CES has always been a window into what’s next. But this year, especially in the C Space where tech, media, and marketing collide, it felt less like a showcase and more like a reality check.
Across conversations with retail and commerce leaders, one theme kept surfacing. Executives don’t care about the latest flashy tools merely for the sake of novelty. They want proof. Hard proof that new tools can integrate, scale, and actually drive measurable results.
Here are six signals we heard repeatedly from marketing leaders at CES.
1) AI is no longer a feature, it’s an operating model decision
AI was everywhere at CES, but not in the hype-driven way of years past. The conversation has shifted. Leaders are no longer debating whether AI belongs in their organizations. They are discussing how deeply it should be embedded.
Agentic AI, in particular, emerged as an operating layer that coordinates work across systems rather than replacing people outright. That reframes the leadership challenge from adoption to design.
In practice, teams are asking:
- Where should AI help us move faster — such as planning, testing, or reporting?
Where should it enhance performance with relevance, compliance, and brand quality?
- Where does it need firm guardrails, especially around pricing, regulated claims, and sensitive decisions?
AI’s power extends far beyond standalone capabilities. The strongest organizations are building the data, governance, and talent structures that allow it to drive real outcomes.
2) Relevance beats personalization, and it requires a connected foundation
One of the biggest misconceptions in the market right now is treating “personalization” as the finish line. The real finish line is relevance in context: the right message, in the right moment, on the right surface, with the right friction level.
Brands are pushing toward more seamless, connected ecosystems. Social shopping, new discovery paths, and emerging engagement models are all part of that shift, driven by the need to meet customers in context rather than simply adding more channels.
Consumers no longer wait for brands to educate them. They research on their own, across platforms, and expect to find credible, consistent information, whether they’re on a retail site, a social platform, or a creator’s feed.
Leaders need to ask: Do we have the data backbone to recognize context and respond with relevance?
Your ability to use the tech is only as good as the foundation it’s built on. AI can scale content and targeting, but without connected data, you’ll also be scaling inconsistency.
3) Brands now own more of the funnel, whether they want to or not
A Tuesday session at ADWEEK House captured this shift clearly. The old playbook, where brand builds demand and retail closes the sale, does not hold up when every screen is shoppable.
What that means in practice is more responsibility for brands:
- Some customers want information.
- Others want speed.
- Others want the lowest price or the easiest checkout.
Meeting those needs now happens across the entire journey versus a defined campaign window.
The marketers we spoke with are leaning into this by becoming partners in discovery and convenience. They’re helping audiences find what they need faster and with less friction. But there is a trade-off. Your brand experience is now distributed across retail, social, streaming, search, creators, and emerging platforms. You may not fully control it, but you are still accountable for it.
4) Trust and education are now growth levers, especially in regulated categories
In sessions focused on product innovation and regulated industries, the message was consistent. Clever messaging alone will not drive growth in 2026.
In categories like healthcare, banking, and fintech, brands need to equip consumers with enough clarity to make confident, life-impacting decisions. That often means helping someone begin a conversation, whether with a provider, advisor, or caregiver, already informed.
This shifts marketing’s role:
- When trust is missing, growth slows.
- When education is strong, content becomes a differentiator.
- When multiple people influence decisions, the definition of the customer expands.
Influencers showed up differently here, too. Less hype. More lived experience. More translation. Less promotion.
5) Brand governance is back, and it’s the only way to scale without losing control
AI makes it easy to produce more content than ever. Regulated environments add risk. Multi-channel distribution increases complexity.
What we heard repeatedly is that governance is back as a critical enabler. Modular content systems, clear guardrails, and faster approval paths are helping brands move quickly while protecting trust.
The most effective teams are using AI to accelerate the process. They are reaching approval faster and adapting content efficiently, with human judgment guiding final decisions.
At this level, governance focuses on speed, safety, and consistency.
6) Partnerships are becoming the new competitive advantage
A Wednesday session with leaders from The Trade Desk and Walmart Connect underscored a broader shift. Performance, measurement, and reach increasingly come from ecosystems rather than single platforms.
These partnerships combine omnichannel reach with first-party data to create more transparent, outcome-based measurement. And that transparency matters. The market is moving away from trust-based reporting toward proof that spend is incremental and effective.
For leaders, the question becomes how to choose partnerships that are measurable, accountable, and aligned to growth goals.
2026 executive planning checklist
Take these questions back to your 2026 planning sessions to be sure your organization is ready to run a modern growth system:
- Do we have connected data that supports relevance across contexts?
- Is our AI strategy tied to operating models, or is it just a collection of tools?
- Can our brand governance handle scale without slowing us down?
- Where is growth limited by trust, and are we investing there?
- Are our partnerships transparent, measurable, and additive?
Want to compare notes from CES or talk more about how to architect that growth system in 2026? Reach out here.
