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AI’s 97% Problem: Chatbots Barely are Making a Dent in Search, Analyst Finds

Search may be stubborn. Despite the breathless hype surrounding “zero-click” AI search, the predicted exodus of consumers from traditional search bars to chatbots has yet to materialize. New data suggests that standalone AI tools still command a negligible fraction of the time users spend hunting for information online. "AI is revolutionizing search, but maybe not in the way that a lot of people think it is," said Nate Elliott, principal analyst, AI in marketing and commerce at Emarketer, in this video interview with Beet.TV. "A lot of folks seem to think that consumers [...]

Posted on 02/23/2026 at4:43

IAB ALM 2026 | Uncategorized

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Canvas Worldwide’s Paul Woolmington: AI Without Human Judgment Creates ‘Race to the Bottom’

LAS VEGAS — Artificial intelligence provides speed and efficiency but lacks taste and aesthetic judgment, making human oversight essential to prevent automation that eliminates human input entirely. “What we’re missing is this notion of taste and judgment,” Paul Woolmington, CEO of Canvas Worldwide, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at CES. “Taste is very aesthetic and I think it’s going to be [...]

For Retail Media in Gaming, It’s a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure,’ Says KINESSO’s Owen

The advertising world is obsessed with capturing fleeting consumer attention across a multitude of distraction-laden screens. But one environment, more than most, boasts undivided focus. Unlike passive television viewing or social media scrolling, which are often accompanied by a second screen, gaming demands a player’s full concentration. This is the opportunity for retail media, a market which Forrester projects will grow to [...]

Standards Meet Scale in Retail Media to Deliver for Brands: DG Media’s Austin Leonard

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. – Retail media standards are no longer a side conversation for the most patient people in the room. They are front and center, especially as more brand dollars flow into the channel. Speaking at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, Austin Leonard, vice president and general manager of the DG Media Network at Dollar General, said the pressure from [...]

Audio Gets Programmatic: Lisa Coffey of IHeartMedia Says ‘Guaranteed Human’ Wins Trust

LAS VEGAS – If you have ever wished broadcast radio could behave a little more like digital, Lisa Coffey says the wish is being granted, with a beta label and a confident smile. Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at CES, the chief business officer of IHeartMedia said the long running mission is finally turning into shipping product. “The project of making [...]

Retail Media’s Easy Money Is Gone – Now Comes the Hard Part

For years, retail media networks enjoyed a relatively effortless revenue boom, riding the e-commerce wave and leaning on supplier budgets that seemed inexhaustible. That era, according to one close industry observer, is over - and what comes next will separate the serious media businesses from the rest. The sector is hardly collapsing. Global retail media spending is projected to climb from [...]

Dentsu’s Will Swayne: Advertising Enters Its Third Phase, ‘The Algorithmic Era’

LAS VEGAS — Media planning for 2026 must acknowledge advertising’s evolution from broadcast-focused 30-second spots and “eyeballs” by instead relying on precision targeting to meet the demands of the “agentic and algorithmic era.” “We’re in a new era of advertising — the third era,” Will Swayne, global practice president for Media and Integrated Solutions at dentsu, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan [...]

IAB’s Caroline Giegerich: Over-Labeling AI Use Could Create Consumer ‘Fatigue’

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Excessive artificial intelligence disclosure labeling could be too much of a well-intentioned thing. Aside from stoking consumer burnout on one hand, the impact could potentially harm advertisers by highlighting AI usage that splits audience perceptions between creativity and inauthenticity. “The risk of transparency is if you over label everything, consumers will just tune out and have a [...]

AI will Make Agencies Feel Human Again: Carat’s Carrie Drinkwater

LAS VEGAS – If technology used to be about pipes, dashboards and apologies for latency, Carrie Drinkwater wants it to be about culture. Speaking with David Kaplan at CES 2026, the chief investment officer of Dentsu-owned Carat, said the agency’s biggest technology investment isn’t another black box, but a clearer read on cultural momentum. “The biggest technology investment that we’re focusing on [...]

Omnicom’s Duncan Painter: Five Years of Consumer Purchase History Provides ‘Granularity’ Beyond Transactions

LAS VEGAS — In order for a retail media network advertiser to accurately find consumers at the right moment, sometimes you have to travel back in time. About five years in the past, to be exact. “We can look back at the consumer level for five years of their engagement and purchase with that product or brand,” Duncan Painter, CEO of [...]

