a DSP-held or SSP-held record. The structural conflict of interest means the record cannot be considered neutral, even if it is accurate. Neutral deal record holding requires a party with no financial stake in the outcome.

Capability Three: Cross-Platform Agent-to-Agent Negotiation

Existing programmatic infrastructure connects buyers to publishers through bidding: DSPs submit bids to SSPs via OpenRTB. A DSP and SSP that are both OpenRTB-compliant can transact without bespoke integration. The protocol provides interoperability at the bidding layer.

AdCP (AdCP, published by AgenticAdvertising.org) provides the equivalent interoperability for agent-to-agent negotiation. An AdCP-compliant buy-side agent can negotiate with any AdCP-compliant sell-side agent because both speak the same protocol. The agents do not need to have been built by the same platform, configured by the same team, or integrated directly.

Alkimi provides the infrastructure where AdCP-compliant agents can find each other, verify their identities, and negotiate. A buy-side agent built by one technology provider can negotiate with a sell-side agent built by a different technology provider, through Alkimi, without bespoke integration between the two platforms.

Why this matters: A buyer does not need to restrict their bilateral deal sourcing to publishers whose sell-side agents were built on the same platform as their buy-side agent. Any AdCP-compliant sell-side agent is a potential counterparty. The marketplace expands the practical reach of bilateral deal negotiation beyond the walled garden of a single technology provider's network.

Why These Cannot Be Added to Existing Infrastructure

Each of the three capabilities is a property of the structural model, not a feature that can be configured into existing platforms.

Bilateral deal records require that both parties hold the same record written at the same time. A DSP and SSP cannot produce this without a shared record infrastructure outside both platforms. That is what a neutral marketplace provides.

Neutral deal record holding requires a party with no financial stake in deal terms. A DSP and SSP are commercially aligned with one side each. A neutral marketplace is not commercially aligned with either side.

Cross-platform agent-to-agent negotiation requires identity verification infrastructure and a shared protocol. A DSP's technology stack is not designed to enable its buy-side agents to negotiate with sell-side agents built by other providers. A neutral marketplace built on AdCP provides this infrastructure.

The capabilities are new because the structural model is new. They reflect the difference between a bilateral negotiation model and an auction-based programmatic model, not a version of the existing model with additional features.