At A Glance
CES 2026 showed that AdTech in 2026 will depend on strong data foundations, intentional media buying, and measurable outcomes. Agentic AI systems that can act, optimize, and transact on behalf of marketers emerged as a defining force, but only where data is accurate and privacy-first. Curation is becoming a standard buying approach as AI-powered systems prioritize quality and control. And activation and measurement are finally aligning through identity, allowing AI-driven decisions to be evaluated against real business results.Year after year, CES signals where marketing is headed next. In 2026, the message was clear. Progress comes from connecting data, intelligence, and outcomes with discipline, not spectacle. Across AI, programmatic media, and measurement, the same priorities surfaced again and again.
Under the bright lights of Las Vegas, three themes cutthrough,and each one pointed to a future where data, intelligence, and outcomes move in lockstep.
Here are the three themes that defined CES 2026.
1. Agentic AI proved that it’s only as good as its data inputs
AI was once again the star of the show. At CES 2026, marketers focused less on demos and more on proof that AI improves decisions, reduces friction, and drives outcomes. Every credible use case traced back to accurate, privacy-first data.
What changed at CES was how that intelligence is being applied. Agentic AI systems designed to act autonomously are moving beyond insights and into execution. From media buying to optimization, these agents are increasingly expected to make decisions at speed and scale. That shift raises the stakes for data quality. When AI is operating campaigns, not just informing them, accuracy and privacy are non-negotiable.
“This year’s CES made agency priorities crystal clear. Efficiency, differentiation, and outcomes. As agentic AI takes on more responsibility across planning, activation, and measurement, Experian gives agencies a robust data and identity foundation they can trust to own the outcome for every client.”
ExperianGreg Williams, Chief Operating Officer
Without accurate, privacy-compliant data, AI agents struggle to reflect real behavior or support responsible personalization. A reliable, privacy-first data foundation is what turns AI from an interesting experiment into an operational advantage.
That advantage gets even stronger when it’s anchored in an identity graph that understands people and households across channels. When identity and intelligence move together, AI becomes more accurate, accountable, and effective at driving outcomes.
In an AI first world, the strongest signal isn’t scale. It’s data quality.
2. Curation goes mainstream
Curation is no longer experimental. At CES, it showed up as a mandated capability for buyers and sellers navigating fragmented signals and complex supply paths. Marketers want intentional media buys they can explain, defend, and repeat.
AI is accelerating this shift. As AI systems take on more responsibility for planning, packaging, and optimization, curation provides the guardrails. It defines what “good” looks like (premium supply, trusted data, and clear performance goals), and allows AI to operate within those constraints driving the optimal outcomes for marketers.
“Our sell-side clients walked into CES asking how to stand out in a crowded landscape. The answer kept coming back to data-driven curation. With Experian Audiences and Curated Deals, SSPs and publishers can improve targeting within PMPs, package inventory more intelligently, and prove value with confidence. As we head into 2026, data is no longer a supporting input. It needs to be at the center of every conversation.”
ExperianChris Meredith, Head of Sell-Side
Rather than maximizing inventory access, curation prioritizes control, transparency, and performance. Buyers want premium supply aligned to specific goals. Sellers want clearer paths to demand. They can play the odds or own the outcome. When data leads, they own it. When curation is powered by high-fidelity audiences and a connected identity framework, it becomes even stronger. That’s what allows curated deals to deliver clarity, confidence, and repeatable performance.
This shift reflects a broader move away from probability-based buying toward outcome ownership, where AI-driven systems are measured not on activity, but on results.
3. Activation and measurement finally shared the same stage
Activation and measurement are now coming together around shared data and identity. CES 2026 marked a turning point where closing the loop felt achievable, not aspirational. Both the buy-side and sell-side face pressure to show that media investment drives outcomes.
Agentic AI was a quiet driver of this optimism. As AI agents increasingly manage activation decisions in real time, marketers need measurement systems that can keep up. That requires a shared data and identity foundation. One that allows AI-driven actions to be evaluated against outcomes consistently, across channels and partners.
In healthcare, accuracy is everything. Our clients need to reach patients and healthcare professionals in ways that respect privacy while driving meaningful outcomes. CES underscored that privacy, identity, and measurement must work in harmony. That’s how health marketers reduce risk and increase the likelihood that every message leads to better care.
