51% of UK/US content and creative professionals say they're using AI to accelerate creation, tagging, or organization, it's the top method for improving content production, ahead of cross-team collaboration (41%) and performance measurement (38%), according to a November 2025 survey from Canto and Ascend2.

As retail media networks use different attribution models, it’s becoming harder for advertisers to compare performance across platforms. Incrementality offers a clearer view of which investments are truly driving growth.

Half of brand and agency marketers worldwide say their top Amazon retail media priority is improving ROI and efficiency of existing spend, according to November 2025 data from Skai and Stratably.

Better measurement is the top unlock for digital audio ad investment: 45% of marketers worldwide say more robust measurement and attribution tools would drive greater spending, and 43% cite improved ROI transparency and benchmarking, according to a November 2025 survey from Amazon Ads and EMARKETER.

Creative quality is the top reason North American marketers pass on a new agency, cited by 55% of respondents, nearly 7 points ahead of category experience (48%), according to a December survey from RSW/US.

Though Big Data + Panel is still accredited, the MRC raised concerns about “unusual results.”

Brands reallocate budgets to blend TV scale with targeting, but walled gardens risk eroding efficiency.

Creative and content production tops the list of martech areas marketers expect AI to disrupt most, cited by 27% of UK and North America respondents, according to a November 2025 survey from StackAdapt and Ascend2.

Retail media networks rely heavily on first-party data, but those datasets capture only part of the customer journey. As advertisers push for broader reach and measurement, gaps in that data are becoming harder to overlook.

With US retail media ad spend hitting $60.32 billion in 2025, retailers and advertisers alike are exploring how non-endemic partnerships can expand reach, unlock new revenue streams, and deliver relevant advertising experiences to shoppers.

Algorithms now shape most ad spend: Decisioning is expanding beyond targeting, increasing scale while adding opacity across planning, execution, and measurement.

In 2026, brands’ revenue gains will come less from AI tools and more from integrating high-quality data that informs decisions.

Sam’s Club and BJ’s aim to show that samples and screens drive sales.

Pinterest shifts to yield; its leadership change reinforces focus on performance, commerce, and higher ARPU.

Uber is expanding premium storytelling through Journey Takeovers, which turn entire rides into narrative canvases—and delivering unusually long, high-quality attention.

47% of marketers worldwide say better attribution and measurement is the top benefit of integrating martech and adtech systems, according to an August survey from EMARKETER and Zeta Global.

AI will reshape premium video buying—and NBCUniversal’s proof-of-concept shows agentic systems can unify planning and optimization across linear and streaming in seconds.

PayPal rolled out Transaction Graph Insights & Measurement at CES to gives advertisers and merchants a clearer, cross-merchant view of how people actually shop and purchase—and early results suggest meaningful impact.

Amazon is recalibrating its relationship with the agencies and adtech firms that helped build its retail-media dominance. While Amazon insists agencies remain central, many intermediaries say rising data costs and tool duplication echo earlier platform playbooks from Google and Meta—centralize strengths, limit external dependencies, and scale in-house automation. The result is a more controlled, AI-driven ecosystem that may reduce tooling diversity while boosting Amazon’s own ad stack. For marketers, the challenge will be balancing Amazon’s convenience and scale with the flexibility, transparency, and customization offered by independent partners.