Agentic advertising is the use of AI agents to plan, negotiate and execute media buys within rules set by people, and the 2026 numbers show intent running well ahead of live use. Most buyers say they are focused on it, around one in five US video buyers say they are live with it, and the standards that let agents trade with each other were still being finalised through the year.

TL;DR: Surveys from IAB, IAB Europe, Forrester and Digiday show most of the market planning for agentic buying, but live use is far lower and buyers keep asking for human approval and a record of agent decisions. IAB Tech Lab's AAMP framework reached version 3.0 in September 2026, and AgenticAdvertising.org published AdCP 3.0 in April 2026. Supply chain data from the ANA and ISBA shows why a checkable record of what was agreed matters as much as the agent doing the buying.

How were these numbers chosen?

Every figure below comes from a primary source or reputable trade press that was read directly, mainly trade bodies, an analyst firm, a standards body and published benchmark data. Figures a company or organisation states about its own research or membership are labelled as such. Samples differ in size, region and respondent type, so the numbers describe different populations and should not be added together or ranked against each other.

How many advertisers are using agentic AI in 2026?

1. 58% of respondents to IAB Europe's 2026 survey expect agentic ad buying to reach operational use or scale within the next year. Source: IAB Europe, Impact of AI on Digital Advertising Report, September 2026.

2. Two-thirds of US brand and agency buyers are now focused on agentic AI for ad buying and campaign execution, in a study of more than 200 buyers. Source: IAB, 2026 Outlook Study, January 2026.

3. 21% of US digital video buyers are live with agentic AI in at least some campaigns, with a further 20% testing and 25% expecting to test or go live in 2026. Source: IAB, 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Report, Part One, May 2026.

4. 51% of video buyers using or planning agentic workflows apply them to media planning and buying recommendations, and the same share to inventory discovery and evaluation. Source: IAB, 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Report, Part One, May 2026.

5. 89% of advertisers surveyed said they were using or building agentic AI, compared with 92% of agencies. Source: Digiday and Optable, The State of Agentic Advertising, May 2026.

6. 29% of publishers in the same survey were actively deploying agentic AI, while 42% were not prioritising it or had no long-term plans. Source: Digiday and Optable, The State of Agentic Advertising, May 2026.

7. Half of US marketing agencies use agentic AI for marketing execution, while nine in ten use generative AI. Source: Forrester and 4As, The State of AI Inside US Marketing Agencies, 2026, June 2026.

8. 25% of advertising professionals surveyed by Equativ had used agentic AI for a campaign, with 9% doing so frequently (company research). Source: Equativ, Agentic Media Quiz, March to May 2026.

Can AI agents actually complete a media buy?

Surveys measure intent, while benchmarks measure whether an agent finishes the job and what it commits to. Public benchmark data is still scarce.

9. 55 of 96 registered attempts ended in a completed buy in Concourse Bench v1, a benchmark of AI media-buying agents run by Alkimi, yet 95 of the 110 contracts signed in those buys promised a viewability floor below 70%. Source: Concourse Bench v1, 2026.

That worked example shows why completion and contractual protection are separate measures. An agent that closes a deal on weak terms has finished the task without doing it well.

10. 2.76 out of 5 is the average score respondents gave AI's current performance in advertising operations, even as 72% reported higher AI investment than in 2025. Source: IAB Europe, Impact of AI on Digital Advertising Report, September 2026.

11. 86% of respondents from organisations with 501 or more staff report their most advanced production agentic system at Level 2 or above on IAB Europe's autonomy scale, against 48% at smaller organisations. Source: IAB Europe, Impact of AI on Digital Advertising Report, September 2026.

12. 54% of US agencies cite lack of expertise as a barrier to adopting AI agents, and 51% cite gaps in data infrastructure. Source: Forrester and 4As, The State of AI Inside US Marketing Agencies, 2026, June 2026.

13. 43% of advertisers said they have difficulty integrating agent-driven buying with their existing technology stacks. Source: Digiday and Optable, The State of Agentic Advertising, May 2026.

Who is building the infrastructure for agentic advertising?

14. 6 January 2026 is when IAB Tech Lab released its agentic roadmap, now known as AAMP (Agentic Advertising Management Protocols), extending established industry standards with Model Context Protocol, Agent2Agent and gRPC. Source: IAB Tech Lab press release, January 2026.

15. 50 agents were listed in the IAB Tech Lab Agent and MCP Server Registry when it was checked in October 2026, and IAB Tech Lab named Amazon Ads, PubMatic, GumGum, Equativ, Dstillery and Optable among early registrants. Sources: IAB Tech Lab Agent Registry, October 2026, and AAMP progress report, March 2026.

