TikTok has launched a host of new tools and updates to its advertising suite to build a platform where search, discovery and purchase all happen in one place.
TikTok unveiled a series of new agentic solutions for each stage of the customer journey, which aims to help advertisers develop creative potential both on and off platform.
Announced at Advertising Week New York, the suite of new tools look to extend campaign reach, build partnerships, automate search ads and develop an agentic shopping experience.
Among the new products launched is TikTok Ad Network (TTAN), which aims to give US advertisers the ability to extend campaigns further than the ByteDance platform and into a network of over 400,000 apps across the globe.
This will be integrated into TikTok ads manager and comes with built-in brand safety and placement controls to enable brands to connect with the right audiences and drive measurable outcomes.
There has also be updates to TikTok for Business Model Context Protocol (MCP) – the platform’s developer tool – which looks to help its brands and their partners to plan, build, and executive TikTok ad campaigns within their chosen workflow. Since launching in May, there has been an over 200% increase in advertisers using the MCP for campaign activation and management.
The business MCP is now available as a connector across Claude, Kimi, Manus, Perplexity, Replit, Snowflake, Tencent WorkBuddy, and the IAB Tech Lab Agent Registry.
Automating search campaigns
To make it easier to run search ads, TikTok has launched Smart+ – an AI-powered tool that gives advertisers the flexibility to automate their search ads buying process across keywords and creative.
Smart+, the company said, has extensive keyword targeting, bidding capabilities, and search budget management, enabling advertisers to “capture diverse users’ intent across vast search queries and meet them where they are”.
As part of that, it is also introducing a new feature called Smart+ Creative Selection, which brings together every creative source including the advertisers’ own assets, Symphony’s AI-generated creatives and creator content into one workflow.
This means there is a single place for advertisers to approve and activate their performance campaigns.
In addition, the social media firm is expanding GMV Max, the TikTok Shop automated ad solution, to help sellers grow their gross merchandise value. Alongside automating ad creation and spend, it now factors in business costs such as affiliate commissions, coupons and referral fees, to enable advertisers to truly measure ROI.
The rise of social commerce
Economic activity on TikTok helped generate $81bn in GDP for US businesses, according to the platform’s Economic Impact report.
According to the research, 54 million people in the US purchase a produce after watching a TikTok video.
The figures chime with Kantar’s Media Reactions 2026 report, which ranked TikTok as the top platform marketers are looking to increase adspend in 2027.
TikTok has become a place for search and discovery and now it is looking to go a step further and become a full-funnel platform with its new agentic commerce shopping experience through Buy Direct and Shopping Assistant.
Shopping Assistant is a conversational AI agent for audiences to discuss their purchase intentions throughout the journey. This will give users access to real-time AI shopping guidance such as shipping, sizes, availability, and product details.
Buy Direct will give checkout solutions for users to buy directly from brands within the TikTok app. This streamlines the purchase journey with a one-click journey from the for you page (FYP) to purchase.
To build this part of the offering, TikTok has partnered with payment providers and commerce platforms including Shopify, Salesforce, Shoplazza, and Stripe.
There will also be new tools for lead generation to give advertisers AI-powered conversation to help capture, qualify, and convert consumer prospects.
David Kaufman, global head of monetisation, product partnerships at TikTok said: “AI is transforming how advertiser content is created and scaled. With our suite of solutions, we [are] bringing together AI, automation, and creativity to help advertisers improve performance while reducing effort. We are enabling advertisers to create work that feels relevant, move at the speed of culture, and drive meaningful business impact.”
