"CES functioned less as a turning point than a temperature check for the ad industry. Behind the stage demos and glossy AI announcements, the advertising industry arrived in Las Vegas with a quieter set of questions than previous years. Q4 held up better than feared but not well enough to justify old certainties. Budgets remained cautious. Flexibility continued to beat commitments. Linear dollars kept leaking into CTV, retail media and data-rich platforms."
"AI and the CFO firewall The real brake on AI adoption is no longer technology, it'sfinance. In Sir Martin Sorrell's view, large legacy companies will not materially change how they operate until CFOs feel real economic pressure. Right now, that pressure does not exist. As it stands, companies are too profitable and too comfortable to force change, leaving AI "interesting" rather than urgent and largely confined to test phases and incremental workflow tweaks instead of driving truly autonomous operations."
CES served as a temperature check for the advertising industry, revealing cautious budgets, continued preference for flexible commitments, and steady shifts of linear TV dollars into CTV, retail media, and data-rich platforms. Q4 results were stronger than feared but insufficient to restore prior certainties. AI adoption remains mostly experimental, with firms implementing workflow tweaks and tests rather than autonomous operations because CFOs lack economic pressure to mandate change. Consumer discovery and conversion are blurring as conversational and agentic interfaces move product questions closer to transactions, prompting a rethinking of search, measurement, and ad-buying models ahead of a potential structural reset in 2026.
Read at Digiday
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