CES 2026 brought together senior leaders from across the advertising ecosystem, showcasing how priorities are shifting as the industry enters a more accountable, execution-focused phase. From connected TV and retail media to AI-driven marketing, the week was defined less by hype and more by tangible strategies, measurement frameworks, and proof of performance. Advertisers and platforms alike are asking sharper questions about what constitutes “premium” inventory, how incrementality is measured, and whether new technologies can deliver real incremental outcomes.
Ryan Afshar, VP Publishers & Platforms at LG Ad Solutions
“A hot topic at CES has been how the definition of ‘premium’ in CTV is shifting. Advertisers are increasingly focused on placements that deliver attention, context and measurable outcomes, rather than relying on scale alone. With tighter budgets and rising demands for accountability, brands are seeking environments that can consistently perform and demonstrate value, particularly where discovery and decision-making occur.
“In this environment, the Smart TV Home Screen is emerging as premium advertising real estate. It’s the first surface viewers see when they turn on their TVs, and its high dwell time and prominent visibility make it a powerful location for engagement. Ad placements here reach consumers at a moment of intent, which drives measurable performance and stronger impact, helping advertisers achieve both brand awareness and tangible results.”
Maor Sadra, CEO and co-founder at INCRMNTAL
“There’s a clear shift happening across the ad ecosystem in 2026. CTV is back in the spotlight, but this time the excitement is grounded in pragmatism with real scrutiny around pricing, measurement, and what constitutes ‘premium’. The days of spray-and-pray are behind us. Advertisers are asking sharper questions, especially around incrementality, which is now a top agenda item in every agency and platform conversation. No one wants to pay for conversions that would’ve happened anyway.
“Meanwhile, retail media has exploded beyond the usual suspects. At CES, we saw many unexpected players offering ad inventory. The RMN landscape is sorting itself fast into economic tiers, and the smartest brands are prioritising performance visibility above all. Wherever you invest in 2026, proving incremental value isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a requirement.”
Luke Fenney, SVP, Publishers and Platforms – International, LiveRamp
“The definitive theme of CES 2026 has been the shift from AI ambition to execution. We have moved beyond theoretical discussions from previous years; this week’s meetings have focused on how quickly we can get alpha tests up and running for real-world agentic marketing use cases.
“The speed and ease with which these tests are happening is only possible thanks to the strong AI standards and safeguards that we’re building into the ecosystem’s AI foundations. The industry is coalescing around shared frameworks promoted by trade associations, such as the User Context Protocol, which has recently been championed by the IAB Tech Lab. UCP creates a common language for how agents exchange identity and user context signals, ensuring the agentic web is built on a secure foundation.
“Continued collaboration between AI industry leaders will help governance move in lockstep with innovation, and will safely support marketers to quickly move agentic AI from concept to reliable business reality.”
Matt Bahr, CEO and co-founder of Fairing
“We’ve heard a lot of conversation at CES about agentic buying and protocols like AdCP, but it’s still early innings. The bigger issue isn’t whether LLMs can automate optimisation – it’s whether brands can prove what’s actually driving incremental outcomes once decisioning disappears into a black box.
“As discovery shifts into zero-click environments, attribution already struggles to distinguish what created demand versus what simply captured it at the end. If AI starts controlling more of the bitstream, that gap gets bigger – and measurement will need to shift from click logic to customer-level signal, so marketers can separate real influence from convenient credit.”
The perspectives shared at CES 2026 highlight an industry increasingly focused on accountability, measurable performance, and delivering real incremental value across every channel and technology.
The convergence of tech and brands 