After a whirlwind 2025, the retail industry looks towards 2026.

In the second of a two-part series, Retail Gazette hears from seven more industry experts who share their thoughts on what the industry can expect over the next 12 months.

Catering for humans and bots

Mike Fantis, VP managing partner of marketing agency DAC Group UK, hopes that omnichannel customer service will improve by “closer integration of opt-in customer data to in-store shopping experiences”.

“I appreciate that asking people to scan into stores might feel like a big ask, but by this point, we’re used to app-enhanced experiences like loyalty schemes and click and collect.

“There’s so much more we could do, though, not only to join up online to offline journeys but also to improve bricks and mortar personalisation.

“It doesn’t have to be rocket science; it could be as simple as an alert that one of your wish list items is on-sale in store, or streamlined personal shopping services if the sales assistant already knows your size and purchase history.

“The potential is huge so perhaps 2026 will be the year that retailers will start being more ambitious?”

He adds: “Consumers are already using LLMs (large language models) at the top end of the funnel for research, price comparison and so-on, and so on. They are now cottoning on to the fact that they can use these services to create shopping lists, concoct recipes… so it just makes sense they should use AI agents to do the rest of the work for them.

“This has implications for e-commerce vendors around customer brand engagement. However, we need to remember that the main reason people will use agents is for convenience – to save them time.

“All retail brands will need to reconfigure their offer to cater to humans and bots – and sometimes that could mean going back to basics. Google has already launched Duplex, an add-on service for Google Assistant that checks the availability of appointments for the user,  including making calls on their behalf.

“Being prepared for our agentic future means getting your customer service right across all channels, a good start for 2026 would simply be to plug the landline back in,”

Impact of the FIFA World Cup

The Industry’s focus will undoubtedly centre around the biggest sporting event in the world – the FIFA World Cup – says David Wilcox, commercial director at media firm News Broadcasting.

“This is the moment for brands to consider a holistic approach that combines the reach and impact of broadcast with the targeting and innovation that digital can offer.

“In 2026, partnerships should be focused on blending proven broadcast impact with the precision and agility of digital activation.

“This convergence means brands can reach fans wherever they are across sound, vision and screen, with unmatched relevance and scale.

“With talkSPORT set to bring every second of the tournament to life in sound and vision, advertisers have a truly unique opportunity to connect with audiences at a global moment like no other.”

Data remains essential

Alexia Nakad, VP of Commerce Media, UK & MEA for LiveRamp, said marketing budgets “may hold up in 2026”, but “expectations around proof of outcomes will get tougher”.

“Brands need accurate, transparent, and omnichannel measurement that delivers actionable insights.

“Yet this is getting harder as the customer journey fragments across commerce media, CTV, streaming audio, social video, and now AI-driven search.

“In this environment, data collaboration will be essential. Brands that can activate first-party data responsibly, collaborate seamlessly with partners, and measure incremental impact across the full funnel will gain an edge.

“This advantage hinges on engagement with neutral, interoperable clean rooms and enables brands to prove performance consistently across environments and platforms.

“As the landscape evolves, data collaboration at scale will separate the brands that merely keep up from those that lead.”

‘Accelerated investment’

Dom Dunne, commercial director, Programmatic & LaunchPAD Europe at digital out-of-home media group Bauer Media Outdoor says “programmatic Out of Home (prOOH) made significant strides in 2025″.

“It is increasingly recognised as a flexible, measurable, and creative-led channel.

“Digital OOH now represents 42% of total OOH revenue and as a result, prOOH is also gaining momentum thanks to the growing appetite from advertisers for campaigns that deliver both scale and precision.“

“As more brands move along the programmatic maturity curve, the focus is shifting from simple impressions to meaningful impact – using high-quality placements and smart targeting to support the full customer journey, from awareness to conversion.

“Looking ahead to 2026, the LHF (Less Healthy Food) restrictions coming into full force at the start of the year are likely to accelerate investment in prOOH. While digital channels face tighter limits, prOOH remains fully open, offering trusted, large-scale visibility in a compliant and responsible way.

“Combined with smarter programmatic planning, this positions prOOH to play an even more strategic role in campaigns that deliver both reach and relevance.”

‘Stellar’ year for CTV

Julie Selman, SVP and head of EMEA at ad tech firm Magnite highlights that 2025 saw connected TV (CTV) evolve at an unprecedented speed, “moving beyond its roots as a brand-building tool to become a measurable, performance-driven channel”.

“AI has encouraged this shift by enabling smarter inventory curation, automated optimisation and dynamic creative that ensures every impression delivers more value.

“For advertisers, the opportunity lies in pairing CTV’s premium, engaged environments with data-driven insights to reach audiences more effectively and measure outcomes with greater precision.

“As consumer viewing habits continue to shift, it’s clear that CTV has become the connective tissue between storytelling and performance.

“Strategic partnerships and collaborations across the industry are helping to build the infrastructure that allows advertisers to fully harness AI’s potential in CTV. It’s these types of unions that will be essential for creating transparency, efficiency and scale across a fragmented landscape.

“Next year is set to be another stellar year for CTV. And with major sporting moments such as the Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup coming up, live sports streaming will play a central role in uniting audiences, offering brands the chance to connect in real time and at scale.”

The rise and rise of AI

PrimeAudience’s vice president of product, Mateusz Rumiński believes generative AI will “accelerate major shifts in digital advertising”.

“Models are advancing, query costs are dropping, and new standards, such as AdCP, UCP, and the Agentic RTB Framework, will reshape how the industry operates.

“As a result, ID-based solutions may suffer as increasing awareness of the necessity of data protection, driven by genAI growth, advances tools that prevent scraping and user profiling. On the contrary, real-time data exchange, for example, based on contextual signals from the user’s visited page, will thrive.

“While generally, genAI’s way of browsing the web results in lowering user traffic on publisher websites, the yield from each visit should increase due to better personalisation of ads.”

He continues: “In addition, more people now understand how publisher-side signals, such as the Ads-to-Content Ratio and also infinite scroll, can optimise targeting, allowing clients to experiment with settings based on campaign objectives.”

“Data providers will also take on more advisory roles, helping clients build and test targeting strategies, streamline workflows, and improve campaign performance.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter