Dstillery Sponsors IAB State of Data 2026

New Report Finds AI Could Help Unlock $26.3B in Media Investment

NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its latest industry benchmark report, IAB State of Data 2026: The AI-Powered Measurement Transformation, sponsored by Dstillery. The report explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping advanced measurement and identifies the opportunities, challenges, and practical realities of AI adoption across the buy-side.

Developed by IAB in partnership with BWG Global, the study is based on a survey of more than 400 senior decision-makers at brands and agencies with expertise in planning or analytics. The research reflects the urgency with which senior agency and brand executives are seeking AI-driven approaches to modernize measurement, build trust, and guide smarter media investment decisions.

Key findings from the report reveal that while advanced measurement is widely adopted on the buy-side, 60% to 75% of users say current solutions fall short on rigor, timeliness, trust, and efficiency. Notably, no respondents believe all paid channels are well represented in today’s marketing mix models (MMMs).

Despite these gaps, the buy-side sees strong potential for AI to materially improve advanced measurement within the next one to two years. IAB estimates these improvements could help unlock $26.3 billion in media investment and $6.2 billion in industry-wide productivity value. About half of the respondents report already scaling AI within their current measurement frameworks, while more than 70% of those not yet scaling expect to do so in the near future.

At the same time, the report highlights ongoing concerns around legal and security risks, accuracy, and data quality. Roughly half of respondents cite these as significant or critical issues, yet fewer than 40% say they currently have or plan to implement solutions to address them. The study also points to a growing shift toward contractual accountability, with AI-related clauses now appearing in approximately 40% of brand-agency and partner contracts, a figure expected to double over the next one to two years.

“The broader AI tsunami is powering a wave of predictive technology advances in digital advertising,” said Michael Beebe, CEO of Dstillery. “Measurement is fundamental to the industry’s value proposition, and AI-driven gains in measurement efficiency and effectiveness will feed back through campaigns. For Dstillery, better measurement provides more accurate conversion data to seed our targeting models and optimize campaigns, unlocking a flywheel of greater scale, media efficiency, and performance. The economic gains for advertisers forecast by the IAB are compelling.”

As a proud sponsor of the IAB State of Data 2026 report, Dstillery supports the industry’s effort to confront the root causes of broken measurement — including signal loss, fragmented data, and underrepresented channels — and to move toward AI-powered approaches that connect insight to action. Through its continued investment in multimodal AI, Dstillery is helping brands and agencies evolve audience strategy and activation in ways that perform even when deterministic identifiers fall short, enabling better outcomes in a privacy-first world.

ABOUT DSTILLERY
Dstillery is the leading AI ad targeting company. We empower brands and agencies to target their best prospects for high-performing programmatic advertising campaigns. Our audience targeting solutions are powered by multimodal AI — a breakthrough in AI that learns from any form of data and applies it to any form of data, making it the most flexible targeting engine in the market. Backed by our award-winning Data Science, Dstillery has earned 25 patents (and counting) for the AI technology that powers our precise, scalable audiences. To learn more, visit us at www.dstillery.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

ABOUT IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership comprises more than 700 leading media companies, brands, agencies, and the technology firms responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital ad marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing.

In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, IAB develops technical standards and solutions. IAB is committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and collaboration of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., the trade association advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.

Media Contact
Michael Vaughan
mvaughan@kcsa.com
(813) 210-1706

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