Just as millions of visitors flock to Las Vegas for the chance to find their fortunes in a desert oasis, marketers make the annual journey to the tech extravaganza that is CES to look into the future. Our team of AMPers covered miles of exhibits, met with senior tech leaders, and took in both the pragmatic and bombastic at countless presentations to separate the hype from the actionable.
After the whirlwind of it all, the takeaway for our team was clear: we have officially entered the Execution Era for AI. If 2025 was about experimenting with what AI could do, 2026 is about how it’s poised to influence multiple facets of our lives—from infusing the shopping experience with ease, personalization, and predictive powers to empowering marketers and brands to act faster, smarter, and more cohesively.
With a big picture perspective, we looked at the show through multiple lenses. Here are the four macro-shifts that will influence the marketplace this year.
- Agentic AI and the Evolution From Search to Agents
If you aren’t thinking about “Agentic AI”—AI that can plan, order, and execute tasks on a consumer’s behalf—you’re already behind. From AI-powered stoves that manage grocery orders to tools that scrape PDPs for better optimization, we saw plenty of examples where machines are starting to do the heavy lifting.
The Agency Take: We’ve seen plenty of flashy “smart” appliances at CES before, and yet in reality, few of our homes are quite so Jetsons-like in 2026. Still, the promise of unleashing a complicated or mundane task on large language model tools is already shifting the definition of “search” and that is its own form of modern digital wizardry.
Success depends on ensuring brand content is LLM and “agent-ready”—structured and optimized so these systems select your brand when a consumer says, “Plan my meals for the week.” Now’s the time to ensure that brand data is structured, machine-readable, and “agent-friendly” so that our brands are the ones selected when the machine does the shopping.
Retailers like Target and Walmart are working through the kinks to move AI beyond simple data comparisons and into real-time, responsive audience targeting. The mandate is to test now or risk being outmaneuvered by faster competitors already exploring potential efficiencies.
- Retail as a High-Tech Media Channel
Stores still matter, and in some ways, they matter more than ever, as they’re being reimagined as technical powerhouses. The innovations we saw indicate that physical stores are finally getting the “full-funnel” data capabilities once reserved for ecommerce.
The Agency Take: The most impressive innovations were those that made the physical store feel like a high-tech (but human) media channel. Albertsons stood out here with shoppable end-caps and anonymized tracking that connects “dwell time” to the basket without feeling like a digital billboard. The goal is seamlessness: influencing the shopper journey without disrupting their experience.
Another manifestation of this trend is evident in the AI systems we saw showcased that use real-time signals—such as weather or local inventory—to allow brands to adjust in-store creative content instantly, a development we are already exploring and enthusiastic about.
- Physical AI: Robotics Move into the Real World
Further afield from the remit of marketing, the show also spotlighted robots moving past the “uncanny valley” into genuine utility. “Physical AI”—the marriage of LLMs with mechanical hardware—is poised to address labor and efficiency problems at scale.
At an industrial and product innovation level, companies like Caterpillar and Bosch are integrating autonomy into heavy machinery and appliances, while humanoid robots are being positioned as practical solutions for logistics and labor shortages.
Agency Take: We saw a “softer” side of robotics, too—companion bots for wellness and elderly care that felt less like machines and more like intuitive partners. Prioritizing the human in these innovations aligns with our own emphasis on centering innovation on real human needs and desires.
- The Longevity Economy & Digital Health
“Health tech” has evolved into “longevity tech.” Reflecting broader trends in the world of wellness, the focus has shifted from reactive monitoring (tracking steps) to proactive prevention and quality of life strategies.
From smart rings that monitor emotional well-being to digital health tools that help both humans and pets live longer, we saw examples of tech becoming a daily, seamless lifestyle-support system for the enhancement of health and wellness.
Agency Take: More than ever, consumers are open to tech that promises a systemic perspective on health. And they want efficiency and wellness in a combined package. Brands that can simplify daily tasks while promoting health will win, and tech is enabling this benefit.
The 2026 Summary for Our Clients:
Innovation is no longer about the gadget; it’s about the integration. Whether it’s an autonomous semi-truck or a shoppable recipe screen, the winners of 2026 will be the ones who use technology to remove friction and add value to the human experience, not just create more noise.
