AI has achieved near 100% adoption among advertisers and media, fundamentally changing day-to-day omnichannel management and operations. Heading into 2026, we expect significant investment and budget to be earmarked for AI integration. Earlier this month, WPP announced a $400 million (US) deal with Google to embed AI tools into offerings for clients. In short order, AI has proven to be effective in streamlining traditionally complex areas of omnichannel media.

Some trends we are tracking:

Customers expect hyper-personalized, seamless experiences in real-time.

There is a clear shift within media companies to move away from static experiences to AI-driven personalization across multiple formats and channels. This sea change can largely be attributed to social media and creator ecosystems. According to a recent survey from Deloitte, the speed and relevance of ads delivered via social media have created a demand from consumers for streamers and publishers to provide a similar personalized experience. Over the last year, these publishers have piloted a number of hyper-personalized systems and we’re starting to see these systems move from pilot to practice.

Key takeaway for omnichannel: Every potential display or channel should be treated (or at least considered) as a singular, adaptive experience. Start by creating a layer that allows for shared decision-making across apps, CTV, email, social, etc., to deliver the next best option across all touchpoints in real time.

Shoppable media has become a cross-channel focus

Predicted by eMarketer earlier this year, shoppable media has become a cross-channel priority for retailers and publishers, due in part to the level of closed-loop measurement they can offer, along with helping to collapse the purchase funnel. There has been a noticeable uptick in the availability of new shoppable formats available for advertisers and brands. In fact, OEMs and distributors have also begun experimenting. Earlier this month, DirectTV announced a roll out of AI-driven shoppable ads via screensaver.

Key takeaway for omnichannel: Assets like product catalogs and conversion events should be connected in an effort to attribute and streamline commerce outcomes, beyond last-click, across CTV, social, and other channels.

AI-driven creative has sped up the supply chain

Publicis recently announced that AI was a major factor in its net organic growth over the last quarter, due to significant investment in hardwiring AI into the ad supply chain, including creation, versioning, and trafficking. Many agencies and brands have followed Publicis’ lead and have integrated offerings like generative video, image and audiences into their supply chain in an effort to speed up localization and multi-format output.

Key takeaway for omnichannel: AI integration into the ad supply-chain allows brands and advertisers to build a robust model once and then variant ads across the omnichannel through standardized prompts, brand guardrails, and metadata. Campaigns can be auto-generated, tailored to specific channels and distributed through a single pipeline.

Social video & creator ecosystems have become the dominant force

Because of consumer demand for hyper-personalized experiences, as we mentioned upfront, social video and creator ecosystems have become the dominant force for advertisers. According to Deloitte, over half of US ad spend is with social platforms, upsetting traditional streaming and models by becoming an established competitor for attention, content, and advertising.

Why it matters for omnichannel: Social and creator content is no longer an add-on to a traditional plan and should be considered as a core channel. Investment in measurement (for example, clean rooms, marketing mix modeling or incrementality tests) should be a real consideration so that inventory across all channels can dovetail into a singular budget and outcome framework.

Next steps

As ad dollars and consumer attention shift to AI-driven media, the act of implementing or retrofitting these new technologies and methodologies may seem daunting. Below, we’ve outlined some tactics to get AI-ready:

Build a unified personalization layer by developing a cross-channel AI personalization framework that allows dynamic adaptation across all customer touchpoints (apps, CTV, email, social, etc.).
Integrate Commerce Data Across Channels by connecting product catalogs, conversion data, and shoppable assets across all media channels (CTV, social, display, etc.).
Automate and standardize the ad supply chain through AI tools embedded directly into the ad creation, versioning, and trafficking process.
Treat social and creator ecosystems as core channels by elevating social and creator platforms from “add-ons” to primary components of media plans.

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