Takeaways from CES 2026

If 2025 was "Year of AI Hype" then 2026 has officially matured into the "Year of AI Implementation."

Before landing in Las Vegas, our Chief Transformation Officer Freddy Dabaghi sat down with Marketing Brew to forecast the trends that would dominate the desert. This included, AI tensions between creativity and efficiency, consolidation in media, advertising, and technology (think “super app”), and of course the impact of socio-political and financial environment.

Here’s how our forecast stacked up to what we actually saw on the CES floor and heard in conversations:

AI Shifts and Tensions

We saw a shift from AI as a concept to AI as infrastructure across the marketing ecosystem. With specialized tools now fully built and operational across the industry, the opportunity and priority is aligning on how these tools are used and coordinate data, media, creative, and operations together. 

With this, every brand approaches AI with their own rules and regulations that are evolving daily. Our Chief Transformation Officer Freddy Dabaghi and Samsung CMO Allison Stransky stressed the importance of open communication channels on use of AI between brands, agencies, and particularly when it comes to creators, on a panel in the CES Creator Space. 

Watch the full conversation here and read more in Marketing Dive…

Integration and Scaling Efficiency 

From Hollywood to Madison Avenue, market consolidation is driving media costs to new heights. With higher prices to advertise, brands are forced to get creative in how they reach people. Creator marketing becomes almost essential, but doing it at scale requires a massive demand for content and better technology to win against shifting algorithms and ensure brand safety.

Sports are Still the Moment 

Investment in sports, sports marketing and technology, is not going anywhere especially in 2026 as we gear up for the Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Our parent company Stagwell announced the launch of Sport Beach as a standalone company at the first annual Sport Beach Tech Summit at CES. Sport Beach is bringing together brand marketers, athletes, and creative trailblazers who are shaping what’s next for an entire 2026 season of events, conversation, and play.

Navigating Now

Overall, this year CES was less about the “what” of the shiny tech and more about the “how.” Companies don’t just want to get smarter, they need to adapt to survive.

We are built for this at Crispin. As a challenger agency for challenger brands, we’re here to help our partners achieve extraordinary things while staying true to who they are. This includes balancing the use of AI, navigating budget pressures, taking responsible creative risks, and more. If there's a challenge we can help you solve, drop us a note at hi@crispin.com