LITTLE ROCK, Ark., July 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inuvo, Inc. (NYSE:INUV), a leading provider of artificial intelligence technology, today announced the expansion of its IntentKey^® signal intelligence into workforce recruitment marketing. The initiative establishes workforce recruitment as a dedicated growth arena for IntentKey, extending the same AI used to identify consumer engagement into a market where employers are increasingly challenged to reach specialized, high-value, and hard-to-find talent.

The timing reflects mounting pressure on a market that is already spending heavily to compete for talent. U.S. employers invest an estimated $7.5 billion to $9.5 billion annually in recruitment marketing — across programmatic job advertising, employer branding, recruitment technology, and hiring events — yet still struggle to reach the candidates they need most. Larger enterprises alone spend between $1.2 million and $3.2 million each year on recruitment marketing, increasingly shifting away from flat-rate job boards toward performance-based, pay-per-application media.

"Recruitment marketing is facing many of the same challenges as consumer marketing," said Rob Buchner, CEO of Inuvo. "Organizations need to reach high-value audiences earlier, with greater precision, and without relying on outdated targeting methods. IntentKey was built to identify intent as it forms, which makes workforce recruitment a natural application of our AI."

IntentKey reads open-web signals to identify emerging patterns of interest, motivation, and intent. Applied to recruitment, that intelligence can help employers identify prospective candidates before they visit a job board, submit an application, or otherwise enter a formal hiring funnel — moving recruitment beyond the limits of job postings, applicant databases, and demographic targeting.

"IntentKey has always been built around understanding why people act," Buchner added. "Whether someone is considering a product, a service, a career path, or a major life change, intent forms before the action that makes it visible."

The need is both urgent and growing. Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute project that U.S. manufacturing could require 3.8 million new workers by 2033, with as many as 1.9 million roles at risk of going unfilled if current workforce challenges are not addressed. As experienced tradespeople retire and demand for technical talent rises, employers face a recurring need to identify candidates for hard-to-fill roles — skilled trades, maintenance and controls technicians, machinists, and healthcare positions — many of whom are not actively searching for work and do not appear in job board activity or applicant databases.

IntentKey is designed to discover audiences earlier in the decision process. Unlike traditional recruitment targeting that depends on predefined demographics, job board activity, or previously collected candidate data, it identifies intent without relying on third-party cookies, identity graphs, or fixed audience segments, reading signals across the open web and reaching the right candidates with the right message at the right time.

The initiative is one of several ways Inuvo is expanding the strategic application of IntentKey beyond traditional media planning, bringing its AI-driven audience intelligence to organizations seeking more effective ways to reach and engage future candidates.

About Inuvo

Inuvo, Inc. (NYSE:INUV) is a disruptive AI specifically designed for modeling media audiences. IntentKey® AI is a patented technology capable of identifying customer engagement based on real-time media consumption. Our models refresh every 5 minutes and know, with precision, why prospects are interested in a product or brand, predicting purchase intent 24 hours before legacy programmatic systems can respond to buying signals. Inuvo's language-based AI does not rely on consumer IDs, keeping Inuvo on the vanguard of consumer data privacy. To learn more, visit www.inuvo.com.

Safe Harbor / Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release relating to Inuvo’s future plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions, and prospects are "forward-looking statements" and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. A detailed discussion of these factors and other risks that affect our business is contained in Inuvo’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q under the heading "Risk Factors." These filings are available on the SEC’s website or on Inuvo’s website at Investor Relations – Inuvo^®. All information in this press release is current as of the date of release, and Inuvo undertakes no duty to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

Investor Contact - Inuvo

Wallace Ruiz

Chief Financial Officer, Inuvo, Inc.

Tel: (501) 205-8397

Email: wallace.ruiz@inuvo.com