2026 Trends: Experts discuss impact of AI in advertising
This year we saw significant shifts in the way Artificial Intelligence (AI) has impacted advertising, marketing, customer experience and audience engagement. In this piece, we speak to industry experts who reveal some of the critical trends to expect for the year ahead.
AI and the future of creative advertising
As 2026 quickly approaches, the answer for AI-focused agency BRX‘s Marty Hungerford is clear. The company’s Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer believes a new era is unfolding, shaped by the profound and potentially philosophical impact of AI.
Hungerford predicts that the use of AI-generated models and imagery will become the new standard in e-commerce. Already he notes that a significant portion of all new images posted online are AI-generated. He also says that the use of AI for video production, from product placement to full-scale localisation campaigns, will become the norm due to the advanced level of “directability” AI now offers.
“If you look at almost any e-commerce site, particularly when it comes to fashion, you’ll see that they’re using AI models. According to Meta, 50% of the new images that are posted on their platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, are AI,” he says.
“We watch this technology very closely and it’s very powerful, you can artistically create photos and art-direct videos with prompts. It’s incredible. Soon enough every agency that is in the loop on this will want to leverage it.”
Aparna Watal, Partner, Halfords IP, agrees the decade ahead is set to redefine creativity as a collaboration between human and machine, especially as AI tools ingest, remix, and regenerate vast amounts of creative content. But she warns brands should be aware the traditional concept of authorship (who the creator is) no longer fits neatly, especially as we are moving toward a framework that values data stewardship as much as creation.
“We’re likely to see hybrid authorship regimes emerge which recognise human contribution as the anchor of protection, but allowing limited AI attribution where there’s meaningful human oversight. The shift won’t happen overnight, but I suspect that by the end of the next 5 years, our focus will move from ownership and exclusion to transparency, attribution, and fair value exchange.”
The Future of Brand-Consumer Communication
Looking deeper into the future of communication and touching on developments with brain-computer interfaces, Hungerford believes in the next ten years, brand and consumer communication might be mediated by AI agents operating at a speed far beyond human capability.
“You’re going to have personal agents talking to brands at a pace that far exceeds that of analogue human communication,” he says.
“A brand’s AI might actually design and implement ranking strategies, content generation and flooding, and product design recommendations to appeal to other AIs. There might also be AIs pitching to other AIs. The tech is accelerating so fast that we just don’t know.”
In this future, brands will need to develop strategies for their AI agents to communicate with consumers’ personal AI agents, possibly leading to a new type of “pitching to other AIs.”
AI’s impact on Advertising Strategy and Execution
In 2025, Nexxen unveiled nexAI, a comprehensive suite of artificial intelligence-powered assistants and features vertically integrated across its unified advertising technology platform.
The launch represented what the company described as an elevation of every stage of the advertising lifecycle, taking a transparent approach to planning, activation, optimisation, insights and monetisation. The reveal sets a tone for what the organisation believes will be transformative changes across the advertising industry in 2026 and beyond.
Janice Chan, VP of Platform and Client Services APAC at Nexxen, expects AI assistants to not only transform advertising workflows in 2026, but also empower marketers with real-time visibility into performance and outcomes.
“From a client perspective, AI-driven capabilities like those offered by nexAI are driving accessibility and efficiency. They simplify the process of translating complex data into actionable insights and campaign strategies, which can then be directly activated within the platform. What once required platform and optimisation specialists is now becoming more intuitive and seamless for marketers,” she said.
Chan also anticipates AI-driven campaign optimisation will reach new levels of sophistication and automation in 2026.
“nexAI monitors and optimises campaigns in real time, leveraging machine learning to maximise performance and ROI; this includes advanced algorithms that evolve and adapt with predictive modelling of audiences, bidding, pacing & budget allocation, exponentially improving over time through iterative learning.”
Additionally, she expects AI automation will enable marketing teams to focus on higher-value initiatives.
“By automating repetitive tasks such as data collection and campaign optimisation, nexAI enables teams to shift focus toward strategic priorities — from uncovering growth opportunities to deepening client relationships. This shift also compels leaders to accelerate plans and initiatives aimed at upskilling teams and evolving organisational capabilities to keep pace with AI-driven transformation,” she adds.
For Chan, 2026 will mark a turning point where, with AI embedded into day-to-day operations, marketers can expect to see complex analysis and campaign optimisation handled automatically, while they dedicate their attention to strategy, creativity and delivering long-term value.
Media Networks and Advertising Evolution
As businesses grapple with these technological changes, the media and advertising landscape is undergoing its own transformation. In the media and monetisation sphere, Bel Lloyd, Client Lead at Amperity, predicts significant changes in retail media networks (RMNs).
“The explosion of retail media networks over the past few years means we’re close to a tipping point,” Lloyd notes.
Lloyd explains that success will require these networks to mature their offerings and provide truly differentiated targeting and measurement capabilities.
This evolution in media networks is closely tied to broader changes in digital advertising. Despite Google’s extension of third-party cookies, Lloyd believes advertisers won’t slow their investments in alternative technologies.
“Brands will need to maximise the quality of their first-party signals as opposed to relying on the volume of their data,” Lloyd states. “Television advertising budgets will continue shifting from traditional linear TV to connected TV (CTV), with programmatic exchanges emerging as the winners.”
