Marketers Plan Broad AI Use in Media in 2026
A DoubleVerify report finds nearly all marketers expect to use AI in some aspect of media planning, buying, or optimisation next year.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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DoubleVerify's 2026 Global Insights Report, drawn from a survey of 2,020 marketers worldwide, finds 97 percent plan to use AI across some media planning, buying, or optimisation tasks in 2026. Adoption has grown steadily since 2024 across core workflows.
Why it matters
The findings suggest AI is becoming a standard part of digital advertising operations rather than an experimental tool. Marketers' stated priorities, including accuracy, privacy compliance and return on investment, indicate how they are weighing adoption decisions.
In 2025, 31% of marketers used AI for mid-flight optimisation, up from 21% in 2024, and 98% of those using AI-powered bidding reported performance improvements. The report does not detail how many of those improvements were independently verified.
The players
DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify is a digital media measurement and verification company that publishes industry research on advertising technology.
The details
Accuracy and effectiveness of AI recommendations is the most frequently cited priority at 35 percent of respondents, followed by data privacy and security compliance and cost and return on investment, each at 29 percent. Projections in the report show AI use for summarising briefs, campaign activation and bidding optimisation each rising further in 2026.
Timeline
2024: baseline year for the AI adoption measurements in the report.
2025: year in which reported AI adoption increased across workflows.
2026: year marketers plan AI use, with projected adoption levels for the coming year.
Market Trajectory
The 2026 DoubleVerify report extends its annual Global Insights series by documenting year-over-year gains in AI adoption across media planning, buying and optimisation. The rising shares reported for 2025 continue a multi-year pattern of growing marketer reliance on automated tools.
Advertisers deciding how to allocate budgets now face a set of AI tools that the survey reports as widely adopted, with accuracy and privacy compliance as leading evaluation criteria. Teams weighing new tools may find these priorities a useful checklist when comparing vendors.
The takeaway
Marketers evaluating AI tools are prioritising accuracy, privacy and measurable return, which can serve as a practical benchmark for assessing any platform. Tracking these criteria over time will show whether reported performance gains hold up in practice.
Further reading
For broader context on how these tools are reshaping the field, see Artificial Intelligence coverage on Wisevoter.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Advanced-television.
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