AI has the potential to automate point tasks in the existing ad management chain and even to transform the entire way media is transacted.
The data and addressability of digital combined with the reach of linear is a powerful advertising proposition – albeit one media publishers have yet to master. One challenge is managing the complexity of distributing linear and VOD content onto multiple platforms. Adding AI into the mix promises to streamline the whole system and even to make ads more personalised and targeted than ever.
“AI is nascent in the industry,” says Rhys McLachlan, Director of Advanced Advertising at UK commercial broadcaster ITV. “There’s a lot of hype around it. In some respects, rightly so. In other respects, it’s a classic Gartner lifecycle curve. We need to be wary that the opportunities are maybe slightly overinflated versus what it can practically deliver in terms of value.”...
You are not signed in
Only registered users can read the rest of this article.
Innovation Awards: Investigating 2026’s Content Creation finalists
What does it take to win a technological innovation award in Content Creation? Fergal Ringrose, Chair of Judges for the IBC Innovation Awards, assesses the top three projects in the running – revealing the key characteristics of each of the most competitive submissions.
Branded entertainment: Money, freedom, and audiences unite
As traditional broadcasters battle decreasing budgets and attention spans, brands have come to the fore as collaborators in an increasingly lucrative and creatively fertile strand of the media business.
FRAMES: Automating the archive end-to-end
Despite the availability of hundreds of generative AI tools, pre-production environments are still struggling to find a semantic archive search solution that is technically feasible and effective in the real world. Enter FRAMES.
IBC Accelerator: Scaling the future of immersive festival experiences
Stepping beyond the screen, this IBC Accelerator project has set out to meld immersive technology and audience interaction into an entirely new form of audience engagement.
Content Everywhere: From AI promise to commercial reality
If IBC2025 was defined by conversations about artificial intelligence’s transformative potential, the past 12 months have been about proving where it can deliver tangible business value. CE exhibitors now describe a market that has become more pragmatic.



