Answering Your Biggest Questions from CES 2026

Budgets are tight. Scrutiny is up. Outcomes matter.

Over four days in Vegas, we met with more than 260 clients. The same questions surfaced again and again. Below are the four we heard most often — and how we answered them.

Frakenstacks kill momentum. In a survey published last year, 66% of marketers said they’re using 16 or more martech tools and 70% said that’s making identifying audiences across multiple touchpoints harder than ever… and it isn’t improving.

Identity is the silver bullet that ends fragmentation. When you unify your disconnected data into a single source of truth, you see the real people behind the marketing personas, fueling better strategies, more effective personalization and stronger messaging.

But in 2026, success depends not just on unifying your data but also on removing obtacles. Speed will win. That’s why identity resolution in the cloud (like our partnership with Snowflake) is so important. By eliminating data movement, you get to an unobstructed customer view faster — all while keeping consumer privacy at the forefront. 

In a world of shrinking budgets and growing scrutiny, a firm grasp on marketing outcomes is key to unlocking real insights and building confidence with the C-suite.

But if you can’t trust measurement, you can’t optimize. According to research from eMarketer, trust in marketing measurement is stalling, grinding optimization to a halt and eroding confidence. No surprise this was top of mind at CES.

Trust starts with a unified view of performance. Fragmented reports and conflicting insights pull teams in different directions, creating friction and driving progress to a standstill. A single, cohesive view of performance that integrates data from all methodologies — from MMM to attribution — keeps everyone marching to the same beat and accelerates decisive action.

Looking for a real-world example? Bayer used our identity-driven measurement solutions to bring together its previously siloed MMM and MTA models into a holistic view of campaign performance, saving its marketing and data teams hundreds of hours annually and boosting its incremental ROI by 6%.

Consumers expect relevance and demand privacy. Marketers have been walking a personalization-privacy tightrope for years. Delivering relevant experiences while safeguarding consumer data has always involved tradeoffs, but shifting expectations have made striking the right balance even trickier.

In a recent survey of US consumers, 39% of respondents (the largest cohort) said they expect personalized recommendations when shopping online. But 80% of those surveyed also said they were concerned about sharing personal information. The message is clear: Consumers want tailored experiences — but not at the expense of privacy.

The source matters. You can’t afford unknown data lineage. Responsibly sourced third-party data is the key to helping reach your goals while staying aligned with consumer expectations and legal requirements — enabling privacy-safe personalization at scale.

In 2024, we ensured all third-party data providers on the TruAudience^® Data Marketplace were thoroughly assessed and vetted by SafeGuard Privacy, providing marketers with the quality data they need while respecting consumer privacy and staying compliant with local, state and federal laws.

The AI hype train isn’t slowing down, but as time goes on, marketers are beginning to look past the splashy use cases and demos and ask the real question: “What can it do for me?”

We’ve been thinking about that too. AI fails without data readiness. A striking 94% of marketers said they used AI systems in some capacity in 2025, but only 8.6% considered themselves prepared to leverage AI to its full potential. Even more eye-catching: 60% of AI projects will be abandoned in 2026 because of a lack of AI readiness. That’s wasted time, effort and budget that marketers can’t afford.

AI is only as good as the data you put in.

Clean, unified data produces meaningful, actionable outputs. Without strong data foundations, even the most advanced AI models produce flawed insights — leading to bad decisions and wasted resources.

If CES 2026 had a single theme, it would be outcomes.

We heard you loud and clear: You want to know if your investments are paying off.

The good news: A clearer view of your data, deeper audience insight and stronger marketing performance are closer than ever — with the right partner by your side. If you want to learn more about how to find clarity in today’s chaotic marketing world, let’s talk.