The year 2026 will require retailers and advertisers to move beyond traditional management and sales models to grow alongside the transformations of a market redefined by the increasingly intensive use of digital technologies. Executives from Criteo, a global platform connecting the commerce ecosystem, share their predictions for the coming year, addressing the use of autonomous artificial intelligence, the rise of social commerce, the arrival of TV 3.0 in the Brazilian market, and the World Cup, which is expected to boost the retail, tourism, and advertising ecosystem.
See below some of the predictions for 2026 from Criteo executives:
Social commerce will be one of the major bets
For Tiago Cardoso, General Manager of Criteo for Latin America, social commerce is poised to solidify in 2026 as one of the main drivers of conversion in the digital environment, fueled by the increasingly seamless integration between content, influence, and transaction. “For D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands and smaller e-commerce companies, this model proves especially attractive as it reduces friction in the purchase journey and better aligns incentives for content creators, who gain new monetization mechanisms through sales visibility and direct commission,”, says the executive.
Retail media will evolve into a retail operating system
For Sherry Smith, President of Retail Media at Criteo, retail media will evolve from a purely advertising channel to become the operating system of retail. “Media, merchandising, and commerce data will finally work as a single system, offering retailers a unified engine to define how products are discovered, priced, promoted, and sold. This transformation will eliminate long-standing fragmentation and give brands clearer insights, greater control, and the ability to drive real business outcomes across all retail touchpoints.”Please provide the Portuguese text that follows ", afirma." I need the complete sentence to translate it accurately.
Advertisers will seek a balance between humans and AI agents
According to Tiago Cardoso, although the impact of AI on the e-commerce and advertising market in Brazil is still growing, it is already drawing the attention of consumers and companies. One of the most relevant shifts in this transformation is the evolution from traditional SEO to AI-based recommendation models, both in search engines and within digital platforms and AI tools themselves. “The coming year will require advertisers to conduct a closer and more strategic analysis to understand how these changes affect visibility, measurement, and decision-making,"“states the executive.
Cardoso points out that as AI agents begin to mediate online product discovery and direct traffic to e-commerce sites and marketplaces, the market trend for advertisers is to seek more precise measurement tools to identify what constitutes a consumer action versus what was initiated or influenced by an AI agent. However, the use of AI goes beyond this; it should be used internally by advertisers to elevate service quality, personalize commercial interactions, achieve operational efficiency, and be decisive for the entire business strategy.
CTV will solidify and TV 3.0 arrives on the market in 2026
Although CTV is widely discussed in the advertising market, Tiago Cardoso emphasizes that the medium is still seen as a complement to advertisers“ other strategies; however, it will likely gain more strength in 2026. "CTV allows for targeting, audience precision, and effective measurement, in addition to following the user throughout their purchase journey. As this advances and the channel delivers messages truly aligned with other channels, CTV should solidify as one of the main drivers of video advertising growth in Brazil,”, says the executive.
Regarding TV 3.0, which will have its first test broadcasts in the first half of 2026, Cardoso highlights that there is still a long way to go for it to establish itself as an advertising channel comparable to CTV. “Usability barriers, such as the difficulty of making purchases directly via the remote control, may limit the adoption of more conversion-oriented formats by advertisers.” The executive further explains that TV 3.0's main competitor will not be traditional TV, but rather the on-demand online ecosystem, especially streaming platforms, which already offer personalized experiences, programmatic buying, and metrics closer to digital standards.
Given this, the trend for the coming year points to increasing and more mature investments in CTV, guided by results measurement and integration with business objectives, while TV 3.0 gradually advances, requiring testing and a clear definition of KPIs to prove its value in the advertising ecosystem.
The World Cup may elevate the retail and tourism advertising ecosystem
Tiago Cardoso highlights the 2026 World Cup as an important moment for the growth of retail, tourism, and the entire advertising ecosystem. The event is expected to stimulate consumption of licensed and targeted products, increase demand for travel, experiences, and entertainment, and significantly accelerate media and communication investments by brands.
“With large audiences, high emotional engagement, and multiple touchpoints throughout the consumer journey, the championship creates an especially favorable environment for integrated marketing strategies, retail media, and brand activations,"“says Cardoso. In this context, the executive believes that 2026 could solidify as a decisive year for players who manage to plan ahead, achieving above-market-average performance and surpassing initial projections for the period.
