Early this year, ShowSeeker announced that we were moving Creative Management into Pilot and launching Pilot Creative. At the time, the work had just begun and much of the configuration was still taking shape. Today, most of it is done, and with launch approaching, we want to share what we built and why.

A change this size starts with understanding how teams actually work: the exceptions, the special use cases, and what makes sense in day-to-day workflows. It also takes buy-in. Moving away from legacy systems that teams already rely on only makes sense if the value is clear from the start.

With every Pilot update, our non-negotiable is simplification. It guided every decision in this project.

The Case for Change

Creative management has long been one of the most fragmented parts of ad sales. Integration and API limitations, and the nuance of managing creative instructions for ad buys all play a part (if you know, you know). While the process improved, the workflow still broke down, and much of it still required manual entry.

Our work to make Pilot a true Single OMS gave us a clear lens. In digital and advanced advertising, creative already lives alongside the order manager. Applying that same thinking to linear sales just made sense.

We also wanted to build something that worked seamlessly with Pilot's Order Manager but also could fit into an organization's existing tech stack. Teams can bring in data from the OMS or traffic system they already use, without a full overhaul.

So, what does that all look like in reality?

Our Approach

We built on Pilot's strengths to modernize creative management around three ideas: simplification, automation, and flexibility. Each is aimed at the same goal: fewer systems and less manual effort.

     Simplification

Today, managing traffic instructions often means working across three or more applications at once: an OMS, a creative input tool, the traffic system, and now, in many cases, an AI agent layered on top to hold it all together. It's swivel-chair work at its finest, and every handoff is another chance for error.

Pilot changes that workflow.

For our current users, that means a radically shorter workflow. You can create an order, link it to creative, and export it fully complete before it ever reaches the traffic system. One platform replaces the patchwork, and the workflow finally runs in a straight line.

     Automation

Creative instructions arrive in many forms and from many places. Our Creative Queue brings instructions from multiple sources into a centralized location, letting users forward instructions directly to a client-dedicated inbox or upload files directly. The system can ingest a variety of formats, including Excel, PDF, Word, and other documents.

From there, Creative Queue does the heavy lifting. A machine learning model parses each document and identifies the information needed to match creative instructions to the right orders. Getting there took extensive prompt engineering: we tested against real-world inputs, refined, and repeated the cycle until we could assign instructions to orders with confidence.

Once those instructions are matched to the right orders, Creative Queue automatically brings the ads into the library, assigns rotation, and groups them into the exact dates and times they need to run.

Users stay in control throughout. A status column shows where each item stands: pending, completed, or failed. That makes it easy to see what's ready to go and what needs attention. From there, users can review and manage order details, including rotation, order and line assignment, and more.

     Built for How Teams Actually Work

Anyone who has handled traffic instructions knows no two are alike. Every organization has its own exceptions, one-offs, and ways of working, and workflows can look very different. Pilot Creative is built to handle that reality.

We can understand each organization's workflow and build around it, as long as it makes sense. That ability to recognize the data, whatever form it arrives in, is the breakthrough that makes a product like this possible.

Bring Your Own Model

That flexibility extends to AI.

AI governance is a major consideration for every organization we talk to, and no two approaches are the same. Each company has its own rules for how AI can be used and how it handles data. Some have preferred models, often because of existing partnerships with foundation model providers like Anthropic or OpenAI.

That's why we built Creative Queue to be model-agnostic. We can work with the baseline model a client prefers or has already approved under its data governance policies. Teams get the benefits of automation without compromising the standards they've set for AI.

Looking Ahead

Creative Management in Pilot launches later this year. The goal is simple: one connected workflow from the moment instructions arrive to the moment ads are ready to run, without the manual entry and system-hopping that used to come with it. That's what we're building with Pilot Creative.