The programmatic advertising landscape is shifting faster than ever, and keeping pace requires more than just new tools—it demands a fundamental rethink of how technology and strategy intersect.
In our latest interview with industry leaders, we sat down with Yang Han, Co-Founder and CTO of StackAdapt, to unpack the findings from The State of Programmatic Advertising 2026. This comprehensive report offers a clear look at where the market is heading, moving beyond hype to reveal how top-performing marketers are actually driving revenue growth in a maturing digital ecosystem.
At the heart of this transformation is artificial intelligence (AI), which Han explains has evolved from a simple feature into the “connective intelligence layer” powering modern campaigns. Additionally, Han shares crucial insights on overcoming the challenge of true orchestration in a fragmented media world, the necessity of consolidating tech stacks and the untapped potential of emerging channels like CTV and DOOH.
Demand Gen Report (DGR): Yang, thanks for taking time out of your schedule for this interview. How do you see the role of AI evolving in programmatic advertising beyond 2026? What was the most surprising trend or insight you uncovered while compiling this report?
Han: Thanks for having me. AI is moving from being a feature to becoming the connective intelligence layer across creative, data, and optimization. In 2026, we’ll see AI accelerating workflows such as creative iteration, strategic planning, multi-channel orchestration, and customer insights. It isn’t replacing marketers but amplifying their impact. Marketers making major AI investments are already seeing stronger revenue gains and are nearly twice as likely to expect disruption in campaign orchestration.
What surprised us most was not enthusiasm for AI, but the performance gap already emerging. Marketers seeing the strongest gains are 20 percentage points more likely to be investing meaningfully in AI. At the same time, adoption of AI-assisted ad creation increased 59% year-over-year among advertisers, including formats like motion and video, showing that AI is already enabling scalable creative production.
More than automation, AI’s real power is accelerating the decisions that compound performance over time.
DGR: What are the most immediate areas where AI can deliver value for marketers, and how should they prioritize adoption?
Han: The fastest ROI comes from three areas:
- Dynamic creative optimization
- Strategic planning and multi-channel orchestration
- Customer insight generation from first-party data
On our platform, advertisers activating first-party data strategies see up to 2X higher ROAS compared to third-party targeting. Dynamic creative optimization drives 32% higher CTR and 56% lower CPC.
Our advice is simple: Embed AI where it improves speed and decision quality immediately, including creative iteration, audience understanding, and cross-channel coordination. Treat it as an accelerant and pair machine-generated iterations with human creative direction.
Adjusting to Budget Challenges
DGR: What are the biggest challenges marketers face in achieving full-funnel maturity, and how can they overcome them?
Han: The biggest barrier is no longer measurement, it’s orchestration. While 97.6% of campaigns run with multi-touch attribution enabled, much of that is platform default rather than deliberate strategy. Marketers have visibility, but not always the connected workflows to act on insights.
The solution starts small. Define a minimum viable omnichannel model, typically two to three connected channels with unified KPIs and sequencing logic. Standardize naming conventions, taxonomy, and reporting frameworks. Maturity comes from operational discipline, not just technology.
DGR: What specific steps can marketers take to reduce budget waste caused by siloed channel execution?
Han: Two-thirds of marketers believe siloed execution wastes up to 30% of their programmatic budgets. The fastest way to reduce waste is to move from parallel channel buying to coordinated multi-channel execution.
Start by connecting CTV and display retargeting or video and social retargeting. With StackAdapt, multi-channel campaigns drive 47% higher engagement than single-channel campaigns among expert-tier advertisers. Unified execution improves measurable performance, while fragmentation erodes efficiency and scale.
DGR: What are the key indicators that a tech stack is ready for consolidation, and how should marketers prioritize this process?
Han: If you have overlapping tools across data management, audience targeting, creative production, and measurement, you’re ready to go. Top performers are four times more likely to consolidate 50% or more of their stack by 2027 and are 22% more likely to credit consolidated platforms for improved ROI.
Consolidation is not about cutting tools for cost savings. It’s about unlocking intelligence across creative, data, and activation in one system. The inflection point appears around 25 to 50% stack modernization, where connected intelligence begins to drive measurable performance lift.
Keeping Humanity at Forefront
DGR: How do you see the balance between specialized tools and consolidated platforms shifting in the next few years?
Han: Specialization will remain important, but intelligence will consolidate. Marketers are pushing creative, identity, orchestration, and attribution into unified environments powered by shared first-party data. Instead of disconnected point solutions, we’re seeing integrated workflows where AI, measurement, and activation live together. The future is more connected systems.
DGR: How can marketers ensure that AI complements human creativity rather than replacing it?
Han: The best-performing teams use AI to expand creative variation, not to eliminate creative thinking. Motion and video creative production grew 59% year over year, driven in part by AI-assisted editing and resizing. AI handles versioning, format adaptation, and signal-based adjustments. Humans define the narrative, the emotional hook, and the brand voice. When paired intentionally, AI scales creative ambition instead of diluting it.
DGR: What are the most common pitfalls marketers face when attempting omnichannel orchestration, and how can they avoid them?
Han: Confusing running multiple channels with true orchestration— 75% of marketers say they run omnichannel campaigns, but few execute coordinated sequencing across channels. Many rely on dashboards for visibility but lack activation logic connecting CTV, display, and social in a continuous loop. Avoid this by:
- Starting with two to three connected channels
- Aligning on shared KPIs
- Standardizing measurement frameworks
- Sequencing creative intentionally
Omnichannel maturity is built operationally, not aspirationally.
Where the Market is Moving To
DGR: Which emerging channels do you believe hold the most potential for marketers in 2026 and beyond?
Han: CTV and DOOH are transitioning from experimental to full-funnel performance channels. Top performers are significantly more likely to invest in programmatic direct mail, in-game advertising, and DOOH, with a 12 to 16 percentage point performance delta over peers. CTV ad spend is projected to grow at a 12% annual rate through 2029, outpacing digital overall. Meanwhile, AI-assisted creative production is lowering barriers to entry, making premium formats accessible to brands of all sizes. Emerging channels are no longer just awareness drivers. They are performance engines when connected properly.
DGR: If you had to pick one key takeaway for marketers from this report, what would it be?
Han: Performance advantage now comes from connected systems. The marketers seeing the strongest gains are unifying channels, consolidating intelligently, embedding AI pragmatically, and investing earlier in emerging formats. The future belongs to marketers who align creative, data, and media into one continuous cycle of insight and improvement.
Additionally, measurement clarity has improved, but it remains imperfect and opaque. It is simply no longer the primary constraint. The operational layer has not kept pace. The gap between visibility and orchestration is where marketers see wasted spend. The next competitive advantage will not come from adding more tools. It will come from connecting the right ones and letting intelligence flow across them. That is the defining transition for programmatic in 2026.
