After an Uncertain 2025, Bold Predictions for 2026

Someone once said it is easy to make predictions–unless they’re about the future.

There has never been a time in the business of data, marketing, advertising and video marked by more rapid change. That makes figuring out what will happen next a huge challenge. But seeing around corners and choosing the right strategy will separate the winners from the also-rans.

In that spirit, here is a collection of predictions about what’s ahead for the industry. Hopefully, these insights will help you find a successful path.

AI

“As we look to 2026, the digital media economy will enter a formative yet unsettled phase for AI-driven innovation. Although AI solutions will increasingly take shape, the industry should expect several false starts in deploying agentic solutions. The promise of agentic AI is real and meaningful, yet its practical application will require years of market experimentation, standardization, and alignment across platforms, agencies, and publishers,” said Anthony Katsur, CEO of the IAB Tech Lab.

“In the near term, the most immediate and measurable efficiencies will arise in creative generation and copywriting. Generative AI is already reshaping these workflows, and leading global brands such as Coca-Cola and General Motors are demonstrating how AI-driven content production can dramatically accelerate creative cycles while maintaining brand integrity. In 2026, this will become the first area of true operational transformation across the broader ecosystem,” Katsur said.

“By contrast, agentic AI will be characterized by competing models, proprietary implementations, and a fragmented set of early solutions. While experimentation will accelerate across the industry, a unified approach is unlikely to emerge for several years as buyers, sellers, and technology partners test and iterate on divergent architectures,” said Katsur.

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“Agentic AI will be a major theme next year. Marketers want support that accelerates the work while keeping them firmly in control. The year ahead will likely bring wider adoption of these models as teams look for AI that improves efficiency without sidelining human judgment,” said Joshua John, Head of Strategy, Yahoo DSP.

“A key lesson from this year is that AI only succeeds when it removes complexity,” John said. “Marketers want the flexibility to use native models or bring their own, and they want AI that fits naturally into their workflow without reshaping how they operate. What we anticipate next year is a broader reset of core workflows, giving teams more control alongside a more guided, intelligent planning experience.”

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“AI flips the power dynamic in advertising next year. Small and mid-sized businesses will compete on the same playing field as the world’s biggest brands — not because they’re spending more, but because they’re thinking smarter,” said Vikrant Mathur, co-founder, Future Today.

“The next wave of AI innovation will be less about flashy creative tools and more intelligence at the infrastructure level: real-time price floor optimization, dynamic audience segmentation, and contextual tracking that works without IDs or cookies. However, the true differentiator won’t be the algorithms but the humans who know how to use them,” Mathur said. “When machine precision meets human insight, brands can deeply understand audiences and reflect real values, to deliver authentic and effective ads.”

Streaming

“The CTV market is experiencing a supply surplus, creating a need to rethink what qualifies as ‘premium.’ As advertisers crowd around a few household-name apps, valuable audiences across FAST and mid-tier platforms are being overlooked. In 2026, education around quality and engagement, not price point or paywall, will reshape how premium is defined,” said Ally Appelbaum, VP, global CTV partnerships, at Nexxen

“Innovative ad formats – like pause ads and native placements on OEM platforms – are gaining traction, but standardization remains fragmented. The next phase of growth will rely on bridging creative innovation with programmatic efficiency, ensuring these experiences scale beyond direct deals into automated, measurable environments,” Appelbaum said.

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“If there’s anything we learned in 2025, it’s the way fans engage with sports is diversifying. The era of single-source, single-league dominance is giving way to a more personalized viewing reality where passion is distributed across sports tiers, screens, and schedules,” said Jimmy White, managing director, Samsung Ads, media and entertainment.

“While 2026 will be filled with tentpole events like the Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup, the most significant opportunity in streaming will come from the in-between moments — the niche leagues, local rivalries, post-game recaps, and real-time commentary that fuel everyday fandom. These moments are where many of the most engaged audiences live. This decentralization of attention is a powerful evolution and one that advertisers can’t afford to overlook,” said White.

“The future of sports streaming isn’t just about bigger screens or bigger games. It’s about embracing the full spectrum of fan interest,” White said. “As viewer behavior continues to shift, FAST allows fans to explore their favorite sports with minimal friction, while advertisers benefit from a premium, brand-safe, and highly contextual environment that authentically connects with fans.”

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“The streaming platforms that win will be the ones that grow daily and monthly active users and lean into FAST,” said Julie Clark, senior VP of media and entertainment, at TransUnion.

“Engagement metrics like DAU and MAU will guide platform decision-making over the next few years. These metrics determine where content investments go and how platforms prioritize product improvements. Pricing experimentation will continue, especially as consumers feel more pressure and shift toward ad-supported tiers. FAST channels are also growing quickly and have a simple value exchange that resonates with viewers. This category could become a major part of the streaming landscape as more platforms invest in it,” said Clark.