Industry Backs the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico in PSA Campaign

TelevisaUnivision, LG Ads and Roku are among the companies supporting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico by providing inventory to run 30-second spots on their Spanish digital platforms. It's part of an effort to raise awareness and funds for a group that plays an essential role in the live of tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans. The campaign is designed [...]

Lenovo’s Rick Corteville: B2B Marketers Must Focus on ‘Quality Places’ for CTV

Connected TV isn’t often considered a primary channel by B2B marketers to target their desired audiences. But Lenovo is not only making the case for CTV as a valuable venue for B2B, it’s also touting the channel’s use for eliminating ad waste. Specifically, the electronics company boasts achieving over 90% reach against specific enterprise audiences using first-party data matched to [...]

Data and Context Drive Performance in Connected TV: OMD’s Tej Desai

As brands try to make sense of a fragmented media ecosystem, performance measurement remains one of the biggest obstacles. For Tej Desai, executive vice president of client leadership at OMD USA, connected TV has emerged as a way forward, particularly as marketers look beyond narrow platform metrics and toward more holistic outcomes. Social remains powerful but siloed Desai said marketers are increasingly [...]

Fragmentation Meets Focus Even as News Expands: CNN’s Guy Griggs

LAS VEGAS – If the news landscape feels like an all-you-can eat buffet with cable podcasts, newsletters, influencers and social feeds stacked high, this is not your imagination. Guy Griggs, senior vice president of ad sales and client partnerships at CNN, says the industry has splintered in spectacular fashion and he has the receipts from living through it twice. “This is [...]

TransUnion’s Julie Clark: AI Moves From Technology Talk To ‘Outcomes Era’

Artificial intelligence discussions are shifting from theoretical to practical deliverables as the industry recognizes strong data foundations prove critical for realizing AI’s full potential. “We’ve all been talking a ton about AI, but it’s not just the technology, it’s about what we’re actually delivering now. It’s moving into an outcomes era,” Julie Clark, SVP, Diversified Markets, Media & Entertainment at TransUnion, [...]

Spark Foundry’s April Carlisle: LLMs Use Brand Websites as ‘First Source of Truth,’ Not Retailer Sites

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Marketers and agencies are still just scratching the surface when it comes to understanding how generative artificial intelligence tools like large language models are changing the way brands develop their content strategies. For example, brands are now rethinking the role their own websites play in informing AI programs that consumers increasingly rely on. “The LLMs are going [...]

DISH Media Sidesteps IP Targeting Woes With Direct Customer Signals

As the advertising industry grapples with signal loss and the diminishing reliability of common identity markers, the hunt is on for more durable frameworks to connect with audiences, particularly in the booming connected TV space. Some think a direct, authenticated relationship with a consumer, built on deterministic data like a physical address or a verified email, provides a far more stable [...]

Agentic Platforms Speed Up Media Planning for CTV Advertisers: Disney’s Alex Combs

LAS VEGAS – At CES 2026, Walt Disney Co. showcased a growing push to modernize advertising workflows by combining advanced technology with its storytelling heritage. Alex Combs, vice president of product management, advertising platforms at the media and entertainment giant, said the company is focused on building products that deliver speed, ease and value for advertisers. “Really exciting week,” Combs said in [...]

Contextual Targeting Gains Ground in CTV: Magnite’s Ryan Kenney

LAS VEGAS – Contextual signals are becoming central to how connected TV inventory is bought and sold, as advertisers look for relevance at scale without relying on user identifiers. Ryan Kenney, svp of revenue for SpringServe at Magnite, said viewer choice and passion for content make context a natural fit for the TV environment. “In normal consumption of CTV, viewers are [...]

Twitch’s Sarah Iooss Says ‘Trusted Voices’ are Key to Unlocking U.S. Live Commerce

While live shopping has long dominated Asian markets, its adoption in the United States has hinged less on functionality and more on the depth of viewer connection. As platforms integrate retail capabilities directly into video streams, the focus is turning toward the authenticity of the messenger rather than just the mechanics of the cart. For live stream commerce to truly take hold [...]

Lower Costs Fuel In-Store Media Growth: Stratacache’s Ben Reynolds

The retail industry has seen rapid change over the past year, particularly around in-store media, as falling technology costs and margin pressure elsewhere push retailers to rethink where growth comes from, according to Ben Reynolds, vice president of business development at Stratacache. Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan, Reynolds said lower hardware and installation costs have removed a major barrier to [...]