Why AI Prompts (Not Checkboxes) Are the Future of B2B Advertising
Last updated: August 7, 2025
What’s the most powerful UX in the world?
It’s not a TikTok swipe. Not a drag-and-drop dashboard. Not a glowing, gamified data viz.
It’s… a blinking cursor.
At OX8, Omeda’s client summit, Nino Tasca—Chief Product Officer at Northstar Travel Media and former product lead at Google—took the stage with a single, quiet thesis:
“The prompt is the most powerful UX in the world right now.”
That might sound like a stretch until you remember that nearly every AI-powered tool today—from ChatGPT to Midjourney to Lovable—starts with a prompt. A simple text box that invites the user to express intent in their own words.
In fact, to demonstrate the absurdity (and creativity) that this UX allows, Nino told the audience he’d once asked an AI tool to “create an image of a unicorn drinking a rainbow milkshake, playing a harp in the cloud city, surrounded by ex-presidents.” Within a minute, it had delivered.
Silly? Sure. But behind the spectacle is something serious: a paradigm shift in how users interact with digital experiences—and a call to action for B2B publishers and media marketers.
From Checkbox to Conversation
As Nino pointed out, most of today’s B2B advertising still relies on rigid UI: media kits, insertion orders, dropdown menus, and checkbox-filled RFPs. Even programmatic platforms, with all their targeting sophistication, boil advertiser goals down to simplified filters: impressions, age ranges, clicks.
The result? Advertisers are asked to reduce their objectives to what fits inside a box—not necessarily what they actually need.
“There are only two questions that really matter in advertising,” Nino said.
“What’s your objective, and who’s your target audience?”
Today, those questions are typically answered through dropdowns and form fields. But what if they could be answered through prompts—natural language that reflects actual business goals?
Imagine a cruise line saying,
“We’re launching a new Seattle-to-Alaska route and need to reach engaged travel agents who can sell it.”
That’s not something you can express with a checkbox. But it’s the kind of input that reveals real intent—and gives publishers the chance to build far more relevant, valuable campaigns.
Why Prompts Are So Powerful
In consumer tech, prompts have become the gateway to nearly infinite possibilities. When users open tools like ChatGPT or Google Assistant, they’re not choosing from a list. They’re asked an open-ended question: What do you want to do?
The beauty is that this feels simple—just a blank field. But behind it is an immense amount of intelligence: AI models, language parsers, user behavior prediction engines. The input is freeform, but the output is targeted, responsive, and immediate.
It’s not just about user experience. It’s about trust. When a user feels heard—because they’ve expressed their needs in their own words—they’re more likely to engage, convert, and return.
So why are B2B advertisers still stuck picking from pre-printed menus?
What Publishers Can Do With This
At Northstar, Nino and his team have built an advertising platform that flips the script. It’s powered by AI, layered on top of Omeda’s audience data and identity graph, and designed to capture and act on true advertiser objectives.
Here’s how it works:
- Advertisers articulate their goals and audience descriptions in plain language
- An AI intelligence layer parses that input and maps it to:
- Demographic and firmographic signals
- Behavioral patterns across Northstar’s network
- Predicted likelihood of engagement
- The result? A campaign that’s not just targeted—but meaningfully aligned with what the advertiser actually wants to achieve
It doesn’t stop at media buying. This same system powers Northstar’s broader digital experience:
- Personalized content delivery
- Newsletter and website targeting
- Affinity-based audience segmentation
In short, it turns one vague-sounding UX idea—a prompt—into a comprehensive platform for audience understanding and activation.
Why This Matters for Media Marketers
If you’re an Omeda client, you’re already ahead of the game. You have the tools to track audience behavior, link anonymous and known users, and enrich profiles with first-party data. What’s often missing is the translation layer between your advertisers’ stated goals and the actual data signals that can deliver on them.
Prompt-style UX—and the AI that makes it possible—helps bridge that gap.
Even better: it turns you from a vendor selling inventory into a partner offering insights.
Instead of asking:
“Do you want 10K impressions and a leaderboard ad?”
You can ask:
“What’s your real goal this quarter—and who are you trying to reach?”
That opens the door to custom packages, smarter targeting, and deeper strategic alignment.
How to Start (Without a Dev Team)
You don’t need to build your own AI platform tomorrow. You just need to shift how you think—and how you talk to advertisers.
Try this:
- Replace checkboxes with open-ended intake questions
- Add a field to your RFP forms: “Tell us your objective in your own words”
- Use Omeda’s behavioral data to build intent-driven segments
- Partner with your tech team—or with Omeda—to explore prompt-based tools that surface richer insights
You’re not removing structure. You’re just starting with language and layering structure on top of it.
What’s Next
The world has moved from dropdowns to dialogue. From static filters to dynamic, AI-powered matching.
If you want to compete—not just in media sales, but in real audience understanding—it’s time to think like a product manager, not just a marketer.
Or, as Nino put it:
“The simple UX of a prompt requires a ton of intelligence behind it—but it’s worth it.”
So don’t just ask advertisers what box they want to check. Ask them what they’re really trying to do. Then show them you actually know how to help.
Want to watch the full talk from OX8?
Ready to use your data more intelligently?
Let’s talk about how Omeda’s tools—and your team’s expertise—can deliver smarter, more customized advertising outcomes.
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