News and Insights
Two shifts reshaping how media actually works
January 21, 2026
January is always a reset. The gyms are packed. Everyone is manifesting something. Media teams are opening dashboards with fresh eyes, trying to separate what actually worked from what simply ran.
This month’s Media Pulse looks at two shifts already reshaping how media works in practice. One is changing how plans are built and adjusted as AI and automation move deeper into the workflow. The other highlights where human judgment still does the most work, especially as systems get faster and more standardized.
Trend 1: Media planning is shifting from channels to systems
What feels different this year is not just what we’re planning, but how planning itself is evolving. AI is being pushed into every major platform workflow, whether teams are ready for it or not. Targeting continues to compress, and automation has moved from test case to expectation, even if adoption is still uneven.
The real impact is that planning and execution are starting to blur together faster than most organizations are structurally set up to handle. Decisions that once happened upstream now happen continuously, with audience and targeting signals evolving mid-flight and budgets moving faster than ever before.
Here’s where things get messy. Everyone is pushing (guilty as charged) to automate and drive efficiency with AI. Platforms expect it. Leadership teams are prioritizing it. At the same time, the planning process itself is still changing, with roles overlapping, ownership being redefined, and no real sense yet that the system has fully settled into place.
So the question is no longer just how do we automate, but what exactly are we automating?
This tension showed up repeatedly in CES coverage this year. Not through flashy ad formats but in how companies talked about infrastructure: AI framed as a decision layer, ecosystems discussed more than channels, and measurement conversations focused on adaptability rather than attribution perfection. The takeaway wasn’t that everything is automated now. It was that systems are being built to respond, not just optimize, often while the process itself is still being defined.
💓 The Pulse
- Planning and buying are collapsing into one another: Gone are the days of “the planner” and “the buyer.” Many teams are already operating somewhere in between, whether they’ve named it or not.
- Traditional channels aren’t losing relevance: Broadcast still delivers scale. Audio still delivers intimacy. OOH still delivers presence. What’s changing is how they’re planned, increasingly as part of a connected system around the same audience rather than standalone line items optimized in isolation.
- The real risk isn’t moving too slowly: It’s automating a process before it’s been designed with intent.
OUR TAKE
Perfect plans are losing to resilient ones. Automation is not the enemy, and neither is speed. But efficiency without clarity just locks in the wrong behavior faster. The teams getting this right are evolving their processes and their systems in parallel, making sure human judgment still defines the rules before handing the keys over to machines.
Trend 2: The thinking that’s holding it all together
Which brings us to the other side of this. The volume of work has exploded. Performance Max needs breadth. Meta wants variation. Clients want seasonal refreshes, always-on testing and faster turnarounds than ever before. And honestly, that makes sense. The technology is there to support it, and when done right, it creates real momentum.
Creative teams are executing at a pace that would have been unthinkable five years ago. Media teams are managing more platforms, more automation and more real-time optimization than the role was ever designed for. Everyone is moving fast, and the systems we’re working within expect us to keep feeding them more.
But speed and volume, while necessary, aren’t the same thing as strategy. And in the rush to keep up, something important risks getting lost: the thinking that makes all of it work.
Creative thinking – the kind that’s clear, differentiated and built to travel — is what holds it together. It gives platforms something meaningful to optimize around, not just patterns to amplify. Because media isn’t just distribution. Deciding where a message shows up, in what sequence and how touchpoints reinforce each other – that’s creative thinking too. A beautifully shot video won’t perform if it’s showing up at the wrong moment. And the smartest media plan in the world will fall flat if the creative doesn’t land.
When all sides are aligned around a solid idea, omnichannel campaigns don’t just check a box. They build momentum. OOH that sets up a digital moment, audio that reinforces brand recall, and search that captures intent at exactly the right time. Each channel does what it does best, and together they create something bigger than the sum of its parts.
💓 The Pulse
- Make it a collaboration, not a handoff: The best work happens when creative and media think together early, shaping both the idea and how it comes to life – so whether
- Volume is necessary, but it’s not strategy: Platforms need variation to learn, but they also need a strong foundation to build from.
- Context is creative: Where something shows up and when isn’t just logistics — it’s part of the story.
OUR TAKE
AI can handle versioning, testing and, optimization at a scale we couldn’t imagine a few years ago. That’s powerful, and we should absolutely use it.
But the thinking that defines what’s worth saying, and how it should show up, still requires people who understand how ideas need to flex and how touchpoints connect to build something that lasts.
And, yes, this is dangerously close to LinkedIn “lessons learned” territory, but all the AI in the world can’t replace understanding what actually makes people care. That part is still on us.
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About the author
Ashley Blais is Partner at FINN Partners, co-leading the Paid Media team, a group that spends most days navigating the fast-paced, fast-changing media landscape and figuring out what actually works. The team delivers a full suite of services, including omnichannel planning and buying, performance media strategy and management, and comprehensive measurement, resulting in award-winning campaigns that drive client success.
POSTED BY: Ashley Blais
