TLDR: Ben Cox, VP of AI Strategy and Operations at Rakuten Advertising, has detailed the company’s deep integration of AI across its product suite, positioning it as a leader in the AI era of marketing. New tools like ‘Detect’ for compliance, ‘Storefronts’ for creators, and ‘Prompt’ for generative AI reporting are enhancing transparency, engagement, and data-driven decision-making within the affiliate ecosystem. Rakuten’s significant investment in a dedicated data science team and purpose-built AI models underscores its commitment to transforming affiliate marketing.
Rakuten Advertising is firmly establishing its leadership in the artificial intelligence (AI) era of marketing, as articulated by Ben Cox, the company’s Vice President of AI Strategy and Operations. Cox emphasized that AI is not merely a technological layer but is foundational to Rakuten’s culture, operations, and problem-solving approach within the affiliate ecosystem. The company views AI as a critical driver of industry transformation, reshaping both internal processes and how clients engage with their solutions.
Rakuten Advertising has integrated AI technologies extensively across its product suite, moving beyond traditional optimization to real-time intelligence. This enables automated recommendations, proactive campaign management, and dynamic performance tuning at scale, fundamentally altering how advertisers approach partnerships, measurement, and growth. Among the recently launched AI-powered tools are ‘Detect,’ ‘Storefronts,’ and ‘Prompt.’
‘Detect’ provides brands with unprecedented visibility, identifying program compliance issues and monitoring affiliate behavior to help partnerships operate at their full potential. Cox highlighted ‘Detect’ as particularly significant, stating, ‘Transparency and compliance have been long-standing challenges in affiliate and Detect gives our clients real-time clarity into what’s happening in their programmes, without having to glean large amounts of data to identify patterns manually. That kind of visibility builds stronger partnerships and gives brands greater confidence to scale.’
‘Storefronts’ empowers creators and influencers to curate products, driving authentic engagement and performance while streamlining the customer experience and path to purchase. The newest reporting tool, ‘Prompt,’ applies Rakuten’s AI to simplify ad hoc report requests, surfacing actionable insights on performance, audiences, and trends. This allows marketers to make faster, smarter decisions quickly and in plain language.
Rakuten’s commitment to AI is further evidenced by its substantial investments in infrastructure and its industry-leading data science team, which is dedicated specifically to affiliate marketing. Cox noted that their models are not generic but are ‘purpose-built and trained on affiliate-specific, global use cases, giving Rakuten Advertising a significant uniqueness and leadership in the affiliate marketing industry.’ The company is also exploring emerging capabilities like ‘agentic reasoning’ to orchestrate proactive, context-aware decision-making support at scale, further reshaping how affiliate programs are managed and optimized.
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These advancements were a key topic at Rakuten’s annual Optimism event held in May, which brought together 1,000 marketers. Cox affirmed that AI and large language models (LLMs) provide the scalability and automation necessary to unlock previously impractical opportunities, especially across large, complex networks of bespoke partnerships, solidifying Rakuten Advertising’s position at the forefront of the evolving digital marketing landscape.
