Cognitiv Co-Founders Aaron Andalman and Jeremy Fain Named to ADWEEK AI Power 50
Chief Science Officer and CEO recognized for shaping the future of AI-driven advertising and advancing performance-first deep learning at scale
Cognitiv, the leading advanced performance partner powered by deep learning, today announced that CEO and Co-Founder Jeremy Fain and Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder Dr. Aaron Andalman have been named to the ADWEEK AI Power 50 list. The distinction recognizes the most influential leaders building the infrastructure driving artificial intelligence’s transformative role in marketing, media, and advertising.
The recognition comes on the heels of Cognitiv’s strongest year of business momentum, including 388% growth in flagship product ContextGPT, the industry’s first interactive, chat-based contextual targeting platform. This continued increase in adoption underscores the real-world impact both executives are having in translating deep learning research into measurable advertising performance.
“Vision is often talked about in hindsight. What sets Cognitiv apart is that its co-founders recognized where AI was headed, and built that future early,” said Michael Kassan, Founder and CEO, 3C Ventures. “Long before most of the market began talking seriously about AI, they were investing in the infrastructure, and the science required to fundamentally reshape advertising performance through deep learning. Today, as some still find their footing, this team is operating at scale and delivering measurable impact. Jeremy and Aaron’s recognition by ADWEEK is well deserved as they continue to show what real advanced performance looks like in practice.”
Dr. Aaron Andalman: Applying Real Science to Solve Marketers’ Real-World Challenges
As Chief Science Officer, Cognitiv Co-founder Dr. Aaron Andalman brings rare scientific rigor to advertising, a product of his training as a neuroscientist at Stanford and MIT. Where many in adtech treat AI as a feature, he has made it a foundation of Cognitiv’s science-first culture in which nearly half of all employees work in science and engineering roles.
Andalman was the architect of Cognitiv’s proprietary deep learning advertising platform, establishing the scientific foundation that powers the company’s innovations and delivering true advance performance to the industry. He led the creation and evolution of ContextGPT, enabling media planners to describe target audiences in natural language while advanced reasoning models interpret intent and recommend optimal, brand-safe environments for engagement. In 2025, his team launched a major upgrade, introducing Interactive Audience Exploration and a next-generation Relevance Engine. The enhancements delivered an up to 40% improvement in contextual campaign performance for media buyers.
Andalman is a key industry voice on AI governance, responsible development, and the need for clarity and transparency on the tendency of vendors to use AI branding without underlying scientific substance.
Jeremy Fain: Radically Transforming Business Outcomes through Deep Learning
CEO Jeremy Fain co-founded Cognitiv in 2015 with a conviction that self-organizing deep learning algorithms, not rules-based optimization, was the future of advertising. At a time when the industry relied on static audience segments, ineffectual targeting tools, and older machine learning, Fain led the establishment of a new category of AI-powered performance marketing years before the broader industry embraced the transformative technology capabilities.
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Under Fain’s leadership, Cognitiv is delivering intelligent contextual targeting and custom algorithms that move beyond static segmentation and optimize in milliseconds against live signals. In 2025, the company saw 67% growth in overall new clients year-over-year, and a 29% improvement in average return on ad spend for customers in the second half of 2025 compared to the first half. In addition, Fain brought on industry icon Michael Kassan as the company’s first independent board member.
Fain also has a broader vision for AI’s role in society. He created More Positiv, an AI-powered platform that uses Cognitiv’s technology to surface uplifting news stories. Inspired by Cognitiv’s unique ability to score sentiment at scale, Fain saw an opportunity to apply it beyond advertising, creating a platform that uses AI to analyze sentiment and surface the most uplifting news stories each day.
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