If you missed #CES2026 this year, we've selected some of the top advertising-related takeaways.
If you have experienced this annual event, you know that trying to capture everything is not possible. There is no way to share everything that goes on, from technology to auto, advertising to sports, health, and celebrity connections.
Not all advertising trends are trendy announcements and publicity; there are actionable takeaways for marketers. Many are just there to find out if what they're hearing on the interweb is really happening.
Agentic, Agentic, Agentic
While AI has been the topic of conversation at CES for a number of years, this year it was specifically about Agentic. And not necessarily in futuristic terms, more specifics were discussed.
Agentic AI allows the further development of AI tools to automatically or autonomously initiate actions, working toward specific outcomes and achieving objectives with a level of self-direction and decision-making.
AdExchanger’s Victoria McNally shared several unveilings and announcements from IAB Tech Lab outlining a roadmap for agent-based transactions. NBCUniversal has an agency initiative for campaigns going live across sports, streaming video, and linear TV events. Yahoo DSP also has an agentic plan for cross-agent collaboration.
The purpose of these launches and many more is to simplify ad buying and make connections to AI tools easier for brands and media buyers. Many large advertising agencies are updating or launching platforms to incorporate agentic AI. While many agentic processes have been launched, it will be some time before these tools are in complete control of automated advertising from one agent to another.
5 Announcements Heard at CES 2026
- Omnicom Media shared a partnership with Walmart Connect. Using its first-party insights and Meta's influencers to help them identify creator partners. Oh, and they also announced a deal with Pinterest.
- Comscore launched its Content Measurement program level view to give both buy and sell sides greater access to high-value audiences.
- Reddit is launching an AI automated media buying tool called Max Campaigns with a focus on transparency.
- Disney had a number of announcements around new technology and data advancements to help brands, including a new video generation tool to create high-quality commercials for CTV using the brand’s assets and guidelines.
- Amazon Ads is launching Full-Funnel Campaigns, a tool allowing advertisers to set up awareness to conversion campaigns using AI to support creative, audience segmentation, and ongoing optimization, all using natural language.