ExperianSheila Wirick, Sales Director, Health
Achieving that requires a consistent identity spine that connects planning, activation, and outcomes across channels. And that spine is strongest when it’s built on accurate, privacy-first data and audiences that understand people and households. That connection allows marketers to move beyond proxy metrics and evaluate performance based on tangible results. When campaigns and measurement rely on the same data foundation, AI-driven platforms can optimize toward outcomes such as new customers, account growth, or in-store activity, not just delivery metrics.
That’s the connective layer that turns disconnected touch points into a measurable, outcomes-based system.
Our 2026 Digital trends and predictions report is available now and reveals five trends that will define 2026. From curation becoming the standard in programmatic to AI moving from hype to implementation, each trend reflects a shift toward more connected, data-driven marketing. The interplay between them will define how marketers will lead in 2026.
Three takeaways from CES 2026
- AI is maturing, but only for teams withaccurate, connected, privacy-first data that AI agents can act on responsibly.
- Curation is scaling, giving both humans and AI systems clearer paths to quality, control, and differentiation.
- Activation and measurement are aligning, allowing AI-driven decisions to be judged on outcomes, not assumptions.
We’re building for that world today. One where agentic AI operates on a trusted data and identity foundation, curation defines the rules, and outcomes determine success. With the right foundation and the deep data inputs, you can move faster, reduce risk, and let intelligence (human and artificial) work together to deliver results that last long after the neon lights fade.
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FAQs
The biggest shift was the move from hype to accountability. Marketers focused on data quality, intentional media buying, and outcome-based measurement rather than experimental technology.
Privacy-first data supports accuracy, compliance, and trust. AI models built on unreliable or opaque data struggle to reflect real consumer behavior and create risk for brands. At Experian, privacy and compliance are built in. Every data signal, attribute, audience, and partner goes through our rigorous review process to meet federal, state, and local consumer privacy laws. With decades of experience in highly regulated industries, we’ve built processes that emphasize risk mitigation, transparency, and accountability.
Curation simplifies buying by pairing premium inventory with specific audience and performance goals. This approach reduces waste and creates clearer, more repeatable buying paths. With the acquisition of Audigent, Experian is now more than just a premier data provider. We’re also a full-service curation partner. Together, we deliver end-to-end programmatic curation across data, inventory, and optimization, helping brands and publishers unlock smarter, more scalable media strategies.
It means using the same identity and data foundation to plan campaigns and evaluate results. This alignment allows marketers to measure success based on business outcomes, not just delivery metrics. With Experian, marketers can plan, reach, and measure in a connected cycle. Every impression is measurable. Every audience is accurate. Every decision is powered by data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset.
Identity connects data across channels and stages of the customer journey. It enables accurate AI, effective curation, and consistent measurement within one system. Experian delivers identity resolution at the scale, accuracy, and compliance required by the world’s largest enterprises. Our solutions are:
– Built on trust: Backed by 40+ years as a regulated data steward and rated #1 in data accuracy by Truthset, so you can act with confidence.
– Powered by our proprietary AI-enhanced identity graph: Combining breadth, accuracy, and recency across four billion identifiers, continuously refined by machine learning for maximum accuracy.
– Seamlessly connected: Pre-built data integration with leading CDPs, DSPs, and MarTech platforms for faster time to value.
– Always up to date: Frequent enrichment and near-real-time identity resolution through Activity Feed for timely personalization and more responsive customer engagement.
– Privacy-first by design: Compliance with GLBA, FCRA, and emerging state regulations baked in at every step, supported by rigorous partner vetting.
