What's in store for the programmatic world in 2025? We asked members of our Programmatic Trading Committee (PTC) for their predictions on the trends and themes that will shape the industry over the next 12 months. Take a look below to see their insights, including 2025 buzzword predictions!
We’re grateful to our PTC members for their valuable contributions. Check out their predictions, quotes, and perspectives below:
Josephine Howe, Senior Marketing Manager, Microsoft Advertising
"2025 will mark a technologically innovative year in programmatic advertising. Machine learning has played an important role for many years in our industry, yet we will start to see the adoption of further AI capabilities to make existing business models more effective and introduce new, exciting ad formats we have not thought of before.
Programmatic advertising has traditionally been a fast-evolving field where upskilling at pace is a table stake - this will enhance adoption even further. Beyond that, I believe 2025 will be a significant year for highly efficient personalised, yet privacy-safe advertising solutions. Browser APIs are to stand the test of time with the chance of being introduced at a broader scale."
Alex Still, Chief Commercial Officer, Verve
"Gamified advertising is set to experience a revival in 2025, with in-app ads seamlessly integrating into platform experiences. This reflects a shift toward greater media efficiency, as underutilised channels like in-app, DOOH, and audio gain prominence, offering brands opportunities for meaningful engagement with less competition. At the same time, privacy updates on platforms like iOS and Android will push brands to adopt advanced contextual targeting solutions to maintain effectiveness while respecting user privacy."
Jörg Vogelsang, Chief Digital Officer, BCN Brand Community Network & Vice Chair of IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee
"In the field of digital advertising, AI is, for now, mainly used for creation. In 2025, I expect further application possibilities, which will lead to significant improvements and efficiency increases in the backend for instance in the area of campaign management and campaign strategy.
Also, contextual targeting is something I would expect to develop further as well as hyper-personalisation. A negative aspect of AI is that websites and content can be generated very easily and cheaply, which benefits made for advertising websites. This is already a major issue in the US and the UK. In Germany, the proportion of MFA websites is expected to increase – awareness of the risks of MFA sites needs to be raised among advertisers. Alongside programmatic I assume that the proportion of curated marketplaces will increase."
Samir Chabab VP, Global Field Marketing, Ogury
"In 2025, AI and addressability will be key drivers of growth in the advertising industry. While 2024 focused on discovering and targeting audiences, this trend will accelerate as privacy concerns continue to rise. With more consumers opting out of data-sharing requests, advertisers will need to find innovative ways to reach their audience without compromising privacy.
AI will be at the forefront of this shift, enhancing real-time bidding, optimising ad placements, and predicting user behavior with greater precision. In this privacy-conscious environment, leveraging zero-party data—information willingly shared by consumers—will be crucial for creating personalised, performance-driven campaigns that respect user preferences, while ensuring effective targeting."
Ben Geach, Advertising Tech Lead, Google
"2024 was the year that marketers became comfortable with the advantages that AI gave them to compliment their own skillset, and 2025 we will see the adoption of these tools into every stage of the advertising workflow - from creative asset generation, through scaling campaign set-up to optimising & analysing results in real-time - AI tooling can provide this (& more) at scale, getting the right message, to the right customers, at the right time. Allowing marketers to be more responsive, highly innovative & results orientated."
Ekkehardt Schlottbohm, Regional VP, Northern Europe, PubMatic
"In 2025, the digital advertising industry will continue to evolve with a strong emphasis on transparency, efficiency, and audience-driven strategies. Agencies and brands will increasingly prioritise gaining control of the programmatic supply chain to ensure fair distribution of ad spend and improve publisher compensation."
Key trends include:
Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and Unlocking Working Media: Buyers will focus on tools and partnerships that provide deeper insights into the ad spend journey. By eliminating inefficient intermediaries and promoting open collaboration, the industry will enhance transparency and optimise media investments.
Curation: Organising premium inventory aligned with audience data will enable buyers to access high-quality, fraud-free, and brand-safe inventory. This approach, supported by advanced technology, will drive scalability, reduce costs, and maximise performance.
Connected TV (CTV) Evolution: Programmatic technology will continue to integrate into CTV buying, bridging traditional IO models with modern programmatic solutions. This shift will empower advertisers to achieve addressability and frequency control while maintaining the quality of direct deals."