“Consolidation is necessary because legacy structures are holding streaming back. Many companies still carry the weight of their cable networks, which makes it harder to let streaming evolve at the pace the market demands. Cable is not dead, but it requires changes that are difficult to make when it is tied to a newer business model. Consolidation or spin-offs help companies separate what still produces value from what slows them down. The WBD situation reflects this dynamic and shows how different players may see value for different reasons, including IP that could extend into areas like theme parks,” Clark said. “Companies that can separate legacy needs from streaming priorities will move faster.”

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“The FAST space is slated to mature as the days of launching a ‘whatever we can license’ channel are over. In 2026, volume for volume’s sake is out; editorial vision, thematic cohesion, and audience intention are in. Viewers are no longer grazing – they’re looking for streaming with a point of view. Expect a rise in creator-led channels, lifestyle verticals, and brand-aligned experiences that feel more like destinations than dumping grounds. Live content, especially news and sports, will show up more in FAST, but not as standalone plays. It will come wrapped in the infrastructure of trusted AVOD platforms where distribution, data, and audience already live," said David Di Lorenzo, senior VP of Kids & Family at Future Today.

“The winners will be the platforms and partners who know their audience, stay disciplined, and build with long-term resonance—not short-term trend-chasing,” Di Lorenzo said.

Ad Tech

“Ad ops teams today are executing manually and across a lot of disconnected tools. In 2026, ad ops teams can finally focus on strategy – if they can delegate execution to machines. Operators define the rules, the constraints, and the goals. Agents take those inputs and execute across platforms continuously. With agentic orchestration, specially trained agents parse operator intent and act on it,” said Frans Vermeulen, president of Swivel.

“Automation handles the repetitive work so teams can focus on strategy– launching new experiments, adapting in real time, and unlocking ideas that would have been deprioritized in a manual world,” Vermeulen said.

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“The next leap in programmatic efficiency won’t come from curated packages – it will come from smarter sell-side decisioning. SSPs are evolving from simple access points into real-time decision engines that determine which impressions to surface, which demand paths to prioritize, and which low-quality supply to filter out before the auction even begins. This shift creates a cleaner, higher-signal supply layer by default, giving buyers performance gains without the manual work of curation. As identity erodes, decisioning becomes a new form of addressability, powered by context, intent, and quality scoring rather than user IDs,” said Karan Dalal, COO, Media.net. “The platforms that pull ahead will be the ones that make the most intelligent choices upstream, long before a bid is ever placed.”

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“With budgets scrutinized and attribution fatigue setting in, brands will gravitate toward incrementality as the clearest proof of value in a noisy ecosystem. Marketers will stop asking, 'What did the campaign achieve?' and start asking, 'What would have happened without it?' – a far more uncomfortable question for many channels. This shift will expose outdated methodologies that over-credit impressions by default and reward channels that truly drive lifts in site visits, conversions, and brand engagement,” said Matt Fanelli, CRO at Digital Remedy.

“Incrementality will move from an advanced measurement capability to a baseline expectation across TV and digital. The industry’s next great divide will be between channels that can pass the incrementality test and those that can’t,” Fanelli said.

Local Advertising

“In 2025, we saw the biggest advertisers and brands double down on the power of reaching and engaging consumers via the power of local advertising. In fact, one trend we saw this year was publishers and media platforms very much focused on experimenting with how to reach local audiences to drive advertiser success,” said Paul LeFort, managing director, local TV client services, at Nielsen. “Advertising at the local DMA level was very prominent last year and rightfully so – the medium remains one of the best reach vehicles to target local consumers. Expect to see even more of this in 2026.”

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“Local broadcast heads into a perfect storm that will finally force the industry’s long-delayed transformation. With more than $5 billion in political spend flooding local broadcasts and another $3 billion surging into CTV-all crammed into Q3 and Q4, non-political advertisers face a true inventory crisis,” said Chris Wilson, CEO of Tenetic.

“Success will go to stations that prove real business impact through purchase intent, foot traffic, digital behaviors, and outcome-based guarantees, rather than political dollars,” Wilson said. “As streaming continues to grow, GRP-based selling will collapse, and local news will modernize. Auto dealers will finally see late-news placements tied to showroom visits, and retailers will connect sponsorships to store traffic. In 2026, broadcasters who embrace this shift will retain and grow core advertisers, while those relying on reach alone will lose budgets to digital and retail competitors.”

Ad Spending

“The ad market has been tough because the macroeconomic environment remains unpredictable. Next year may surprise on overall spend, but that spend will likely consolidate around social, CTV, and search — where performance is clearest,” said Maria Vilchez Lowrey, chief growth officer, Direct Digital Holdings.