Larry Adams is using AI to eliminate racial bias in advertising campaigns

Larry Adams has held multiple executive roles at companies including AT&T, WarnerMedia, Mindshare, Vimeo, HBO Max and DirecTV. Despite that success, Adams said he still felt like an outsider and wanted to do more to show the importance of inclusion in advertising. “I was always the guy in the room that got asked, ‘What do you think of this ad?’ Or, ‘What do you think of this idea?’ And I was supposed to represent all people of color from every walk of life,” Adams said. “What I say matters, but really it doesn’t, because it immediately gets discounted because I’m not like everyone else.” So in 2022, Adams used funds from his 401(k) to launch XStereotype, an AI platform that can gather insights about identifying racial bias and risk factors for any concept, script, campaign or message. Revenue grew from $20,000 in the company’s first year to $2 million in 2023. It now has 30 clients including Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, American Express, FanDuel, Group Black, 3M, Chipotle and Bob Evans, as well as marketing agencies and content producers. The company has also worked on multiple political campaigns for politicians such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who won the election last year after XStereotype helped analyze how multicultural audiences would react to the Johnson campaign’s political ads and messaging. Adams says that the purchase intent scores for XStereotype’s clients have improved by 10% across the board for ads that received high inclusion scores. Adams also partnered with Whoopi Goldberg to launch BLKFAM, a new streaming platform for the Black American family, in February. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders What is the biggest technological challenge facing your sector of advertising and technology, and why? To be honest, the technology is only part of the problem. I think people’s understanding of how the technology works is another part of the problem that’s been driving a lot more questioning than I think we would see if everyone had a better understanding of how AI is predicting the next step. It’s not creating new outcomes, it’s actually just taking past outcomes and giving you its prediction of what will come next. How are you preparing to overcome this challenge? By looking at new places for talent. We’ve approached a couple of colleges about potential apprenticeship programs where they’re working with our dataset and within our environments. We’re simplifying our products and we’re launching a series of explainer videos to get people to understand more about how the technology works and how to understand the outcomes. I think society will get there and the industry is getting there faster. They’re asking better questions and they’re getting to understanding a lot faster. What’s your favorite blog, TikTok account, podcast or any must-follows in your media diet? I’m obsessed with the marketing Reddit threads. I cannot live without Ad Age and TikTok for everything culture and news. I listen to podcasts a lot, including Minute Briefing from The Wall Street Journal. Also, Kara Swisher and her podcasts. Who is your technological hero, alive or from the past, who inspired you the most? I grew up in the ’90s and I love “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” So LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge and Data [Brent Spiner] were the most technologically inspiring duo for me. I thought I could do anything because Geordi was fixing the ship all the time every week. And I love that. I have to point to fictional characters because, in the real world, there were never people of color in technology [portrayed in the news media]. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders

Larry Adams is using AI to eliminate racial bias in advertising campaigns

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