by Alina Pruteanu, Digital Development Director, and Suzana Lay, Planning Director, The Grove Media
Nobody can be in any doubt that AI will be driving the changes next year. So, we’ve made our 2026 trends all about AI. There will be opportunities and challenges a plenty but, as ever with new technology, ‘don’t believe the hype’. Adopt a careful, real world media approach: start small, test and learn and scale out. Here at The Grove Media, we are on hand to help.
AI discovery and the rise of GEO
What’s happening
With the rapid growth of AI assistants, we’re seeing the emergence of generative engine optimisation (GEO) as an important media tactic. GEO is focused on optimising content so AI tools can understand, summarise and cite it when generating answers for users.
Why it matters
Traditional search engine volume is set to drop by 25% in 2026 (Gartner) as more of us turn to AI-powered tools for answers. Using search engine optimization (SEO) to dominate search engine results pages (SERP) and maximise clicks will become less important as we move more towards a world of AI discovery driven by authority, citation and trust signals.
Action steps for 2026
- Assess your SEO best practice as it’s the foundation for GEO
- Ensure you have strong EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust) signals to get in front of customers through both search and AI discovery
- Review your full digital discovery and start to test the principles of GEO
Take advantage of publisher LLM deals
What’s happening
Major publishers are agreeing licensing deals with public and private large language models (LLMs) to help train them and make previously gated content available through AI discovery. Whilst advertising with key publishers will still maintain its relevance in 2026, you need to start thinking what the future will look like.
Why it matters
AI-driven content consumption reduces traditional clicks, and attention is moving from clicks to answers. Users increasingly get decisions from AI summaries powered by a small, licensed set of “trusted” publishers, rather than browsing lists of links. Publishers become the gateway to the knowledge layer. If your category relies on expert journalism, then being positively featured in those articles is how you show up in AI answers. For advertisers, the key near-term opportunity isn’t “buying ads inside publishers or AI agents.” It’s earning presence in the answers via content, PR, and publisher partnerships.
Action steps for 2026
- Monitor publisher-LMM integrations and identify which publishers are trusted by your audience.
- Prioritise PR, thought leadership and case studies with those titles so your brand is present in the content that LLMs are most likely to cite.
- Start measuring ‘AI visibility’ as a performance layer. Track publisher mentions of your brand in AI answers using citation monitoring and brand tracking tools.
- Prepare assets for conversational and contextual formats. Ads are set to follow but brands will only benefit if they already own citations in the content.
Get ready for Agentic AI
What’s happening
We’re now using AI agents, such as Chat GPT, to manage complex search and content tasks. Enter Agentic AI: multiple AI agents working together to complete even bigger tasks – such as researching, booking and paying for holiday – with little human oversight or intervention.
Why it matters
Agentic AI has the potential to connect currently siloed marketing tools, allowing AI to make decisions and take actions across platforms. Marketers and agencies could use agentic AI to save time and money in areas such as budget management, cross-channel orchestration, insight generation and reporting.
Action steps for 2026
- Stay informed and apply real-world media thinking as AI evolves
- Understand how agentic might accelerate the mundane tasks that currently constrain strategic and creative activities
- Test and learn with partners pushing forward with agentic
ChatGPT is set to take ads
What’s happening
Code references such as ‘search ads carousel’ have been found in ChatGPT prompting speculation that the AI agent’s owner OpenAI will unveil an advertising proposition in 2026. Ads will likely be embedded directly into conversational responses and competitors such as Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’ Copilot will no doubt follow suit.
Why it matters
This is another significant shift inadvertising from click-based search to intent-based conversation. Google is actively monetising its AI Mode search as its commercial model moves away from traditional paid search.
Action steps for 2026
- Follow the announcements and expect inventory to be premium, limited and more highly priced than traditional search
- Prepare for high-intent, low-volume audiences rather than mass reach
- Test success metrics: AI discovery factors like product data, reviews, pricing and credibility are also likely to influence ad performance
Conversational commerce will be big
What’s happening
In September 2025, OpenAI and Shopify officially announced their partnership to integrate shopping capabilities directly into ChatGPT. This will allow users to discover, compare, and purchase products from Shopify merchants without leaving ChatGPT’s interface. Other AI agents, such as Perplexity’s Comet have also integrated shopping features.
Why it matters
This is the start of a shift towards AI-powered, conversational commerce. Paid ads are set to follow this integration, with an inevitable impact on paid search. Expect to see more integrated shopping-based AI assistants, eg Amazon’s Rufus, possibly with ad opportunities.
Action steps for 2026
- Review your brand’s AI discovery to see if and how AI assistants surface your products in answers
- Optimise feeds for conversational discovery: update product titles, descriptions and metadata with natural, descriptive language
- Set aside budget to test and learn with shopping based ads that are set to be available with the likes of Chat GPT and Comet
The pace of AI innovation shows no signs of slowing. By 2027 and beyond, we can expect deeper integration of AI into every stage of the marketing funnel. For agencies, the winning strategy will be agility: continuously adapting to new technologies, experimenting with emerging ad formats, and building partnerships that unlock AI-driven creativity. The future isn’t just automated, it’s intelligent, personalized, and conversational.
Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash
