AI took over search, ads, and discovery in 2025 as YouTube and CTV became the new centers of gravity for consumers and marketers. Our top 20 stories of the year highlight an evolution toward an AI-first world where attention and advantage move faster than ever.
In 2025, Meta shifted its weight behind AI, launching an audacious hiring spree that saw it poach top researchers from OpenAI, Google, and Apple. Even as the AI push intensified, Meta’s Reality Labs experiment continued to produce eye-watering losses. Meta enters 2026 with its fortunes wrapped tightly around advertising’s adaptability, the pace of AI innovation and whether users, marketers, and regulators will tolerate the new rules of engagement it’s writing atop the world’s largest social platforms.
Instagram's explosive EU audience growth compared with Facebook's slowing momentum means advertisers should follow suit.
The share of consumers who view generative AI as a negative disruptor in the creator economy has nearly doubled, jumping from 18% to 32% since November 2023, according to a July survey from Billion Dollar Boy and Censuswide.
Reddit ad spend is growing 46.3% YoY, more than double Instagram's growth rate and five times TikTok's, according to a November report from Sensor Tower.
TikTok has agreed to a sweeping US restructuring that creates a majority-American–controlled joint venture, fulfilling bipartisan divestment demands and reducing the threat of an outright ban. Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX will hold 50% ownership, with US-appointed directors overseeing data protection, moderation, and the retraining of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm. ByteDance will retain a minority 19.9% stake and continue managing global operations outside the US. The shift brings long-missing stability for advertisers but also creates operational distance from ByteDance’s global systems, potentially slowing innovation and altering performance patterns. The next year will be a critical recalibration period for brands and creators.
YouTube is experimenting with AI avatars based on a small group of popular creators via Google’s “Portraits” feature, which allows fans to have conversations with AI versions of real-life creators. Advertisers should approach AI creators with cautious interest, closely monitoring how the format evolves as an ad opportunity while balancing emerging AI capabilities with consumers’ sensitivity to authenticity.
35 state attorneys general are pushing Meta for tighter enforcement of its advertising policies amid a “surge of misleading marketing for weight loss products” on Facebook and Instagram. The state AGs’ letter will surely get the attention of the FDA, meaning telehealth marketers must ensure they aren’t specifically promoting GLP-1s to people who don’t meet the clinical criteria or using messaging that body shames. Meanwhile, social media companies and advertising platforms need to strictly enforce transparency disclosures on AI-generated ads while closely reviewing all weight loss drug promotions, given the risks of misleading claims and unrealistic expectations.
56% of weekly podcast listeners say podcast hosts are the type of influencer that matters most to them, nearly triple the share who say the same about social media influencers, according to an October survey from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights.
Omnichannel strategies are crucial to capture multigenerational shoppers in their product discovery and research journeys. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of US Gen Zers say social media is their main source for learning about new products, per Salsify, and about two-thirds (61%) of Gen Xers discover products while browsing in physical retail stores. To earn the attention and trust of multigenerational shoppers, build channel-specific messaging and invest in measurement tools that track cross-channel behavior to see how different audiences are finding, researching, and buying products across platforms.
46% of worldwide marketing decision-makers say reaching their target audience is the biggest challenge when advertising on social media, according to a March survey from DoubleVerify and Sapio Research.
Later has transformed from a scheduling tool into a full-scale creator-commerce engine. One year after acquiring Mavely, the combined platform is processing more than $2.4 billion in annualized GMV and has paid out over $250 million to creators. During Black Friday–Cyber Monday alone, creators drove $50 million in sales through Later and Mavely systems. With link-in-bio tools, affiliate rails, workflow software, and AI-powered attribution stitched into one stack, Later now acts as a performance channel for brands like Southwest and Bissell. Its EdgeAI engine ties creator posts to SKU-level results, reflecting a broader shift toward creator marketing as a full-funnel, revenue-driving discipline.
WPP Media and YouTube are expanding their partnership to bring non-public YouTube video and creator data into WPP’s AI system WPP Open, per a press release. Taking advantage of WPP Media’s offering gives advertisers the ability to partner with creators on the most popular social platform in a far more measurable, practical, and effective way than before.
Home Depot introduced The Home Depot Creator Portal, a centralized hub that offers resources and earning opportunities for creators developing home improvement content. The creator portal is intended to inspire creators while giving them access to advertising opportunities with Home Depot and its extensive supplier network. More retailers are setting up their own creator platforms as they look to tap into influencer marketing and ensure relevance as more product discovery shifts to social media. Establishing a creator platform allows retailers to bring greater standardization and quality control to their influencer partnerships, while still taking advantage of all the opportunities that influencer marketing can offer.
Reuters reporting suggests Meta has been unable to contain large-scale fraud in its China ad ecosystem. Despite launching a dedicated crackdown in early 2024 that cut violating ads from 19% to 9% of China revenue, enforcement was later relaxed, allowing misconduct to climb back to 16% by mid-2025. A multilayer reseller network, weak overseas deterrence in China, and partner whitelisting made violations difficult to trace. China advertisers still generated more than $18 billion for Meta in 2024, creating tension between revenue goals and quality controls. The case raises sharp questions about platform accountability and advertiser risk.
Prominent clinicians and healthcare experts report a growing trend of bad actors using AI to impersonate them online and push unsafe products or unreliable medical information, according to a recent New York Times article. AI deepfakes may further discourage doctors from having their images and voices online. Social platforms must reassure healthcare creators about how they detect AI-driven scammers, enforce impersonation policies, and respond swiftly to deepfake reports.
Instagram is making a connected TV (CTV) play with IG for TV, which lets users watch Reels content on a big screen. It’s testing the app on Amazon Fire TV devices in the US and will expand to more devices and countries soon, per a blog post. Users can watch full portrait videos and view captions, likes, and share stats. Marketers should diversify short-form content for the big screen by crafting videos with clearer framing, readable text, and storytelling that can translate to TV viewing. Track how short-form assets drive awareness and conversion with Meta’s Ad Manager assets.