The global advertising industry is entering 2026 with growing momentum, especially across digital-first channels. Global ad spend is projected to rise 7.4% in 2025 to $1.17 trillion and accelerate further with an 8.1% increase in 2026, reaching $1.27 trillion.

But rapid growth brings greater scrutiny. The industry has reached a point where experimentation must give way to execution, and marketers are demanding clarity in place of complexity. As the tools mature and the ecosystem evolves, the next year will usher in a more connected, intelligent, and accountable era of marketing.

Based on the top predictions and perspectives of Alliant teams working across data science, tech, and client strategy, here are the shifts we expect to define 2026.

AI Becomes an Engine, Not the Add-On

In previous years, AI was bolted onto existing workflows. It was useful, promising, but rarely foundational. In 2026, that changes. AI is becoming the operating system of marketing, powering campaign planning, creative development, optimization, and measurement.

Marketers are already seeing this in practice. Generative models now produce creative that aligns with specific audience motivations. Predictive systems recast media allocation as a living, continuously updating process. And early agentic systems are beginning to take on tactical execution, operating within human-defined constraints to improve efficiency and consistency.

For agencies and brands alike, this marks a redistribution of labor: Teams will spend less time pulling levers and more time focused on oversight and strategic differentiation. AI doesn’t replace human judgment. Powered by the right data inputs, it amplifies what teams can accomplish by removing the friction that has historically slowed campaigns down.

Curation and Personalization Reach New Scale

Curation moved beyond buzzword status months ago, but that doesn’t mean it has achieved its full potential—yet. In 2026, we will see curation become fully operational and widely adopted. AI will play a central role here by evaluating and ranking data assets to determine which audience signals best drive performance. The result will be a marketplace that rewards high-quality, transparent data and naturally eliminates weaker sources.

This evolution also reshapes the first-party versus third-party debate. Rather than competing for primacy, first-party data is emerging as the strategic foundation while third-party data returns to its rightful role as a verification layer that can expand insight and scale. In an environment where marketers want fewer assumptions and more truth, curated data ecosystems will give them the confidence to build more accurate and more durable advertising strategies.

CTV and Audio Continue Their Expansion Amid New Pressures

CTV remains one of the fastest-growing channels in digital advertising, but its rapid rise has introduced new challenges. High CPMs have created pressure for stronger performance, while inconsistent IP quality, signal noise, and increased fraud risk have forced buyers to scrutinize CTV supply paths more closely. Marketers want clearer truth about what they’re buying, and platforms are responding with advancements in identity resolution, verification, and transparency.

At the same time, many companies that launched as CTV-first are diversifying. Platforms such as TruAudience (TransUnion) and Madhive are expanding into audio, DOOH, and additional channels as buyers seek more unified planning and measurement across screens. Such moves make infinite sense, given that advertisers are no longer thinking in terms of channels. Rather, they’re thinking in terms of audiences that move fluidly across environments.

Retail Media Networks Mature and Standardize

Retail media continues its ascent, but the coming year will see a shift in focus from sheer growth to operational sophistication. Marketers want more consistency across retailers, clearer distinctions between modeled and deterministic data, and standardized taxonomies that make campaigns easier to build and compare.

The most successful retail media networks will be those that offer clean, high-fidelity signals and seamless interoperability with open-web and CTV environments. Retailers that can provide verified, outcome-linked data will become essential partners in cross-channel strategies rather than just closed-loop endpoints.

Direct Mail Becomes More Selective and More Integrated

Meanwhile, in the offline world, rising paper and postage costs are pushing marketers to refine their direct mail circulation strategies. For example, many are shifting toward smaller, higher-quality audiences supported by behavioral insights and predictive analytics.

The more consequential change, however, is the deepening integration between direct mail and digital campaigns. Brands are increasingly orchestrating both channels simultaneously by aligning creative, sequencing, and frequency to reinforce the same message across touchpoints. This cohesive approach strengthens recall and improves cost efficiency, making direct mail more powerful even as volumes shrink.

B2B Marketing Enters Its Precision Era

B2B advertisers are undergoing a transformation similar to their consumer counterparts, driven by the need for clearer understanding of who influences decisions within target accounts. Instead of relying on broad company-level attributes, marketers are combining CRM intelligence, web behavior, content engagement, and high-quality third-party data to identify and reach decision-makers with far greater specificity.

Agencies in the B2B sector are evolving as well, shifting from media execution to data architecture. Their greatest value now lies in helping brands build and enrich their own first-party assets, develop predictive targeting models, and unify disparate data sources into scalable audience strategies.

A More Connected, More Disciplined Marketing Landscape

The year ahead will be defined by clarity. Marketers are embracing automation while demanding transparency, and they expect their partners to help make complex systems feel simple.

With AI now powering the backbone of marketing workflows, 2026 offers an opportunity for advertisers to build strategies that are both more intelligent and more human. Precision and accountability are becoming the new markers of performance, and the industry finally has the tools to deliver on them. To learn more about how Alliant can support your 2026 strategy, reach out to our team. We’d love to chat!