CES 2026 Ends: AI Agents Execute Ad Buys, Platforms Track Results, Vertical Video Arrives – NCS

The advertising industry spent CES 2026 pledging to go out of existence, or at least automate the boring parts.

While AI agents negotiated media purchases without human intervention and platforms rebuilt their interfaces to solve self-inflicted discovery problems, traditional media companies quietly conceded that TikTok had won the format war by announcing their own vertical video strategies.

The message is that streaming infrastructure is mature enough to automatically optimize, but viewers still can't find what to watch.

Autonomous system handles cross-platform ad buying

NBCUniversal, RPA, FreeWheel, and Newton Research have demonstrated what they claim is the first cross-platform premium video media buying powered by agent AI. The system executes and optimizes investments across linear and digital platforms in real-time, including live sports inventory.

The first campaign will run in the first quarter of 2026 and will be featured during live football playoff games. An AI agent developed by Newton handles the buy side, and NBCUniversal and FreeWheel agents manage the sell side, using model context protocols for interoperability.

“This partnership demonstrates the potential of agent AI to hyper-streamline strategic media intelligence and transactions that drive business outcomes,” said Jim Helberg, CEO of RPA.

PubMatic has launched AgenticOS, an operating system that enables autonomous ad execution using natural language input. Initial implementation with Butler/Till and Geloso Beverage Group's Clubtails in December 2025 found campaign setup time was 87% faster and issue resolution was 70% faster.

The platform runs on NVIDIA-accelerated computing and uses Claude, an AI interface, to select tactics, execute media buys, and adjust performance metrics within set parameters.

Both systems attempt to automate processes that currently require manual planning and execution, especially for complex purchases involving multiple platforms.

Magnite introduced its first “seller agent,” an AI designed to communicate with agent-developed buyer agents. The company has been testing AdCP as the primary protocol for these interactions. Seller Agent is integrated into Magnite's SpringServe platform and provides access to publisher inventory across the web and connected TV.

Yahoo touted what it called the “Yours, Mine, Ours” model at CES. Through the Model Context Protocol, agencies can bring external agents into the Yahoo DSP. Buyers can also use Yahoo's native agent to troubleshoot campaigns and analyze audience targeting. This approach suggests that interoperability between different AI systems could become a competitive differentiator as agencies and platforms develop their own agent technologies.

Discovery remains an issue as platforms redesign their interfaces

Amazon cited Gracenote research showing that U.S. viewers now spend an average of 12 minutes searching for what they want to watch, up from 10.5 minutes in 2023. This increase suggests that more content and more services are making the problem worse, not better.

The company redesigned the Fire TV interface by updating the layout and rebuilding the code to improve performance by 20-30%. Users can now pin up to six apps to their home screen. Alexa+ allows users to describe a scene and jump to a specific moment in a movie, or request content based on actor, genre, or theme.

TiVo Platform Technologies added a Partner Picks carousel that provides publisher recommendations and improved voice search with support for multiple languages.

According to data from Parks Associates, 61% of U.S. internet households now use smart TVs as their primary streaming device. Samsung's Tizen operating system leads with 34 percent of smart TV owners, but the market remains fragmented between Roku, LG, and Vizio.

“Smart TVs are the default way for consumers to access video, so the OS is at the center of the competition,” said Jennifer Kent, senior vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates.

The persistence of discovery issues despite interface redesigns over the years suggests that the problem is structural rather than technical. More apps, services, and content introduces complexity that better search tools can't fully solve.

Platform focuses on measuring and optimizing results

Roku has expanded its partnership with iSpot, becoming the first major streaming publisher to use iSpot's Outcomes at Scale product to optimize campaigns based on attributable business results.

Samsung Ads announced enhanced integration between its Data+ service and Snowflake Data Clean Rooms, allowing advertisers to match first-party data to Samsung audiences in a privacy-compliant manner.

Viant introduced Outcomes, powered by AI Lattice Brain, which autonomously manages campaign execution from setup to real-time optimization. Advertisers specify their desired business outcomes, and the platform simultaneously evaluates multiple data signals such as household ID, supply quality scoring, past campaign performance, and real-time delivery data.

The focus on outcomes reflects the pressure on connected TV platforms to demonstrate value beyond reach and awareness metrics, as advertisers seek proof that streaming drives sales, not just views.

Vertical video and creator content enters traditional platforms

Disney+ plans to introduce vertical video content in late 2026, building on the previous format's integration into the ESPN app. The company described the feature as a “personalized, dynamic feed” that includes original short-form content, repurposed social media clips, adapted scenes from existing movies and series, and more.

Fox Entertainment has launched Fox Creator Studios, a digital-first division that partners with content creators to develop formats and intellectual property. The studio begins with food content featuring Gordon Ramsay, Rosanna Pansino, and creators such as Jolie, Sorted Food, Food Theorists, and Little Remy Food.

Fox Advertising also announced Creators@Fox, an initiative that provides branded content opportunities across Fox's entertainment, news, sports and streaming divisions.

The announcement is a small concession that traditional media companies can't ignore the formats and talent that have built audiences on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Open questions remain whether vertical video will work on TV interfaces designed for horizontal content and whether established media companies will be able to compete with platforms optimized for creator economics.

The consistency at CES 2026 was clear. While viewers still can't find what to watch, the industry is optimizing for advertisers.

AI agents can now perform complex cross-platform purchases in milliseconds and attribute individual conversions to specific ad exposures, yet viewers spend 12 minutes searching for content, up from 10.5 minutes two years ago.

The emphasis on performance measurement raises new questions for connected TV. If that channel can't prove sales growth at scale, advertisers will shift their budget to channels that can. Automation of complex processes will reshape jobs in media planning and buying, but whether it translates into savings for advertisers and platforms remains an open question.

Meanwhile, the Vertical Video and Creators announcement acknowledges that media companies have misjudged audience preferences and now face the challenge of competing economically with platforms built for others.

While the industry is working to solve ROI for advertisers, the overall viewing experience continues to deteriorate amid fragmentation, creating an incentive imbalance that better search tools can't fix.