Dentsu grows programmatic know-how with Index Exchange, Chalice AI

Dive Brief: 

• Dentsu announced a partnership with Index Exchange, an independent supply-side platform (SSP), and Chalice AI to bolster the agency’s NextGen initiative, a company-wide transformation meant to evolve its capabilities through data, artificial intelligence (AI) and modularity, per a press release. 
• Index Exchange will become Dentsu's primary SSP across key European markets and power the agency network’s NextGen algorithmic trading model. Chalice, meanwhile, will create a set of platform-independent AI bidding agents for the network’s clients.
• Dentsu’s media practice will also launch what is bills as Next Gen AI, allowing for quicker decision making, access to curated supply paths, more sophisticated measurement strategies for clients and deeper data insights.

Dive Insight:

Dentsu is forming a core part of its NextGen initiative through partnerships with Index Exchange and Chalice AI. Together, the tie-ups mark a major milestone in the evolution of the agency’s programmatic ecosystem, enabling it to “take a leading position in the industry-wide adoption of sell-side signal aggregation and modeling,” per release details.

“Chalice’s advanced decisioning technology and Index’s scaled infrastructure give us the ability to create a more intelligent, transparent, and value-driven media supply chain for our clients,” said Nicholas Halas, head of product, Global Amplifi, Dentsu EMEA, in release details. 

The partnership will allow Dentsu to leverage Index Exchange and Chalice AI’s know-how in scaled innovation, custom bidding strategies, quality media and premium audience delivery. Index Exchange will power Dentsu's NextGen algorithmic trading model, which uses real-time audience signals available from the sell-side. That will be paired with platform-independent AI bidding agents, powered by Chalice, that offer clients customized and transparent AI models to help them achieve their business goals more efficiently.

Chalice is a leading advertising technology for platform-independent AI and is integrated with platforms, measurement and data companies including The Trade Desk, YouTube, Meta and LiveRamp. Index Exchange offers over two decades of experience as a global advertising SSP.

Dentsu's partnership with the two companies comes at a tumultuous time for the agency. After reporting a 0.2% year-on-year decline in organic revenue for the first half of 2025 — mostly caused by weakness in international markets — the agency announced it would lay off 8% of its global staff. Further, CEO Hiroshi Igarashi admitted the agency hasn’t ruled out selling some of its overseas operations in a bid to get back on track.