As we enter the new year, we asked media industry association leaders to share highlights from 2025 and trends they anticipate for 2026. While AI use proliferated across media and advertising, so did a renewed commitment to implementing measures that strengthen trust, transparency and accountability with audiences and advertisers.
This is the first of two articles featuring their insights. Here’s what they had to say.
Trust, transparency and accountability are requirements
Across the industry, leaders agreed that 2025 marked a turning point. With most companies implementing AI in some way, the concept of trust shifted from an abstract value to a measurable data point.
“2025 was the year our industry finally recognized that trust is not a ‘soft’ value but a measurable, operational asset,” said Andrew Susman, president, Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE). “From audited media to audited influence and audited AI, we began to bring verifiable standards to parts of the advertising economy that had previously relied on good intentions alone.”
That shift toward greater trust and transparency is delivering measurable results, according to Mike Zaneis, president and CEO of the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG).
“The advertising industry has made tremendous strides over the last two years in improving supply chain transparency,” Zaneis said. He cited the recent ANA Programmatic Transparency Benchmark that found advertisers have reclaimed more than $13 billion in misdirected, misappropriated and misspent advertising investment. “This increased transparency is paying big dividends for advertisers and publishers with the share of ad spend that reaches publishers rising to 47.1 percent — an 11-point increase since 2023.”
Media companies must make ethics a priority
Leaders emphasized that as new technologies are implemented, organizations must prioritize ethical use.
“AI accountability is one of the forces that will define 2026,” Susman said. “The era of ungoverned algorithmic decision-making is ending. Companies will need verifiable guardrails: documentation, explainability and audited conformance.”
In the events and exhibitions sector, ethical implementation is becoming just as important as technical capability.
“Organizations should embrace ethical innovation as a strategic framework. This means not just adopting new technologies but thoughtfully considering how they serve stakeholder needs while protecting individual rights and dignity,” said Marsha Flanagan, M.Ed., CEM, president and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events® (IAEE). “This involves transparent communication about data usage, privacy protections and AI implementation as well as inviting stakeholders into the conversation.”
Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of News/Media Alliance, emphasized the need for publishers to remain committed to delivering trusted, high-quality journalism.
“In a world where news consumers are increasingly fed unverified and unreliable information and trust in media keeps dropping, it's absolutely critical that publishers double down on providing their communities with trusted, credible, quality content,” she said. “We need to work together to build trust in the media as a whole, whether that's on a national scale or on an intensely local one.”
For more insights and predictions from media industry leaders, read the second article in the series.
