iHeartMedia Highlights Radio’s ‘Human Consumer’ Advantage.

As advertisers push for more automation, attribution, and AI-driven targeting, radio seller and buyers say the future of broadcast radio depends on making traditional audio inventory behave more like digital media while still leaning into what executives argue remains radio’s biggest competitive advantage—its rusted human connection.

Speaking during an Adweek panel last week at the Possible conference last week in Miami, iHeartMedia Chief Business Officer Lisa Coffey said the company is focused on “modernizing broadcast radio for the digital ecosystem” as buyers increasingly demand programmatic access and full-funnel measurement.

That effort is partly about fixing what executives see as a disconnect between consumer behavior and advertising investment. “One-third of a consumer’s media consumption every day is audio,” Coffey said. “And the dollars haven’t right sized that.”

Rosie O’Meara, CEO of the ad platform GroundTruth, agreed, arguing that audio remains underpriced relative to the amount of time consumers spend with it. “Audio is the channel where the time is spent, and the ad dollars haven’t caught up,” she said.

There’s a growing push to bring broadcast radio deeper into the programmatic and AI-driven advertising ecosystem. Coffey said a major challenge remains the fact that large portions of audio inventory still sit outside digital buying systems. She noted 63% of addressable audio isn’t in the programmatic ecosystem today.

That has become a key focus for iHeart and partners like GroundTruth, which spent nearly two years developing audio foot-traffic attribution tools designed to help radio campaigns deliver the same kinds of measurable outcomes buyers expect from digital advertising. “We wanted to be able to bring that to audio,” O’Meara said.

The potential payoff is helping position audio not only as an awareness medium, but also as a performance channel capable of driving measurable business outcomes. O’Meara pointed to one campaign in which adding audio to an existing connected TV and mobile effort significantly boosted results. “When they did CTV mobile with us, sales went up 20%,” she said. “When they added audio it was up 30%.”

Coffey said advertisers increasingly expect “full funnel measurement,” with brands demanding proof that campaigns move consumers from awareness to purchase. She said radio’s in-car reach creates especially valuable moments for advertisers trying to influence real-world purchasing decisions.

“What an incredible moment to reach an individual through broadcast radio in the car when they’re on their way to buying,” Coffey said. “These are the moments that you reach them.”

Artificial intelligence is also helping companies automate targeting, optimization, and media buying workflows. GroundTruth was recently acquired by ZeroToOne AI, which O’Meara said will allow the company to move beyond historical audience data into predictive modeling designed to anticipate future purchase behavior. “What purchase are you likely about to make, today, later today, tomorrow, this week,” she said.

Coffey predicted AI systems will eventually reshape media buying by automating how campaigns are packaged and optimized. “The agentic approach is going to create the kind of packaging of exactly what you want and need,” she said.

Despite all the discussion around automation and AI, both executives still see audio’s uniquely human advantage.

Coffey said the rise of AI-generated content, influencers, and manipulated media has created growing consumer distrust across digital platforms. “Consumers don’t know what videos are real, what messages are real that they’re receiving,” she said.

That dynamic led iHeart to conduct research around what it calls the “human consumer,” finding 93% of consumers want their news from a human. The study also found 80% of consumers consider their radio host a friend, a trusted friend.

Coffey said those relationships remain central to audio’s value proposition, especially as radio personalities increasingly extend beyond broadcast into social media, live events, and podcasts. She added that authenticity remains critical in advertising creative as well, with conversational host-read ads outperforming more aggressive messaging styles.

“It’s like they are a friend,” Coffey said. “And it’s who they rely on every day.”

Watch a replay of the panel HERE.