How 2025 quietly changed ads forever

New Delhi: Global media network Dentsu has dubbed 2025 “the year of impact,” arguing that the advertising and media business is now firmly entering an “algorithmic era” where every impression is addressable, shoppable and accountable, and where artificial intelligence, retail media and connected TV will decide who wins consumer attention and budgets.

In the 15th edition of its annual Media Trends report, titled The Year of Impact, Dentsu lays out 10 global trends for 2025 under four themes: “Artificial Intelligence to Actual Impact”, “Stories, Expanded”, “The Quest for Quality” and “Unevenly Distributed”. 

The 49-page document calls on brands to treat AI as a core part of the media value chain, double down on storytelling in niche communities, demand higher quality from the programmatic supply chain, and recognise that access to technology and content will become more fragmented across markets.

AI moves from chatbox to everyday media backbone

The report’s first section argued that generative AI will transition decisively from experimentation to tangible applications in 2025, altering how audiences consume media and how brands plan and purchase it.

Under the trend “Your life. Powered by AI”, Dentsu noted that while tools like ChatGPT only launched in late 2022, they have already “deeply impacted” millions of people and will increasingly be embedded inside services rather than accessed as standalone chatbots. Examples cited include Reddit using AI to translate its entire site into French, publishers using large language models to generate audio versions of text stories and alt tags for visually impaired users, Duolingo’s GPT-4-powered “Duolingo Max” tutor, and Spotify’s AI DJ that talks listeners through playlists.

As these “tangible applications” become normal, consumer expectations rise: in a world where search can provide complete answers and interfaces “just work,” people will expect brands to be equally reliable and anticipatory, the report says. At the same time, Dentsu raised concerns about transparency. A large majority of European respondents in its research want brands to disclose when interactions are powered by generative AI, and highlights the heavy energy and resource footprint of training and running large models, urging marketers with carbon targets to factor AI into sustainability plans.

The second AI trend, “The augmented media toolkit”, maps how artificial intelligence is spreading across the media value chain. Beyond platform-specific tools such as Meta’s Advantage+ and Google’s Performance Max, Dentsu expects more brands to build their own AI applications for budgeting, scenario planning, predictive audience insights, cross-channel optimisation and performance analysis. The report argued that AI can both “raise the floor”, making it easier for more teams to do competent media work, and “raise the ceiling” by enabling more sophisticated strategies over time.

However, it stressed that marketers must prioritise use cases that clearly move the needle on process efficiency, media efficiency or effectiveness, and then invest in the underlying data, technology and governance needed to deploy AI responsibly. Transparency, fairness and accountability in both the data fed into models and in the oversight of outputs are framed as non-negotiable.

The third AI trend, “A million micro-moments”, describes how search and social environments are evolving into largely “click-free” experiences, with almost 60% of Google searches in the EU and US ending without a click to the open web. As feeds and answer engines serve increasingly personalised content, consumers can scroll or ask questions for long stretches without leaving a platform. Dentsu warned that this can create “filter bubbles” but also opens more one-to-one “micro-moments” where brands can add value if their content is discoverable, personalised and consistent across touchpoints.

The report pointed to AI-powered business messaging as another arena where micro-moments will accumulate into relationships. It cited payments major Klarna, whose AI assistant handled two-thirds of its customer service chats in one month, cutting resolution times by more than five times and reducing repeat queries, while operating 24/7 in local languages. Dentsu argued that as three-quarters of consumers globally expect AI to be embedded in most aspects of life over the next decade, brands that use it to tailor these micro-interactions will forge stronger connections.

From mass media to niches, CTV and algorithms

The second section, “Stories, Expanded”, stated storytelling will become the best way for brands to “burst the algorithmic bubble” and that power is shifting to creators, fandoms and platforms that control recommendation engines.

In “Power in niches”, Dentsu notes that 85% of CMOs intend to maintain or increase investment in short-form content, 82% in influencer marketing and 81% in livestreaming over the next 12 months, reflecting the centrality of the creator economy. It highlighted how deep-interest communities, from youth subcultures on Chinese resale app Xianyu to giant Reddit forums like r/Costco, now exist at scale and can rival or surpass brand-owned content in influence.

The report also points out that B2B brands and even factories are leaning on influencers on platforms such as TikTok, WeChat and Instagram to generate visits and orders, underscoring that “creator fame is not reserved to broad interest categories”. Over time, Dentsu expects new business models and more personality-led brands to emerge as marketers better measure the long-term impact of creators and communities.