Sam Matharu, EMEA Director of Analytics, Marketing Science
"Generative Creative - 2025 will be the year that programmatic creatives become boosted by Generative AI. We will move from dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) to GCO (Generative Creative Optimisation). Brands like Coca-Cola have already made hero adverts such as their Christmas TV Campaign with AI and we will see more of this next year - allowing scale, relevance, and applied creativity."
Franziska Motta Ferraz, VP, Media Owner Development, EMEA, Criteo
"In 2025, programmatic advertising will play a pivotal role in unlocking the potential of commerce media. By leveraging automation, data-driven insights, and real-time decision-making, programmatic will empower advertisers to connect with consumers more effectively and drive growth."
Consumer Behaviour Shifts - Adapting to Evolving Journeys: Consumer shopping behaviour has undergone significant changes, with more touchpoints and channels shaping the buyer’s journey. To address these shifts, new supply, signals, and experiences are being created to foster the change in consumer behaviour. Programmatic advertising tools need to adapt to stay attuned to consumer needs to ensure brands can effectively build trust, engagement, and long-term loyalty. The next iteration of commerce of the open web will emphasise ubiquity and frictionless shopping experiences across publisher content, social networks, and retailer websites. It will integrate advanced technologies, such as AI and identity signals, to create hyper-connected ecosystems where every interaction can potentially lead to a purchase.
Commerce Everywhere: Enabling Seamless Shopping Experiences: As consumer expectations lean heavily towards convenience, 2025 will likely see a surge in shoppable ad formats and commerce content. These formats and commerce will enable consumers to become closer to the point of purchase, minimising friction in the shopping journey.
Moreover, commerce media networks will further integrate advertising into retail environments—both onsite and offsite—blurring the lines between discovery and purchase.
The Power of AI Prediction Models in Advertising:
As commerce becomes intertwined into the consumer shopping journey, a whole new host of commerce-focused signals are created. Everything from products viewed, categories explored, time spent on specific product pages to brands engaged with on social platforms, and search terms used to create wish list, are all commerce-focused signals that are now at our fingertips.
With the increase in the number of signals, AI prediction models will revolutionise how brands deliver targeted and relevant ads. By analysing patterns and predicting consumer intent, AI is set to become a key driver in 2025, enabling hyper-personalised messaging tailored to individual preferences and providing contextually relevant ad placements during ideal points of purchase for better user experiences.
The integration of real-time insights, personalisation, and deep learning will not only improve ad effectiveness but also help brands build stronger emotional connections with their audiences.
Tanya Field, CPO and Co-founder, Novatiq
"2025 will prove decisive as regulators determine how to manage Google's influence in the advertising realm. This could manifest either as a sell-off, a breakup of its business, or a push for greater openness, with the aim of fostering healthier competition within the ad tech ecosystem.
Concurrently, expect further challenges to emerge around the methods marketers use to reach consumers online, with a likely crackdown on third-party solutions and a greater drive towards first-party alternatives. AI will, of course, continue to be a major trend in the year ahead but expect greater scrutiny into its workings. The focus will shift to integrating AI with robust privacy standards, ensuring that consumer protection and data privacy are not compromised. Finally, the re-election of Trump could potentially result in privacy challenges in the US, with the balance between consumer rights and the ability of businesses to use their data coming under pressure."
Josephine: "Generative artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, personalisation."
Alex: "Gamified advertising, contextual targeting, media efficiency."
Jörg: "Evolution of AI, made for advertising, curated marketplaces, cookieless future / post cookie."
Giulia: "Personified advertising, privacy, addressability."
Ben: "Consumer choice, AI-powered campaigns, Creative x GenAI."
Ekkehardt: "Media curation."
Sam: "AI, addressability, incremental reach."
Franziska: "Commerce media, data signals, AI prediction models
Tanya: "Hyper personalisation, CTV dominance, media efficiency, AI privacy challenges, telco data, telco-verified IDs, telco-verification services."
Josephine: "Adoption, upskilling, innovation, privacy, security."
Alex: "Transition."
Jörg: "Change & evolution."
Giulia: "Consumer trust."
Ben: "Evolving consumer habits."
Ekkehardt: "Unlocking Working Media."
Sam: "Mainstream AI."
Franziska: "Commerce everywhere."
Tanya: "Turbulent and regressive."
