AdCP is one answer to "how should agents trade media." The IAB Tech Lab, the body behind ads.txt, sellers.json, OpenRTB, and GPP, is building another. It is broader than a single protocol, and a publisher should understand both.
The IAB Tech Lab gathers its agentic work under AAMP (Agentic Advertising Management Protocols). AAMP is a roadmap, not one spec. It is organized around three pillars: execution (how agents actually run), protocols (how they talk), and an agent registry (how they are discovered and trusted).
| Building block | What it is |
|---|---|
| Buyer / seller agent SDKs | Toolkits so each side can build agents that follow the standards |
| Agent registry | A shared, trusted directory to discover and verify agents |
| ARTF | A framework to run agents close to the inventory (covered in I2) |
| Agentic Audiences | A fast way to exchange audience signals (covered in I3) |
Key idea
Like AdCP, AAMP does not start over. It is explicitly built on top of the standards you already know (ads.txt, sellers.json, OpenRTB, GPP) and uses the general agent protocols (MCP, A2A, and gRPC) underneath.
So how do AdCP and AAMP relate? They overlap, and the industry is still working out exactly how they fit. AdCP is an open, task-first protocol with a reference implementation; AAMP is a standards-body roadmap of SDKs, a registry, and execution frameworks. For a publisher the practical takeaway is the same either way: keep the supply chain clean and the inventory well described, because both read it.
Quick check
AAMP is best described as a single protocol, true or false? Explain.