NEW YORK — On Wednesday, as ad buyers rushed across Manhattan to attend upfront presentations from major streaming and TV publishers, TikTok hosted its own showcase in Brooklyn across the East River, emphasizing its strength in turning brand discovery into purchase intent and actual purchases, and unveiling several new business tools, includinga new way to book travel within the United States.

In addition to launchinga range of ad products, TikTok executives also highlighted the flexibility of its AI suite, taking a jab at competitors that adopt an "all-or-nothing" approach to technology adoption (for background, seeDigiday's coverage). For example, TikTok allows marketers to turn Smart+ (an AI-driven performance solution) on or off at each step of the campaign process, offering a higher degree of customization.

"Most platforms give you two extremes: either fully automate your ads, leaving you with no control over audience engagement, or overwhelm you with dashboards and options," said Jose Villalobos, TikTok's global head of product marketing for platform and core ads, on the TikTok World stage. "We heard feedback from many of you in the room. You need automation, but automation with a human touch."

TikTok also lifted the veil on its agentic AI marketing strategy. The platform plans tolaunch a dedicated agent hub next month, and at the conference detailed two new tools: TikTok Ads Skills (providing developers with existing AI infrastructure to build and execute different tasks) and TikTok Ads Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server. The latter is described on TikTok's website as a "translator" that maps a brand's agent requests to TikTok's marketing API. In short, it enables "marketers to connect their own AI agents directly to TikTok's ad platform," Villalobos explained.

"Think of Skills as building materials, and MCP as the blueprint that connects all the pipes," Villalobos said. "This way, your agents can assemble, adjust, and continuously improve. They will provide the connectivity and building blocks to help you plan, launch, and optimize campaigns on your own terms."

Harnessing Creators to Drive Buzz

TikTok World is a product-focused summit, now in its sixth year, following the company'sNewFronts presentation in March. NewFronts was primarily aimed at highlighting TikTok's stability after a ban attempt—an effort that ultimately led to the creation of a U.S. joint venture backed by companies like Oracle.

At TikTok World, TikTok did not dwell on its complex ownership structure, instead focusing on innovation. TopReach (a solution combining high-visibility TopView and TopFeed ad slots, first unveiled at NewFronts) added a Creative Sequencing feature, allowing advertisers to control how TopView and TopFeed work together and extend into deeper storytelling.

TikTok also introduced two complementary ad options as part of its TikTok One collaboration platform. Branded Buzz lets advertisers work with creators at scale, generating a large volume of videos in a short time to boost reach and awareness. Search Hubs are sponsorable pages that can link to video comment sections, providing users with an entry point to explore brands featured in creator content.

"This enables users to enter a very deep exploration through sponsored brand pages that appear at the top of search results," said Dina Liu, TikTok's global head of brand product marketing, during an online press briefing earlier this week.

According to TikTok, L'Oréal Brazil used both features in a holiday campaign supporting its luxury fragrance line, with Branded Buzz creator videos garnering over 42 million views in two weeks. The personal care marketer then drove that traffic to search, tripling campaign volume on that channel.

Beyond Branded Buzz, TikTok also integrated Creator AI Search into TikTok One, a feature that uses automation to analyze brand and agency briefs and filter through the platform's talent pool to find suitable collaborators.

"It facilitates faster, more natural creator collaborations through efficient AI-driven discovery to create impactful brand moments," Villalobos said during the briefing.

Content and Control

Other announcements at TikTok World targeted specific categories such as travel, entertainment, and gaming. TikTok Growth Max is a new product that brings ads into native app experiences like Mini Games and Mini Series. Mini Series taps into thetrend of short-form micro-dramas, a format popular among advertisers and naturally suited to TikTok's scrolling content model; Mini Games, meanwhile, aims toprovide brands with more monetization opportunities。

TikTok also announced that ads will appear in TikTok Go—a feature rolled out earlier this week that allows users to find and book travel without leaving TikTok. Expedia Group is an early partner in the initiative. Keeping users within the TikTok app was a common theme across several announcements, as the platform seeks to build momentum in areas like social commerce, which has attracted a growing number of companies.

"Travelers are already using TikTok for inspiration, and as we look for new ways to meet them where discovery happens, TikTok Go creates a natural path from interest to booking," said Daniel Duckart, vice president of growth marketing at Expedia Group, in a press release. "We are committed to continuing to find innovative ways to connect travelers with the journeys they dream of."