> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.dstillery.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.dstillery.com/ds-1-foundations/core-use-cases.md).

# Core use cases

The audience buying process has a few distinct stages. You plan who you want to reach, discover the audiences that fit, activate them wherever you're buying, and see what's actually performing. Normally, each of those lives in a different tool, and you can spend as much time moving between them as you do on the work itself.

DS-1 covers that whole arc in one window. You're not stitching together a planning tool, a data provider, an activation platform, and a measurement layer. It's all in one place, and you move between stages without ever really leaving the chat.

Here are the core things teams reach for it to do.

### Find audiences from any starting point

Start with the signal you already have. Use prebuilt audiences, search terms, product signals, or a domain.

[**Explore the workflow →**](/ds-1-foundations/core-use-cases/find-audiences-from-any-starting-point.md)

### Build and activate to a DSP or SSP

Turn your audience research into a compound audience. Then activate it in the DSP or SSP where you buy.

[**Explore the workflow →**](/ds-1-foundations/core-use-cases/build-and-activate-to-a-dsp-or-ssp.md)

### Run predictive lift analysis

Identify audiences likely to perform against a topic, brand, or URL.

[**Explore the workflow →**](/ds-1-foundations/core-use-cases/analyze-predictive-lift-scores.md)

### Create pixels and seed custom AI segments

Use pixel data to seed custom AI segments from your first-party audience.

[**Explore the workflow →**](/ds-1-foundations/core-use-cases/create-and-seed-custom-ai-segments.md)

### Bringing it together

These use cases are a general tour of what DS-1 is good at, not the edges of it. The throughline is that DS-1 handles the entire audience buying process in one place, from finding and building audiences to activating them wherever you buy and measuring what works. And it adapts to the way you work: as you settle into the steps you run most, those become workflows of your own that DS-1 executes exactly the way you do. The more you use it, the more it shapes itself around how your team actually works.

Now that you've seen what DS-1 can do, the best way to understand it is to try it. Let's walk through your first audience step by step in the Getting Started guide.

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