As we begin the New Year, we spoke to industry leaders to reflect on the shifts that shaped 2025 and the forces expected to define 2026. For Sujata Dwibedy, CEO, dentsu X India, 2025 marked a decisive pivot from linear media models to personalised, AI-powered, attention-led ecosystems.
Here’s how she sums up the year that was—and why it quietly reset the media industry’s foundations: “2025 was a year of quiet but decisive change for the media industry. Technology advanced rapidly, consumer behaviour evolved, and the fight for attention intensified. Together, these forces pushed the industry away from traditional, linear models towards personalised, on-demand experiences and more sophisticated ways of monetising attention.
Artificial Intelligence, including Generative AI, moved from the edges into everyday practice. It helped speed up content creation, reduce production costs, and automate routine processes. At the same time, it raised important questions around authenticity, originality, and copyright. These are conversations the industry can no longer avoid.
Media creation also became more distributed. Creator-led ecosystems gained real influence, with macro, micro, and nano creators playing a meaningful role in driving outcomes, not just reach. Social platforms emerged as the primary engines of discovery and advertising, powered by AI-led personalisation, while social commerce began to establish itself as a credible growth channel. Search also evolved. It increasingly started on AI platforms and extended across social and commerce environments, fundamentally changing how consumers discover, evaluate, and choose brands.”
Looking ahead, Dwibedy believes the conversation shifts from possibility to purpose—where intent, impact, and accountability take centre stage: “Looking ahead, 2026 will be less about experimentation and more about intent. Technology will continue to advance, but success will depend on how thoughtfully it is applied. AI augmented innovation will become the norm. AI will act as a collaborator, not a replacement. It will accelerate research, insights, and execution, while human judgement remains central to governance, ethics, and bias management. The focus will shift from proof of concept to proof of impact, with AI embedded into core systems to deliver measurable and trusted outcomes at scale.
Conversational search will redefine SEO. Discovery will move beyond keywords to intent-driven, conversational queries across AI interfaces, social platforms, and commerce environments. Brands will need to think in terms of search everywhere, earning visibility and credibility wherever consumers are asking questions. Video led commerce will accelerate. Video will move from storytelling to transaction, with live shopping, shoppable formats, and interactive content becoming mainstream. Performance will be measured across the full funnel, linking attention to action and views to real business outcomes.
More broadly, AI will increasingly function as the operating system for marketing. It will power analytics, optimisation, media buying, and customer journeys. The creator economy will evolve towards co creation, with creators acting as long term partners rather than distribution channels. As platforms fragment, authenticity and community will become true brand moats, driving greater investment in owned channels, micro communities, and user generated content.”
(As told to Neeta Nair)
