The Trade Desk is saying “AI” a lot more these days.
On TTD’s Q4 2025 earnings call (see our write-up about it here), Jeff Green and his team mentioned “AI” — or referenced AI-driven products like Koa and Kokai — 40 times during the prepared remarks alone. That’s the highest count in the past two years.
Based on a review of official transcripts posted on the company’s IR page, here’s how previous calls compare:
| Quarter | AI Mentions |
|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 24 |
| Q2 2024 | 10 |
| Q3 2024 | 11 |
| Q4 2024 | 27 |
| Q1 2025 | 28 |
| Q2 2025 | 38 |
| Q3 2025 | 33 |
| Q4 2025 | 40 |
Overall, AI mentions nearly doubled, rising from 72 in 2024 to 139 in 2025.
Why This Matters:
Hey, shareholders want to hear about AI. Companies that appear slow to adopt it — or don’t talk about it enough — risk being labeled laggards. That perception issue has surfaced around TTD before, particularly as competitors such as Yahoo DSP, Amazon DSP and Google have pushed aggressively into agentic tools and AI-first positioning.
Based on the company’s remarks this week, however, TTD appears to understand that. The ramp-up in AI language signals a clear effort to frame the company as an AI leader, not a follower.
At the same time, other language has faded. In the Q3 2025 earnings release, for example, TTD mentioned “publisher” 10 times. In Q2 2025, it came up nine times. In this week’s Q4 prepared remarks, it was mentioned just once.
Experts React:
In one of the more obvious “we are prioritizing AI and understand it’s a game changer people care about” portions of the call, Green also said the following:
“AI is changing nearly every industry in the world, directly or indirectly. We agree with the view that the advent of AI is an unprecedented generational shift, and we will change the world in ways similar to how we did when the internet itself emerged. This is why we launched Koa in 2018. Let me explain why we expect to continue to invest in AI.”
Message received: AI is big, and TTD wants investors to know it’s investing accordingly.
Our Take:
This isn’t accidental. Earnings calls are tightly scripted. When a word (or “variations” of it) shows up 40 times, it’s because leadership wants it there.
The shift suggests TTD is recalibrating its story for a market that increasingly values AI-first positioning. Keep in mind, the broader “SaaSpocalypse” is being fueled in part by fears that AI will cannibalize traditional SaaS models.
Whether the substance ultimately matches the rhetoric is what investors will be watching next. But from a narrative standpoint, the company has made its priority clear — and it’s reinforcing it, repeatedly.
