The IAB Tech Lab projects publishers should know about

It’s been a very busy year for IAB Tech Lab - with a roadmap packed with new specifications and initiatives tailored to support publishers. As evolving privacy regulations, complex addressability challenges, and advancements in artificial intelligence reshape the landscape, publishers face unique obstacles in monetising and distributing quality content. 

In this piece, I offer a clear, publisher-focused guide to the critical initiatives launched or announced this year - explaining each project’s core concept; the specific challenges it addresses for publishers; and the tangible benefits it delivers, whether that’s improved controls to new opportunities to monetise inventory.

Here are three key projects helping shape the publisher landscape in 2025:

1. AI Content Monetization Protocols (CoMP)

As generative AI and large language models become more important in how we create and consume content, so too does how digital media is accessed, used and monetised. The AI Content Monetization Protocols (CoMP) aim to provide a standardised way for publishers to manage sharing of content with AI platforms. By defining clear terms and formats, this specification helps protect intellectual property while opening up new revenue opportunities through AI-driven content channels. 

What actually is it?

It’s a framework designed to standardise the process of managing crawlers and scrapers bots, and deliver content for AI systems and LLMs. By standardising content ingestion workflows, the framework ensures efficient management of publisher IP digital content and data, enabling AI systems to access timely, well-structured information. It will theoretically enable publishers to monetise each content scrape or request by an LLM, to ensure that they get fair value for the articles they create.

Key questions

• What problem does it solve? It helps to solve the fast accelerating and increasing bot traffic of content crawlers and scrapers powered by AI systems, which is accompanied by a drop in click through traffic to publishers. It standardises the process of providing content to AI models, ensuring clear usage rights and optimised data formatting
   
• Who should implement it? Publishers, AI platform developers, ad tech vendors and LLM operators
   
• Created for… Publishers seeking to manage content usage effectively, AI services to obtain compliant content and data, and advertisers leveraging new AI channels

Current status (correct as of August 2025): The framework is currently under development and IAB Tech Lab is inviting publishers, brands, LLM platforms, and AI agent developers to provide feedback on it. Find out more and download the framework here. 

Find out more about how to join the working group here.

2. Trusted Server

One of the most groundbreaking projects being worked on by Tech Lab for publishers is the Trusted Server. Currently at a proof of concept stage, it aims to address many of the issues that have arisen for both publishers and browser users over the last few years. Publishers have long been challenged by a reliance on browser-based ad management that depended on third-party scripts, which makes them vulnerable to ad-blocking technologies, increases the risk of data leakage, diminishes publisher control over valuable user data, and could potentially slow down the user experience. The Trusted Server aims to address many of these issues. 

What actually is it?

The Trusted Server project is an open-source system that helps publishers manage their advertising by moving key functions from web browsers to the publisher’s own edge cloud i.e. their CDN server.

Key questions

• What problem does it solve? Trusted Server moves key advertising functions from the client side to the edge cloud server side, reducing exposure to ad-blocking techniques and restrictions on third-party services’ executions inherent in browser-based setups
• Who should implement it? Publishers
• Who should implement it? Publishers operating websites, mobile, and TV+ apps
• Current status: IAB Tech Lab has an overview of the development stages and progress
• After more? You can find the Trusted Server github repository here 

3. ID-Less Solutions Guidance 

As the digital landscape moves away from traditional identifiers like third-party cookies, the ID-Less Solutions Guidance emerges as an important guide. It equips industry players with the tools to target and measure audiences effectively in a privacy-first environment. By addressing the challenges of reduced addressability, this specification reinforces industry confidence in campaign effectiveness while safeguarding user privacy.

What actually is it?

The ID-Less Solutions Guidance sets out a framework for digital advertising without the use of personal identifiers. It explains how to use general signals and aggregated data to target audiences and measure campaign performance while respecting user privacy. The guidance details what qualifies as an ID-less solution and clarifies its limitations, in turn, supporting advertisers and publishers to adapt to a cookieless environment in line with privacy regulations. 

Key questions

• What problem does it solve? It adapts targeting and measurement to environments without traditional identifiers
• Who should implement it? Ad tech vendors and platforms (DSPs, SSPs, DMPs), media owners, publishers, brands, and agencies
• Created for… publishers monetising ID-less inventory, advertisers maintaining effective campaign performance, and end users benefiting from enhanced privacy
• After more? The ID-Less Solutions Guidance v1.0 was finalised in July 2025, you can find it here 

To conclude, the work of IAB Tech Lab in 2025 has been extremely varied, and while there is something for everyone in the industry, the priorities have demonstrated a clear focus on helping the publisher ecosystem by endeavouring to address new and long-term challenges. By pioneering standards across the ID-less space, AI content controls, and the publisher world, Tech Lab is setting the stage for a world where publishers have better control of their ecosystem, in a world where control has increasingly been a struggle. Our message to IAB UK members is to read up about the initiatives above and get involved.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected]