AI platforms’ long-held anti-advertising stance changed in January 2026. The rising cost of competing in AI has forced OpenAI and Google to launch AI ad pilots, and other platforms will likely follow suit. But advertisers may not be the winners in this gold rush.

The AI Platform Is Closer Than Some Rivals, but It Still Faces Barriers

Meta's Q4 revenues jumped 24%, but massive AI capex made it one of its costliest quarters.

Pinterest’s AI pivot looks defensive: Workforce cuts aim to fund automation, but investors remain unconvinced that AI investment alone will restore growth momentum.

Meta is tightening teen safeguards for its AI companions in a move that could help make future chatbot ads more viable.

AI was everywhere at CES 2026, from robots to toilets and toys. The race to define the next computing interface is on, agentic ad tech is emerging, and health wearables are pushing further into physiological data. Best in show: Lego’s Smart Brick.

Threads beats X in daily active users on mobile as Meta’s established ad stack makes Threads a safer long-term bet for community-driven social ads.

Trust in consumer banking varies widely in 2026. Primary banks still anchor core products. But confidence differs by generation, product, and channel, with honesty, transparency, and security shaping how consumers evaluate financial providers.

This FAQ addresses what marketers need to know about AI chatbots as adoption increases in 2026.

This FAQ explains what influencer marketing is, how brands use it, and how marketers can see results without losing consumer trust.

The ad industry kept busy during the holiday season, so we rounded up the biggest stories from the last two weeks you need to know about.

OpenAI seeks real consumer intent, and a potential Pinterest acquisition would give OpenAI first-party shopping signals and native ad infrastructure to rival Google and Meta.

Threads and WhatsApp ads are growing as novelty draws interest, but lasting ad spend hinges on better, platform-native formats.

Reels video views for luxury brands grew 234% in Q2 2025, while TikTok slowed as brands face a shift that necessitates a rebalance in content distribution.

Instagram's explosive EU audience growth compared with Facebook's slowing momentum means advertisers should follow suit.

In 2025, retail media found itself at a turning point as networks, advertisers, and platforms pushed into new territory and redefined what the channel could be. Here are five of our top stories from the year, from the challenges of tracking CTV campaigns to the evolving competitive landscape shaped by Amazon, Walmart, and a wave of innovative smaller networks.

Social commerce is booming in the UK, but the era of hyper-growth is coming to an end. Even so, social will continue gaining share of the digital wallet through 2029.

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.

"The retail media landscape is only becoming more crowded, but Target's guest insights are often cited as a key differentiator," said our analyst Sarah Marzano during EMARKETER's recent Commerce Media Summit.