AI & software
Media planning software
Media planning software is a purpose-built system for creating, managing and controlling media plans: structured plan creation, audience work, allocation, flighting, and the connection of the approved plan to live delivery data for pacing. It replaces the workbook as the operating system of planning.
In practice
The categories range from AI-first planning workspaces to integrated planning-and-buying suites to enterprise infrastructure; the right choice follows the workflow being replaced, not the longest feature list.
The dividing line worth testing: does the plan stay alive after approval, or does pacing still happen in a separate spreadsheet.