The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its 2026 Outlook Study, forecasting 9.5% year-over-year growth in U.S. ad spend amid a rapid industry shift from AI experimentation to scaled, agentic execution. Drawing from insights of over 200 brands and agency buyers, the report highlights how AI—particularly autonomous agentic systems—is reshaping media planning, campaign activation, optimization, and measurement while major cyclical events provide short-term support to traditional channels.
Quick Intel
The study marks a pivotal transition in digital advertising, where AI evolves from experimental tool to core infrastructure coordinating real-time decisions across media, creative, measurement, and customer experience. Agentic AI enables autonomous planning, budget pacing, audience targeting, and optimization, allowing marketers to respond with greater speed, scale, and precision.
Cross-platform measurement gains prominence as advertisers seek to tie AI-orchestrated campaigns to verifiable outcomes. Meanwhile, the emphasis on content structured for AI-generated answers reflects how generative systems now influence visibility and discovery across search and social platforms.
"AI is no longer a siloed initiative – it's the connective tissue that links media, measurement, creative, and customer experience," said Chris Bruderle, Vice President, Industry Insights & Content Strategy, IAB. "But what's changing in 2026 is how AI is being deployed – not just as a tool but as an intelligent partner coordinating campaigns in real time. Agentic AI is moving us toward fully autonomous systems that can plan, activate and optimize with speed and scale."
Digital channels continue to dominate growth projections. Social media, connected TV, and commerce media post strong double-digit increases, fueled by AI-enhanced targeting, personalization, and performance tracking. Linear TV faces a modest decline, tempered by high-profile 2026 events expected to drive temporary demand and viewership.
Priorities reflect evolving consumer dynamics and the maturing first-party data landscape. While acquisition costs push brands toward retention, agentic AI supports efficient scaling of loyalty, personalization, and repeat purchase strategies through commerce media, clean rooms, CRM integration, and loyalty programs.
"Brands are clearly rebalancing their growth strategies as acquisition costs rise and first-party data ecosystems mature," added Bruderle. "AI – particularly agentic AI – is poised to enable marketers to activate those data assets more intelligently, driving personalization, loyalty, and repeat purchase at scale. With commerce media, clean rooms, CRM onboarding, and loyalty programs now reaching millions of known customers, repeat purchase is becoming a primary growth engine — not just a support tactic."
"Our report shows that in this growth cycle, innovation and experimentation are firmly taking priority as the market is being structurally reimagined," said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. "The encouraging news is that buyers are still looking at 2026 as a year of growth despite a lot of potentially destabilizing forces. The industry is working with AI-powered tools that are constantly improving and are delivering both efficiency and effectiveness to marketers. We remain encouraged and optimistic about the opportunities in the year ahead."
The full "2026 Outlook Study: A Snapshot into U.S. Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth" is available for download via IAB's website.
About IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership comprises more than 700 leading media companies, brands, agencies, and the technology firms responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital ad marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, IAB develops technical standards and solutions. IAB is committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and collaboration of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., the trade association advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.
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