2026: The rise of privacy, identity and performance

A Year of Acceleration and Reflection

In our industry, it is now customary to close the year with a moment of reflection on what has happened in our market and, for the more audacious, to attempt predictions for the future. This second exercise proves more difficult each year because the rules of the game are changing ever more rapidly due to new ways of content consumption, greater user sensitivity towards privacy, and technological acceleration.

However, in light of what we experienced in 2025, we can outline the macro-trends that will most likely accompany us into the imminent 2026 and towards which Utiq is actively working to contribute.

Publishers Regain Strategic Power Through Identity

My first point concerns publishers, who are the core of my daily activity and for whom the period of profound transformation continues. The end of cookies, the multiplication of consumption environments, and the increasing centrality of privacy are shifting value towards those who possess an authentic relationship with the user—and publishers are currently in the best position to become the true protagonists of this new scenario.

Specifically, publishers who have already built a strategy based on user-consented identity, transparency, and first-party data activation will finally be able to overcome years of dependency on probabilistic models and increasingly complex marketplaces. Thanks to infrastructures that allow for the deterministic reconciliation of users, even anonymous ones, across browsers, apps, and devices, publishers will be able to:

• Achieve superior and more stable monetization
• Activate first-party data securely and at scale
• Reduce profile duplication and build unified audiences
• Personalize content in real time, even for non-logged-in users
• Collaborate in clean rooms without exposing personal data

In other words, publishers will evolve from simple inventory owners into players fully sovereign over their digital identity, capable of offering advertisers what they seek most: real reach, quality, addressability, and transparency. This new centrality is not an option: it is a decisive competitive advantage in a market where privacy is no longer just a regulatory requirement, but an element of trust and value.

An Industry Navigating Fragmentation, Privacy and Automation

However, publishers—along with all actors in the digital advertising sector—will have to navigate a very complex context composed of various intersecting elements, laying the groundwork for a future that requires a strategic balance between technology, trust, and user privacy for sustainable growth.

An inevitable mention goes to Generative AI and total automation: programmatic advertising will tend toward an almost completely autonomous model. Dynamic creative, predictive segmentation, and continuous optimization will naturally coexist. Naturally, this will only work with reliable data and clear consent: two aspects we are strongly pushing for a true AI-first approach.

The fragmentation of digital identity is also a theme we will face in the new year. Cookies, increasingly limited and scattered across AI-based browsers, do not offer a coherent view of the user. In this environment, CTV has the potential to consolidate as the main driver of advertising investment, in a context where the ability to identify a single user is almost non-existent. This reinforces the competitive advantage of those who already base their strategies on secure, durable, and consent-centric identity models.

Data Clean Rooms will become the definitive neutral space for measurement, insight generation, and collaboration between brands and publishers without exposing sensitive data. Interoperability and collaboration IDs will enable new forms of joint work. We actively support this ecosystem to facilitate solid, privacy-respecting connections.

Programmatic advertising will surpass 90% of global display by integrating diverse formats and hybrid contexts, where automation, transparency, and measurement will serve as pillars. In this environment, privacy-first identity will be essential for sustainable growth.

A New Data Economy: Retail Media, Consent and Personalisation

We will witness the affirmation of Retail Media thanks to retailers who will evolve into advanced ecosystems. Activation and measurement will be closely linked to actual purchasing behavior and the quality of consented data, thus creating a natural space for brand–retailer collaborations based on secure identity, fostering more direct and effective relationships with consumers.

Finally, data provided directly by users—actively or passively—will become the foundation for meaningful personalization, while third-party data continues to lose relevance. The key will be to activate this data without compromising privacy, an aspect we are constantly addressing in our conversations with partners.

2026: A Year Defined by Balance and Responsibility

Therefore, we are going to face a year in which our industry must balance creativity, technology, and user trust like never before. Those who manage to do so transparently and responsibly will be the ones who truly make a difference.