The advertising landscape is entering a transformative era where artificial intelligence, authentic creator collaborations, and customer-centric creativity converge to redefine what’s possible. From agentic AI streamlining workflows to contextual streaming TV ads that adapt in real-time, the future belongs to brands that embrace innovation while staying rooted in genuine customer insights. These emerging trends signal a shift towards meaningful connections that drive measurable business outcomes.
As we step into 2026, here are some trends that Amazon Ads believes will shape the advertising industry this year.
Insights and audience understanding become the creative spark for full-funnel retail media
Media strategies and creative development often operate in silos. However, the most impactful campaigns emerge when customer insights actively shape creative thinking from the start, rather than simply confirming decisions after. When marketers design campaigns based solely on internal preferences, they risk creating content that resonates with a narrow subset rather than their intended audience. Retail media plays a crucial role across the consumer journey, making it an essential touchpoint for brands to drive both awareness and conversion.
Today, the focus has shifted from a narrow emphasis on search-driven online shopping to a more holistic, full-funnel approach that leverages the wealth of first-party shopping and streaming signals to power impactful advertising solutions. The strongest work emerges when teams use audience insights and customer feedback to identify unmet needs and emotional drivers that might otherwise go unnoticed. By pairing creative decisions with insights, advertisers can connect with the right audience with the right message at the right time.
Agentic AI democratizes creative excellence for businesses of all sizes
Agentic AI is transforming advertising by making sophisticated creative capabilities accessible to businesses of every size. What once required weeks of production time and substantial resources can now be accomplished in hours through AI-powered systems working alongside human creativity. This breakthrough removes creative barriers that have traditionally limited smaller businesses. Brands adopting this technology early gain competitive advantages through creative operations that are faster, more flexible, and easier to scale. This AI-powered democratization means businesses of all sizes can now compete with professional-grade creative, driving meaningful outcomes and scaling their advertising presence with enhanced reach and engagement.
AI will unlock advanced analytics and optimization and drive performance
The most significant advertising impact of AI will occur behind the scenes, finding the right audiences, improving campaign performance, and continuously optimizing to deliver measurable business outcomes. AI tools will help analyze the large number of insights from campaigns and recommend opportunities that would otherwise require extensive time to spot manually or those that might go undetected entirely. This will make advanced analytics accessible to more marketers through natural language and enable them to conduct complex campaign analysis faster.
Streaming TV (STV) advertising enters its performance era
As per Ormax OTT Audience Report 2025, the total video streaming audience in India has now crossed 600 million users alongside a surge in Connected TV viewership reaching 129.2 million active users in 2025. In 2026, advertisers are projected to increase their streaming ad investments, utilizing this channel for both brand storytelling and driving consideration thus enabling full-funnel outcomes. Advertisers will go beyond traditional metrics (like reach, frequency and brand favorability) to measure the success of their streaming TV campaigns and will evaluate business outcomes with sales, sign-ups, and bookings. Industry measurement focus is expected to evolve from basic metrics like reach and engagement to more sophisticated indicators of consideration and full-funnel impact.
Deeper storytelling with contextual advertising and creator collaborations
Advertising will move beyond transactional touchpoints to create immersive, contextually aware brand experiences powered by technological innovation and human authenticity. Creators will evolve from content partners to strategic business catalysts, with brands weaving them into the core fabric of their operations as powerful catalysts for innovation and authentic customer connection. Simultaneously, contextual advertising will reinvent itself through scene-specific streaming TV ads. Imagine pausing an action thriller during a tropical island chase sequence and receiving real-time flight offers to that exact destination, complete with prices and times from your local airport.
Together, these trends represent advertising’s shift toward narrative depth: where creator-led storytelling builds long-term community trust and loyalty, while hyper-relevant contextual moments deliver precision and immediacy. The most resonant brands of 2026 will be those that adopt this for impactful storytelling, while leveraging technological sophistication to deliver the right message at precisely the right story moment.
As these trends converge in 2026, the advertising industry stands at the threshold of an era where technology amplifies human creativity. Brands that successfully balance AI-driven efficiency with authentic customer connections will not only draw attention but build lasting relationships with engaging storytelling.
“The future of advertising is not just about reaching more people. It is about reaching the right people with messages that truly resonate. By combining AI capabilities with deep customer insights basis trillions of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, Amazon Ads helps brands move from simply sharing campaign messaging to engaging in meaningful conversations and reach audiences wherever they spend time, across the Amazon store plus thousands of apps and websites,” says Girish Prabhu, Head and Vice President, Amazon Ads India.
