Advertising Week New York returns October 5–8, and it arrives during one of the busiest stretches for adtech in years. AI is changing how media is bought and how buyers find brands. Commerce and streaming TV are converging, courts and regulators are rewriting the rules of the open web, and budgets face tougher scrutiny. For adtech and martech companies, AWNY is a proving ground where ideas get pressure-tested and the brands with a clear point of view stand out.
Here are five trends we expect to come up most on stage, inside meetings, and over coffee in Midtown.
- Agentic AI moves from the lab to the buying desk
Agentic AI has gone from a pilot topic to a planning priority. According to IAB, 96% of buyers know about agentic AI for ad buying, and 66% plan to focus on it more in 2026. Still, 40% say understanding how it works for buying and execution is an investment challenge.
Expect a lot of debate about trust, transparency, and who stays in control when agents start negotiating with other agents. For adtech companies, the winning story will be one that explains how the technology works and where humans stay in the loop.
- AI answer engines are changing discovery
AI search and answer engines are changing how buyers research products. Brands now need to show up in AI-generated answers, not just on search results pages. This affects search budgets, publisher traffic, and brand visibility, and it is raising new questions about what advertising looks like inside AI experiences.
Expect conversations about how brands earn a place in AI answers, how publishers adapt to shifting referral traffic, and which ad formats could emerge inside these environments.
- CTV keeps growing, and retail media is moving in
CTV is maturing on two fronts. IAB forecasts that U.S. CTV ad spend will grow 13.8% in 2026. The bigger story is how CTV and commerce are coming together. EMARKETER projects retail media CTV spend will jump 86.6% this year, and retail media will account for one in five CTV ad dollars by 2027. Shoppable, closed-loop TV is quickly becoming the standard.
At the same time, precision is shifting from households to content. As more streaming services add ad-supported tiers, CTV reaches much larger audiences, so the next question is how to target smarter within that reach. Household data has its limits. More advertisers are aligning ads with what viewers are actually watching, which can cut waste and improve performance. Seedtag notes that programmatic infrastructure is making CTV more transparent and easier to address. For adtech companies, the story is about proving that the right moment on screen can matter as much as the right household.
- The open web is being rewired
The programmatic supply chain is getting shorter and more direct. EMARKETER expects programmatic direct to make up 76.3% of U.S. programmatic spend in 2026, with the market centering on video, CTV, walled gardens, retail media, and agentic AI. Curation, SSP consolidation, and supply path optimization will be central to the story adtech companies tell buyers.
Regulation is accelerating the shift. After a judge found in 2025 that Google had monopolized key parts of the adtech market, the court recently decided against forcing a breakup, instead imposing changes to how Google operates.The industry is moving toward more oversight, more transparency, and more pressure to compete fairly. That means more conversations for publishers, independent adtech companies, and buyers trying to get more for their money on the open web.
- Outcomes are replacing proxy metrics
CFOs are looking more closely at ad budgets, and marketers are moving from impressions and clicks toward attention, incrementality, and business outcomes. Retail media’s closed-loop reporting has raised the bar, and other channels are expected to catch up.
Adtech companies that can connect their products to measurable business results, and explain that connection clearly, will have the strongest conversations this year.
See You on the Ground
Big industry moments like AWNY are where narratives get tested, relationships get built, and the market decides whose story sounds credible. The Kite Hill team will be at AWNY, listening, connecting, and taking notes on which of these trends take center stage and which surprises come up along the way. Keep an eye out for our key takeaways after the show.
Learn more about Kite Hill’s AdTech expertise.
– Sara Salkin, Account Manager