👋 Hello class-action aficionados!
Hope your AI assistant hasn’t replaced you yet. But if it has — and you’ve been fired for raising a red flag — you’re not alone. Just ask The Trade Desk.
I love TTD but while their investors were busy inhaling the sweet promise of “Kokai”, the company’s shiny new AI forecasting tool, reality was already drafting its court summons.
Yes, the AdTech darling is currently starring in not one, but two types of lawsuits — a securities class action and a wrongful termination suit. Because why choose?
📉 Investor Lawsuit: The AI That Cried Alpha
Between May 2024 and February 2025, The Trade Desk allegedly told investors that Kokai was their ticket to the AI-powered promised land. Only, that land came with baggage — a.k.a. Solimar, the old platform that apparently just wouldn’t die.
Here’s what went down:
Investors were told Kokai was rolling out smoothly. Spoiler: it wasn’t.
Clients struggled to migrate. Revenue growth took a hit.
Q4 2024 missed revenue targets — 741 million dollars instead of the promised 756 million….
CEO Jeff Green then admitted they were still running both platforms, which might explain the missing millions… and the missing investor confidence.
Stock plunged 32%. Class actions were filed faster than you can say “predictive bidding.”
⚖️ Employment Lawsuit: Fired by the Algorithm (Allegedly)
If the investor suit wasn’t messy enough, here comes a two-million-dollar wrongful dismissal lawsuit — brought by a former employee who claims they were booted after questioning the Kokai rollout.
According to the Law360 report, this brave soul dared to say,
Hey, this AI stuff isn’t working the way we said it would?!
…and was seemingly shown the door quicker than you can say “unfair dismissal.”
The details are behind a paywall — so naturally, the internet did what it does best: speculate wildly.
Was it a retaliation hit-job?
A convenient clean-up before earnings day?
Or just another case of corporate ghosting with legal consequences?
🔍 What It Means for the Industry: AI Hype ≠ Legal Immunity
Let’s zoom out here.
The Trade Desk saga is just one chapter in the growing AI-meets-employment-law horror anthology. Across tech, the rise of generative this and predictive that is leaving a trail of pink slips, lawsuits, and “AI made me do it” defences.
Just ask:
Microsoft, who laid off the teams who trained their AI tools.
Workday, now facing a class action for AI recruitment tools that allegedly screened out older, disabled, and minority candidates.
Or indeed, you… if your company still thinks “explainable AI” means emailing the HR bot after you’ve been let go.
The legal system doesn’t care how clever your machine learning model is.
It cares if you’re discriminating, misleading, or firing people without a fair process.
And that goes double if you’re still trying to keep investors sweet with a tech fairy tale.
🧾 AdTech’s To-Do List (Before Someone Sues You)
Disclose the delays. If your AI launch isn’t going to plan, tell the board. Tell investors. Hell, tell the janitor.
Keep the humans in the loop. AI can assist — it shouldn’t dictate employment decisions without human oversight.
Document everything. Especially internal dissent. It’s not sabotage — it’s risk mitigation.
Update your contracts. If you’re using AI to evaluate staff, your T&Cs better say so.
Don’t retaliate. Unless you like being on Law360.
💡Final Thought:
You can’t “chatbot” your way out of a class action. The legal system still runs on humans, feelings, and receipts.
Oh, don’t forget to subscribe to The AdTech Journal newsletter—intel so sharp, you’ll forward it to your boss and pretend you found it first.
Until next time!