Decoding CES 2026

Reflecting on the enormity of the CES show last week. There were several announcements made that will have a specific impact on the advertising ecosystem. Agentic AI has landed and generative AI has become integrated into commercial aspects of the media publishing community. 

The underlying changes we're seeing at this moment are structural. Systems are becoming more connected intelligent and coordinated. Products are becoming adaptive. Creation is becoming operational and production is becoming distributed. This requires an immense effort to orchestrate and that is the very infrastructure that is being built.

Advertising and media sit inside this transformation. They connect demand supply attention trust and culture.

There's always more to it though. The underlying trends are larger than the solutions and products that are laser focused on buying and selling advertising. They are cultural and have economic clues attached to them.

Here are the six that caught my attention.

Trend 1 - Intelligence moves into operational systems

Physical AI becomes part of infrastructure

Robotics platforms were present across logistics health mobility manufacturing and retail. Simulation and digital twin technologies were positioned as core to how products are designed tested and deployed. Vendors emphasised safety validation system reliability and real time responsiveness.

AI is being deployed into environments where errors have physical consequences. This drives a need for systems that can sense interpret and act within real world constraints. This shifts AI development away from purely statistical output toward integrated systems that combine sensing modelling decision making and execution.

Why this matters for business and advertising

Products and services increasingly behave in intelligent ways. This influences how consumers experience brands through reliability responsiveness and usefulness. Advertising becomes more closely linked to how products perform and how value is delivered rather than only how stories are told.

Trend 2 - Creation becomes enterprise infrastructure

Creators operate inside business systems

Creators were embedded into product launches entertainment development and brand storytelling. Platforms highlighted creator tools for production monetisation distribution and analytics. Enterprises described creators as strategic partners in development and go to market.

Creation is now part of how companies design products build audiences and sustain engagement. It operates through systems that support scale repeatability and coordination across teams markets and formats.

Why this matters for business and advertising

Content becomes a continuous business function. Brands rely on creators to maintain relevance and authenticity over time. Agencies and media organisations increasingly operate as production systems rather than campaign factories.

Trend 3 - The maker economy professionalises

Small scale production becomes commercially viable

Affordable manufacturing tools appeared across the floor including 3D printing CNC machines laser cutting modular robotics and AI assisted design. Start-ups demonstrated rapid prototyping small batch manufacturing and distributed production models.

Advances in hardware software and logistics allow individuals and small teams to design manufacture and sell physical products without large capital investment. This expands the number of viable producers and businesses.

Why this matters for business and advertising

The base of advertisers grows. Many of these businesses are product led digitally native and community driven. Marketing becomes directly tied to production demand and supply chain planning. This connects digital media activity to physical economic output.

Trend 4 - Companionship and care become technology categories

Products address emotional and social needs

Companion robots AI toys reading partners senior care platforms and social engagement technologies were prominently featured. Vendors emphasised safety trust emotional intelligence and ongoing relationships.

Technology is increasingly designed to participate in daily life and social routines. This includes care companionship learning and emotional support. Product design therefore incorporates behavioural and ethical considerations.

​Why this matters for business and advertising

Trust becomes central to product and brand success. Regulatory and ethical frameworks gain importance. Brands operate in contexts where emotional impact and long term relationships matter.

Trend 5 - Agentic systems enter operational workflows

Automation coordinates tasks across functions

Vendors described systems that plan allocate optimise and execute workflows across marketing commerce operations and logistics. Agentic systems were framed as orchestrators of activity rather than tools responding to single prompts.

Organisations are moving toward systems that manage complexity across many tasks and data sources. This reduces manual coordination and increases system level efficiency.

IAB Tech Lab is helping to build protocols and standards that Agentic AI can leverage within existing, pressure tested code structures.

Why this matters for business and advertising

Planning buying optimisation measurement and compliance become more automated and integrated. Human roles shift toward direction governance quality control and accountability.

Trend 6 - Ecosystem coordination becomes a strategic capability

Value is created through aligned systems

Platforms emphasised partnerships, shared infrastructure, and interoperability across media, commerce, data, and technology. Standards were positioned as enablers of scale rather than constraints.

Growth now depends on connecting systems across organisations. Interoperability enables scale. Trust enables participation. Standards enable compatibility. Coordination becomes an operational requirement rather than a governance afterthought.

Why this matters

Advertising relies on many interconnected systems. Alignment reduces friction, lowers cost, and increases adoption. Competitiveness depends on how well companies participate in shared infrastructure as well as their internal capabilities.

The opportunity is to design systems that support growth trust and long term value.

That is what this moment asks of the industry.