Seven In 10 Marketers Now Call AI Most Important Consumer Trend.

What key trends are marketing professionals watching most closely in the second half of 2025? According to Mediaocean’s survey conducted in May among more than 450 marketers and agencies — along with media companies, measurement firms, tech platforms, and other industry cohorts — the far-and-away winner is generative AI.

Mentioned by seven in 10 respondents, or 72% of the sample, AI is up from just more than half (55%) naming it the trend to watch a year ago, and comfortably ahead of CTV/streaming at 51%. Plummeting in importance is TikTok/social video, down from 47% a year ago to 32% in this wave of Mediaocean’s survey.

Other trends with increasing importance are e-commerce everywhere — at 36%, now ahead of social video — and political and advocacy trends, up to 20% from 15% a year ago.

A deeper dive into marketers’ beliefs about AI shows that 31% feel that its impact on creative optimization over the next year will be one of “major disruption,” while 25% feel the same about AI’s impact on media planning and buying.

“Generative AI remains the most important consumer trend, with advances in multimodal tools and intelligent agents reshaping consumer expectations,” Mediaocean’s report says. “Meanwhile, political and advocacy trends are sharply rising, forcing brands to tune into cultural, regulatory and economic signals more closely than ever.”

As to how the sample is currently using AI in their marketing, nearly half say it’s for data analysis (47%) or market research (46%), the latter up noticeably from 40%. “Marketers are going beyond experimentation, embedding AI into core marketing functions,” the report says. “Market research and website development saw major upticks, while creative optimization is poised for disruption through AI-driven copy, imagery and versioning. While media planning systems may lag, the groundwork for AI transformation is clearly under way.”

CTV, second-ranked in importance, is driven primarily by personalizing ads with dynamic and relevant creative messages, according to marketers, followed by measuring reach, frequency and outcomes across the media buy.

“CTV has evolved into a true full-funnel channel, with marketers prioritizing dynamic personalization and accountable measurement,” the Mediaocean analysis says, “but challenges remain — particularly due to fragmentation. The next phase will depend on better cross-platform visibility and connected tools that turn insights into action.”

The survey also finds that 60% of marketers continue to view performance-driven paid media as the most critical advertising and media investment, ahead of brand advertising (51%).

“As we move toward the close of 2025 and 2026 comes into view, marketers will face an inflection point,” the report says. “The retirement of legacy IDs, growing expectations for personalized experiences, and rapid AI evolution will require agility, investment and cross-functional alignment. The brands that succeed won’t just react — they’ll proactively architect marketing systems that are intelligent, connected and future-ready.”