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Originally appeared on MarTech Series Marketing’s understanding of identity has evolved rapidly over the past decade, much like the shifting media landscape itself. From the early days of basic direct mail targeting to today's complex omnichannel environment, identity has become both more powerful and more fragmented. Each era has brought new tools, challenges, and opportunities, shaping how brands interact with their customers. We’ve moved from traditional media like mail, newspapers, and linear/network TV, to cable TV, the internet, mobile devices, and apps. Now, multiple streaming platforms dominate, creating a far more complex media landscape. As a result, understanding the customer journey and reaching consumers across these various touchpoints has become increasingly difficult. Managing frequency and ensuring effective communication across channels is now more challenging than ever. This development has led to a fragmented view of the consumer, making it harder for marketers to ensure that they are reaching the right audience at the right time while also avoiding oversaturation. Marketers must now navigate a fragmented customer journey across multiple channels, each with its own identity signals, to stitch together a cohesive view of the customer. Let’s break down this evolution, era by era, to understand how identity has progressed—and where it’s headed. 2010-2015: The rise of digital identity – Cookies and MAIDs Between 2010 and 2015, the digital era fundamentally changed how marketers approached identity. Mobile usage surged during this time, and programmatic advertising emerged as the dominant method for reaching consumers across the internet. The introduction of cookies and mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) became the foundation for tracking users across the web and mobile apps. With these identifiers, marketers gained new capabilities to deliver targeted, personalized messages and drive efficiency through programmatic advertising. This era gave birth to powerful tools for targeting. Marketers could now follow users’ digital footprints, regardless of whether they were browsing on desktop or mobile. This leap in precision allowed brands to optimize spend and performance at scale, but it came with its limitations. Identity was still tied to specific browsers or devices, leaving gaps when users switched platforms. The fragmentation across different devices and the reliance on cookies and MAIDs meant that a seamless, unified view of the customer was still out of reach. 2015-2020: The age of walled gardens From 2015 to 2020, the identity landscape grew more complex with the rise of walled gardens. Platforms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon created closed ecosystems of first-party data, offering rich, self-declared insights about consumers. These platforms built massive advertising businesses on the strength of their user data, giving marketers unprecedented targeting precision within their environments. However, the rise of walled gardens also marked the start of new challenges. While these platforms provided detailed identity solutions within their walls, they didn’t communicate with one another. Marketers could target users with pinpoint accuracy inside Facebook or Google, but they couldn’t connect those identities across different ecosystems. This siloed approach to identity left marketers with an incomplete picture of the customer journey, and brands struggled to piece together a cohesive understanding of their audience across platforms. The promise of detailed targeting was tempered by the fragmentation of the landscape. Marketers were dealing with disparate identity solutions, making it difficult to track users as they moved between these closed environments and the open web. 2020-2025: The multi-ID landscape – CTV, retail media, signal loss, and privacy By 2020, the identity landscape had splintered further, with the rise of connected TV (CTV) and retail media adding even more complexity to the mix. Consumers now engaged with brands across an increasing number of channels—CTV, mobile, desktop, and even in-store—and each of these channels had its own identifiers and systems for tracking. Simultaneously, privacy regulations are tightening the rules around data collection and usage. This, coupled with the planned deprecation of third-party cookies and MAIDs has thrown marketers into a state of flux. The tools they had relied on for years were disappearing, and new solutions had yet to fully emerge. The multi-ID landscape was born, where brands had to navigate multiple identity systems across different platforms, devices, and environments. Retail media networks became another significant player in the identity game. As large retailers like Amazon and Walmart built their own advertising ecosystems, they added yet another layer of first-party data to the mix. While these platforms offer robust insights into consumer behavior, they also operate within their own walled gardens, further fragmenting the identity landscape. With cookies and MAIDs being phased out, the industry began to experiment with alternatives like first-party data, contextual targeting, and new universal identity solutions. The challenge and opportunity for marketers lies in unifying these fragmented identity signals to create a consistent and actionable view of the customer. 2025: The omnichannel imperative Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, the identity landscape will continue to evolve, but the focus remains the same: activating and measuring across an increasingly fragmented and complex media environment. Consumers now expect seamless, personalized experiences across every channel—from CTV to digital to mobile—and marketers need to keep up. The future of identity lies in interoperability, scale, and availability. Marketers need solutions that can connect the dots across different platforms and devices, allowing them to follow their customers through every stage of the journey. Identity must be actionable in real-time, allowing for personalization and relevance across every touchpoint, so that media can be measurable and attributable. Brands that succeed in 2025 and beyond will be those that invest in scalable, omnichannel identity solutions. They’ll need to embrace privacy-friendly approaches like first-party data, while also ensuring their systems can adapt to an ever-changing landscape. Adapting to the future of identity The evolution of identity has been marked by increasing complexity, but also by growing opportunity. As marketers adapt to a world without third-party cookies and MAIDs, the need for unified identity solutions has never been more urgent. Brands that can navigate the multi-ID landscape will unlock new levels of efficiency and personalization, while those that fail to adapt risk falling behind. The path forward is clear: invest in identity solutions that bridge the gaps between devices, platforms, and channels, providing a full view of the customer. The future of marketing belongs to those who can manage identity in a fragmented world—and those who can’t will struggle to stay relevant. 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