AI-generated recommendations are reshaping how consumers discover media and entertainment services. Brand visibility remains competitive, but frequent mentions don't always translate into top recommendations.

Marketers are connecting measurement more closely to business decisions as incrementality gains ground, AI use accelerates, and less observable customer journeys challenge traditional attribution.

What Q3 earnings say about the future of advertising

Gemini creates a new ad opportunity where location and user data could power highly relevant brand messaging.

AI is fueling a banner year for global advertising, pushing digital spending to new heights despite economic and geopolitical stresses. Retail media is surging worldwide, while Meta and Amazon gain ground in the battle for ad dollars.

The latest data reveals where US digital markets are headed as ad spending concentrates in a few platforms, genAI search and AI-driven commerce move into the mainstream, and CTV takes over TV budgets.

AI can produce ad creative at scale, but it struggles to deliver the originality brands need to stand out. Marketers need to draw a sharper line between the work AI should handle and where human creativity matters most.

AI is reshaping how consumers in Europe discover, compare, and choose products, creating new opportunities and challenges for retailers and brands.

Google expands its health data ecosystem with Flo, Function integrations. Actionable and reliable health guidance will be key to retaining users in a crowded market.

Smart glasses are drawing big bets from certain social platforms, but privacy concerns and limited consumer demand threaten wider adoption. For marketers, the near-term opportunity lies in adapting existing strategies rather than chasing new ad formats.

Google tests pharma ads in AI Mode and Overviews, bringing drugmakers closer to consumers' treatment decisions while testing AI search’s readiness for regulated advertising.

AI is cutting into publisher referral traffic even as publisher content fuels AI answers. Publishers are fighting back with crawler controls and new licensing models, forcing a choice between restricting access and monetizing it.

AI adoption is broadening as familiar tools bring new users into the market. Search is becoming a hybrid of AI and traditional behavior, while cheaper subscriptions boost paid adoption but put pressure on revenues per subscriber.

In August 2026, we analyzed 6,560 ChatGPT recommendations across 28 B2B agency and marketing technology categories to compile the AI Visibility Index.

In Q3 2026, we analyzed 4,010 ChatGPT recommendations across 13 tech hardware and device categories to compile the AI Visibility Index.

AI recommendations for tech hardware and devices are becoming more selective, with fewer brands and sources breaking through. Our Q3 2026 index tracks visibility in 13 categories across the industry.

AI is compressing the path from discovery to conversion, with consumers arriving at brands later and further along in their decisions. That shift is raising a new question for marketers: What should the brand experience look like when the website is no longer the center of the journey?

Commerce media’s inherited advantage is reaching its limits. The next phase depends on earning consumer attention and advertiser demand, even as conversational commerce reshapes the high-intent ad model that fueled its rise.

Advertisers can compare YouTube Shorts and open-web performance to cut waste and better allocate budgets.

The World Cup and presidential elections have lifted ad spending growth across all major media in 2026, but digital’s momentum will extend beyond the event-driven boost.