From Prompts to Systems: What 2026 Will Demand of Our Industry
Every January, CES offers an early signal. It shows us what companies are building for, what investors are funding toward, and what workflows are being rebuilt beneath the surface.
What the IAB Tech Lab’s Agentic Roadmap Means for the Future of Digital Advertising
Artificial intelligence is already embedded across the digital advertising ecosystem, but the next phase of evolution is moving beyond optimization tools and into agentic systems. These are autonomous software agents that can plan, negotiate, and execute advertising tasks on behalf of buyers and sellers.
Preparing for the Agentic Era: IAB Tech Lab Advances New Infrastructure with the User Context Protocol
IAB Tech Lab has introduced the User Context Protocol, a new open standard built for the agentic AI era where intelligent systems rely on fast, interoperable, and privacy-aware signal exchange. Powered by embeddings rather than traditional text-based data, UCP enables more efficient ad selection, real-time intent understanding, and trusted communication across the supply chain. As AI reshapes programmatic decisioning, this new framework offers the modern infrastructure the industry needs, and IAB Canada encourages members to stay engaged as these standards take shape.