Agentic Real Time Framework (ARTF)

The Agentic Real Time Framework (ARTF) specification defines a foundation for implementing agent services which operate within a host platform and that the orchestrating platform can call directly to accomplish a shared goal. The model leverages containers which are deployed into the infrastructure of a host to enable delegation of critical aspects of bidstream processing to service agents in a consistent manner, with minimal cost, latency and operational impacts. The framework enables this by establishing standard requirements for container runtime behavior and by defining an API which enables reliable, protected and private bidstream mutation.

With this approach, service providers package their offering once and deploy it to any standard-compliant platform, which means they are able to focus on their unique value proposition while offloading operational concerns and scaling to the host platforms. It also creates new possibilities for innovation because host platforms maintain control of data and SLAs and therefore can provide greater access to data and more interaction opportunities to service agents without concerns about leakage, misappropriation or latency. The working group has also provided sample code in the IAB Tech Lab Github repository.

While this approach is agentic in nature, the primary focus here is on systematic agentic integration (service to service integration), but autonomic agentic functionality (model to service) is also envisioned as part of this specification as the integrating technology matures.

There are many use cases; for example identity resolution provided by an agent, deal or segmentation activation, fraud detection pre-impression etc. This list of use cases is not fully enumerated here, because part of the goal of this specification is to allow new use cases to be integrated into the bid stream via the agentic framework. 

The specification aims to provide a general framework and best practices for deploying and operating these agents. It is not limited to a predefined set of use cases. Each use case is meant to be supported via an “intent” using the specification. The specification also describes a standard interface with which containers can be managed using AI agents. This enables sub millisecond real-time bidding operations driven by agentic systems.

The specification document is primarily for technical audiences, in particular engineers and product managers wishing to implement products and features which can be solved with hosted containers and AI agents.

Key takeaways for readers are:

• Understanding why to use containers and AI agents for certain use cases
• Learning what a standard container deployment involves including digital formats for describing the container, requirements, and functions
• Learning how to declare container capabilities and service definitions
• Understanding example use cases and workflows
• Recommendations of best practices for facilitating adoption across the industry

 The ARTF Specification was in Public Comment until January 15, 2026, and will be finalized soon. Work on Version 2.0 is already underway. You can still join the Agentic Working Group to help develop it.