June 6 will be a day of celebration at The Trade Desk’s headquarters. Two years ago on that day, the company launched Kokai, a sweeping redesign of its demand-side platform (DSP) user interface (UI). And after an uphill battle filled with user skepticism and criticism, The Trade Desk has good reason to celebrate: Kokai has become a success story.
A complete break from the traditional web UIs that have long dominated AdTech, Kokai was designed to make running ad campaigns easier and more effective. Its intuitive, data-driven UI surfaces more actionable insights for media traders, automates tedious tasks, and delivers better precision and outcomes across digital campaigns – all powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) through its “Koa” engine. Kokai enables agencies and brands to navigate an increasingly fragmented digital landscape with unprecedented transparency and control.
An early version of The Trade Desk’s Kokai user interface.
“Too Hard To Learn And Missing Features”
But Kokai’s welcome by the industry was anything but warm. The reason: The redesign broke the cardinal rule of UI updates: Don’t break with users’ expectations.
But the Trade Desk did just that, arguing that only a completely new design could unlock the advantages they were aiming for. Predictably, traders pushed back. Many complained the interface was too radical a departure from traditional DSP workflows, particularly criticizing the new programmatic table interface, which clashed with established user habits and presented a steep learning curve.
Users also pointed out that Kokai initially lacked features that Solimar users had come to expect. Essential reporting capabilities, group cloning, and easy navigation of targeting parameters were missing at launch — gaps that made early adoption challenging.
Adding Features, Fixing Bugs, Touting Performance: How TTD Fixed Kokai
To its credit, The Trade Desk listened and adapted. By late 2023, it accelerated feature rollouts, delivering many of the functionalities early adopters had demanded. Perhaps most critically, the company revamped its engineering processes, shifting to smaller, more agile teams – nearly 100 “Scrum teams” – to iterate faster. CEO Jeff Green noted during the Q1 2025 earnings call that The Trade Desk had “over 100 scrums all shipping product every week.”
This agile transformation not only sped up Kokai’s development but also dramatically improved platform stability and responsiveness. (The importance of these improvements was underscored when The Trade Desk missed its own Q4 2024 guidance for the first time in 33 quarters, partly attributing the shortfall to delays in Kokai’s rollout.)
Improvements didn’t stop at the technology. Onboarding programs, enhanced customer support, and expanded training resources through Edge Academy — the company’s free, online client training platform — helped traders adapt to the new platform.
Ultimately, the biggest game-changer was performance. The Trade Desk doubled down on proving Kokai’s effectiveness. Case studies from clients like HP, Rossmann, and Deutsche Telekom showcased double-digit improvements in campaign performance. The company reported that campaigns migrating from Solimar to Kokai saw:
- A 24% price drop per unique reach,
- CPA (cost per acquisition) declines between 20% and 34%, and
- A 25% improvement in key performance metrics.
In short: money talks. With results like these, user resistance faded fast.
Kokai’s Rapid Adoption
The results of the steps The Trade Desk took speak for themselves.
- For Q4 2024, Green reported that “the majority” of clients was using Kokai, so the adoption rate perhaps was around 55%.
- For Q1 2025, Green stated that “around two-thirds of our clients are now using [Kokai],” i.e., about 67%. He also said that “the bulk of the spend in our platform is now running through Kokai.”
- For Q4 2025, Green said “we expect all clients to be using it by the end of the year” for an adoption rate of close to 100%.
A Better Platform For Clients – And For The Trade Desk
The strategic rationale behind Kokai is clear. First, it future-proves The Trade Desk’s platform against the seismic changes reshaping AdTech: pressure from the walled gardens, third-party cookie deprecation, rising privacy standards, as well as generative AI platforms reducing traffic to the open Web.
Second, Kokai aimed to position The Trade Desk as the must-have programmatic partner as brands demanded more agility, transparency, and return on investment (ROI) from their ad dollars. The idea: acquire more clients and retain them better.
Jeff Green, The Trade Desk’s co-founder and CEO, made it clear: Kokai was designed to deepen TTD’s differentiation as the leading independent DSP — a champion of transparency and objectivity against walled gardens like Google, Amazon, and Meta. By anchoring Kokai to the open internet and privacy-safe identity solutions like UID2, The Trade Desk set out to future-proof not just its platform but its strategic position.
Kokai Reinforced The Trade Desk’s Leadership
Kokai also demonstrated The Trade Desk’s willingness to take risks and its patience in executing long-term strategies. Where others hesitated, TTD leaned in — and widened the performance gap against competitors stuck with legacy systems. Now, rivals — old and new — are racing to catch up to Kokai’s blend of AI-driven insights, supply chain transparency, and performance.
Why Kokai Is Better Than the Usual Web UIs
Traditional DSP UIs have long been criticized for complexity and opacity. Solimar, while functional, required skilled traders to manually navigate and optimize campaigns, often across disconnected inventory pools and disparate datasets.
Kokai redefined the user experience. It surfaced predictive insights using Koa’s AI models, providing suggestions on budget allocations, media mix modeling, and real-time optimizations. Features like Deal Manager streamlined direct deals and private marketplaces, while integrations with OpenPath gave buyers more transparent and direct access to premium inventory.
The result was a platform that helped agencies and brands:
- Improve operational efficiency
- Enhance targeting precision with better audience insights
- Simplify the management of omnichannel campaigns
- Drive better campaign outcomes with less manual work
In essence, Kokai made programmatic advertising smarter and more accessible – not just for expert traders but for a wider cohort of media buyers under pressure to deliver measurable results.
What’s Next for Kokai?
Looking forward, The Trade Desk plans to build on Kokai’s foundation. The focus will be on:
- Full Client Migration: Completing the move of all clients from Solimar to Kokai by the end of 2025.
- Deeper AI Integration: Embedding AI further into campaign planning, measurement, and optimization.
- Enhanced Forecasting: Upgrades to predictive analytics to refine media planning and inventory management.
- Expanding into Retail Media: Growing Kokai’s footprint in one of the fastest-growing segments of digital advertising.
Conclusion
When The Trade Desk launched Kokai, it faced long odds: entrenched user habits, missing features, and a steep learning curve.
Yet by staying true to its values of transparency, objectivity, and innovation, The Trade Desk has turned Kokai into a success. In doing so, it has not just redefined its own platform – it has raised the bar for the entire programmatic advertising industry.
The Kokai journey is far from over. But if the past two years are any indication, The Trade Desk’s bet on reinvention was the right one – against all odds.
About The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk is a global technology company offering Kokai, an AI-powered demand-side platform that helps advertisers optimize programmatic campaigns across channels like connected TV, mobile, and audio — all on the open internet.
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