Another year, another successful CES in the Vayner books. This year, we wrapped up CES with A LOT to think about…and more importantly? A game plan for the new year.
On the ground at Las Vegas, we had VaynerMedia’s Director of Video Activation Jordan Bilfeld on the scene, absorbing every big trend marketers can expect to see in 2026 and beyond. It’s hard to condense everything into one list, but Jordan helped us compile the spark notes version of the major breakthroughs from the week.
Marketers, for those of you who couldn’t make it, or maybe just need a refresh, we have the Vayner scoop on everything you should know about. Here are our 3 main takeaways from CES:
Retail and TV Are Merging – AKA The Live Shopping Renaissance Is Here
At Vayner, we’ve been pretty passionate about the surge of live shopping, and CES gave us confirmation that we’re headed in the right direction. We’re seeing how some of the biggest retail ecosystems are embedding commerce data and purchase signals directly into their ad strategies.
- Amazon announced new ad tech capabilities for Prime Video, Prime Sports, and Twitch. With this, they’re tightening the line between retail, streaming, and CTV performance ads, turning their DSP into a hub for TV planners.
- Walmart consolidated Vizio into its own TV & retail strategy, blending retail media directly into SmartCast and CTV ad opportunities.
These updates go to show that the line between retail and TV doesn’t exist anymore, and as these two worlds merge into one, marketers will be seeing more and more shoppable TV formats.
AI Is Everywhere (And Everything)
This one doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but the extent and reach of AI is something that marketers really need to take note of. AI is no longer a buzzword or curiosity–it’s the foundation behind every major announcement.
- Disney announced a new vertical video experience called VERTS, a Vertical Social Video platform powered by AI. Essentially, viewers can experience a personalized Disney content feed based on user behavior.
- Amazon shared that they’ll be continuing to push authenticated reach and AI-powered solutions to simplify TV planning and drive ad awareness and sales.
- Samsung launched their new “Vision AI Companion” across its 2026 TV lineup. An AI assistant meant to interact conversationally with users (suggesting what to watch or even what music/food fits a mood) and deliver personalized recommendations, bringing TVs one step closer to acting more like mobile devices.
Clearly, agentic AI will be having a major moment this year, finding its way into automating workflow, personalizing content and ad experiences, and so much more. Going forward, marketers can expect AI poised to automate everything from media buys to optimization and creative deployment.
CTV is Shifting to Focus On Outcome Driven Results
CES showed us that CTV buying is shifting, and falling into a new approach. Advertisers are shifting their focus from impressions to actual outcomes and lower-funnel attribution. We’re seeing this through new partnerships and measurement integrations, like how:
- Roku and iSpot brought outcome-based integration to streaming, elevating CTV from impression-centric KPIs to results-based optimization for brands.
- NBCUniversal introduced their Performance Insights Hub, providing unified, in-flight campaign metrics and audience insights across platforms for deeper measurement, beyond post-campaign reporting.
CTV is becoming its very own ‘go-to’ foundational channel. The sooner marketers build up plans from a CTV-first mindset the sooner they will realize rapid performance-driven results are ready at scale – and the better outcomes will be.
The Consensus
Here’s the TLDR: 2026 is going to be a big year for marketers. But what’s most important here is being flexible, open-minded, and rolling with the punches as they come.
As trends develop and tech evolves, we’re here to figure out the best way forward for you and your brand.
CES, as always, thanks for a great time and here’s to embracing the new. 🥂