“Connected television gets real scale” tracks how streaming platforms are racing to lock in live sports rights and ad-supported tiers to deepen engagement with both viewers and advertisers. The report noted that linear sports remain huge audience drivers, the 2024 Super Bowl delivered the highest US TV ratings ever for a single-network telecast, and that streamers such as Amazon, Netflix and Japan’s U-Next have signed multi-year deals for NBA, WWE and Premier League rights respectively.

On the advertising side, Dentsu said most new subscribers to services like Peacock, Hulu, Discovery+, Disney+ and Paramount+ in the US are choosing ad-supported plans, while around 40% of new subscribers to Max and Netflix also accept ads. Prime Video’s move to make its ad tier the default has created an addressable audience of more than 200 million and could add an estimated 50 billion impressions to the connected TV ecosystem by the end of 2024. As platforms open to third-party measurement, Dentsu saw CTV combining logged-in targeting with a premium TV experience, but warned of potential inflationary pressure as sports rights become the battleground.

The third trend in this section, “The pivot to algorithm planning”, argues that media is entering a new “algorithm era” after the broadcast and precision eras, with AI-powered recommendation systems acting as gatekeepers for both content and ads. Rather than manually slicing audiences, brands are urged to use automation that blends broad targeting for reach, AI-led prospecting to find new segments and propensity models to decide which creative is most likely to convert each user.

Dentsu stressed that this makes it “non-negotiable” for creative and media teams to work together. Algorithms will increasingly reward high-quality, outcome-linked creative while suppressing poor assets, pushing brands towards what the report calls “algorithm-based creative content”, work that is pre-optimised on performance principles and then dynamically delivered across channels. The agency predicts a shift from channel specialists to “algorithm planners” and ecosystem specialists who design and execute outcome-based strategies for whole platforms rather than isolated media types.

Retail media, supply chain cleanup, and a partnership race

In “The quest for quality”, Dentsu focused on the supply side of media, warning that in a world of near-infinite content, advertisers must seek higher-quality environments and measurement if they want attention and growth.

“Retail reshapes media” charts how retail media is growing at 12.7% as brands chase its closed-loop attribution and shopper data, with players moving from experimental formats to full-fledged ad businesses. Amazon is identified as the category leader, generating more than $50 billion in ad revenue in the past four quarters. Walmart’s proposed acquisition of TV maker Vizio is cited as an example of retailers expanding into connected TV inventory and data, while pharmacy chain CVS’s tie-up with The Trade Desk illustrates how specialised retailers are opening self-serve programmatic access.

At the same time, media companies are moving closer to commerce by combining their assets with shopper data, such as Disney Advertising’s partnership with Latin American e-commerce major Mercado Libre, and through platforms like TikTok, building their own shopping capabilities with millions of merchants. Financial firms are also entering the ad arena: PayPal is building an advertising platform, Chase has launched a media business that uses first-party spend data, and Paramount has tied up with Mastercard for outcome measurement. Dentsu concluded that the convergence of retail, media and payments could allow these players to “dictate the entire advertising market” in an algorithmic future.

“A better supply chain” looks at programmatic quality. With programmatic already accounting for nearly three-quarters of global digital media buying, the report said improved metrics like attention-based measures, for example, “attentive seconds”, supported by eye-tracking studies, are helping CMOs evaluate inventory beyond simple viewability or clicks. It noted that 86% of CMOs see attention as very or critically important and that 87% are using or testing such metrics to optimise media.

Dentsu also pushed for “smart brand protection”, warning that blunt keyword blocks can backfire. In one example, nearly half the articles about the Euro 2024 football final on a leading UK news site reportedly received no ads because words like “shoot” and “attack” were misclassified as unsafe, despite the event being among the year’s biggest TV audiences. 

On sustainability, the report said 45% of CMOs in its study have already taken steps to cut the carbon emissions of their media activity and 47% plan new initiatives, often using carbon calculators. It also flags concern about systemic inequity in the ad supply chain and urges more support for minority-owned media to maintain a diverse ecosystem.

The third trend, “The partnership gold rush”, highlights a wave of content and data deals driven by both generative AI and streaming. On the AI side, OpenAI’s licensing agreements with publishers such as The Financial Times, Reddit, Vox Media and News Corp, and Perplexity’s tie-ups with Der Spiegel and Time, are cited as examples of platforms seeking high-quality data to train models and build tools.

‘No better time to make an impact’

Summing up, the report said 2025 will offer brands a rare chance to shape the algorithmic future of media if they are willing to rethink how they use AI, invest in storytelling across ecosystems, demand quality from their partners and confront the realities of an unevenly distributed digital world. “As the media landscape undergoes a profound transformation, there has never been a better time than 2025 to make an impact,” the conclusion noted.