Marketers are connecting measurement more closely to business decisions as incrementality gains ground, AI use accelerates, and less observable customer journeys challenge traditional attribution.

AI can produce ad creative at scale, but it struggles to deliver the originality brands need to stand out. Marketers need to draw a sharper line between the work AI should handle and where human creativity matters most.

Commerce media’s inherited advantage is reaching its limits. The next phase depends on earning consumer attention and advertiser demand, even as conversational commerce reshapes the high-intent ad model that fueled its rise.

As AI becomes standard across marketing, simply having the technology won’t set brands apart. The advantage may come from better signals that show how consumer interests and intent are changing in real time.

Agentic commerce has moved from buzzword to balance sheet, and the numbers prove it. AI-driven commerce is projected to grow from under $50 billion this year to nearly $300 billion by 2030, rising from roughly 3% to 15% of total US e-commerce sales.

Retail media networks (RMNs) have built out social and creator offerings, but advertisers have not widely adopted them. To attract spend, RMNs must prove that their offer of better targeting and measurement outweighs the added cost and complexity.

AI is reshaping contextual advertising across CTV, audio, retail media, and the open web. It’s advancing semantic understanding, agentic planning, and real-time targeting while exposing persistent measurement and infrastructure gaps.

Its planned bot-ad framework could clarify ROI, though opaque AI platforms may still limit marketers’ visibility.

PubMatic, Optable create a workflow for agent-to-agent deals: The automation is already live, syncing campaign briefs to publisher audiences in real time.

Agentic ad buying has made strides through the first half of this year to fulfill its promise of saving marketers time and money when planning campaigns. Though the technology still has plenty to prove, large agencies and publishers are forging shared standards to make those workflows reliable, meeting advertiser demand without sacrificing trust.

60% of US senior decision-makers trust independent incrementality testing most among marketing measurement solutions, 20 points ahead of media mix modeling (40%) and nearly double in-platform reporting (37%), according to a January survey from Haus.

As marketers increasingly bet on in-store commerce media and consumers shorten their shopping trips, GSTV argues that brevity is a reason advertisers should bet on convenience stores.

AI is accelerating the shift toward automation, data-driven precision, and real-time creative optimization. Here are the most common questions about how AI is changing the OOH channel.

US social network amplified content ad spending will match creator sponsored content revenues at $14.15 billion in 2027 before surpassing them in 2028, according to a February forecast from EMARKETER.

Nearly half of US AI users (49%) say they're likely or very likely to try a different brand than usual if an AI assistant suggests one as an alternative, according to a March report from EMARKETER and Publicis Commerce.

Snapchat’s young audience and distinct ad products keep it relevant, even as usage slips and regulatory pressure builds. Marketers should use it with strategies built for messaging, creators, and commerce.

AI agents are set to reshape media buying, but it’s still early days. This year will be about building the infrastructure they’ll need for broad adoption. Early tests suggest they’ll lower costs, improve outcomes, and shake up the ad ecosystem.

Currency debates are fading as advertisers shift to outcome-based measurement. As performance takes priority, marketers are focusing more on lower-funnel outcomes, while measurement vendors double down on specialized offerings.