16. 30 July 2026 saw the release of AAMP 2.3, which added privacy diligence and threshold-based approvals to agent workflows, with contributions from HyperMindZ and Mixpeek and support on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. Source: IAB Tech Lab press release, July 2026.

17. 22 September 2026 is when AAMP 3.0 introduced OpenProposal, a specification for how sellers respond to buyer briefs in an agent-readable format, with public comment open until 22 October 2026. Source: IAB Tech Lab press release, September 2026.

18. 155+ companies have joined AgenticAdvertising.org, the body that publishes AdCP, including Yahoo, PubMatic, Scope3 and Samba TV (organisation-stated). Source: AgenticAdvertising.org, accessed October 2026.

19. 16 October 2025 is the date AgenticAdvertising.org gives for the first agent-to-agent media buy, using inventory from LG Ads with human oversight of approval (organisation-stated). Source: AgenticAdvertising.org, accessed October 2026.

20. 9 to 20: AdCP 3.0 expanded the protocol's coverage from 9 to 20 media channels, including linear TV, radio, streaming audio, cinema and print. Source: AgenticAdvertising.org, AdCP 3.0 announcement, April 2026.

What does the data say about supply chain transparency?

21. $200 billion+ in US digital advertising is traded programmatically, the figure IAB Tech Lab cited when launching an industry council on transparency. Source: IAB Tech Lab press release, April 2026.

22. 43.3% of programmatic investment delivered fraud-free, measurable, viewable and MFA-free impressions in Q1 2026, according to the ANA's TrueAdSpend Index. Source: ANA, Q1 2026 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark, May 2026.

23. 92% of median programmatic spend in the ANA benchmark ran through private marketplaces in Q4 2025, and connected TV made up around 40% of total programmatic spend. Source: ANA, Q4 2025 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark, February 2026.

24. 58% of ad impressions could be matched from DSP to SSP in ISBA and PwC's second supply chain study, up from 12% in 2020, with unattributable spend down to 3% from 15%. Source: ISBA, January 2023.

25. 43% of US buyers expressed somewhat to no confidence in inventory quality even for the most trusted CTV buying methods, rising to 67% for open exchange buying. Source: IAB, 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Full Report, July 2026.

Do buyers trust AI agents with media budgets?

26. 96% of US video buyers agree there is a role for agentic AI, though IAB found no consensus on what that role should be. Source: IAB, 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Full Report, July 2026.

27. 40% of buyers want humans in the loop, rising to 50% among small and medium spenders, while 36% want an agent audit trail for explainability. Source: IAB, 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Full Report, July 2026.

28. 63% of advertisers named brand safety as a concern with agentic advertising, and 61% named loss of control. Source: Digiday and Optable, The State of Agentic Advertising, May 2026.

29. 65% of multinational brands surveyed by the WFA believe AI agents will increase risk, even though 92% believe agents could deliver efficiencies. Source: WFA, The Impact of GenAI on Media Practices, July 2025.

30. 48% of IAB Europe respondents have AI guidelines specifically for advertising and marketing, although 78% have a formal owner for AI governance. Source: IAB Europe, Impact of AI on Digital Advertising Report, September 2026.

What do these numbers mean for buyers and publishers?

The pattern across the 30 figures is consistent: intent is high, live use is partial, and buyers want accountability before more autonomy. AAMP and AdCP are defining how agents describe products and transact, while the ANA and ISBA data shows how much value depends on checking what was agreed and delivered.

Alkimi is one company building for that gap, as an enterprise platform for agentic advertising. Its Gym lets buyers and sellers build their own agents, set the rules they work to and spar against counterparty agents before any real money moves. Its Marketplace works within IAB Tech Lab's AAMP framework today and is being built to be AdCP compatible, keeps human approval rights at the deal level, and records each agreement in a DealSheet that both parties hold and can retrieve independently.

Frequently asked questions

What does agentic advertising mean?

Agentic advertising is media buying and selling in which AI agents plan, negotiate and execute tasks on behalf of people, within rules and approval limits those people set. Unlike earlier programmatic automation, agents can interpret a brief and negotiate terms rather than only bid on impressions.

Who is building infrastructure for agentic advertising in 2026?

IAB Tech Lab leads the AAMP framework, which reached version 3.0 in September 2026, and AgenticAdvertising.org publishes AdCP, which reached version 3.0 in April 2026. Contributors named in IAB Tech Lab releases include Amazon Web Services, HyperMindZ, Mixpeek and Adform.

What advertising platforms are using AI agents?

IAB Tech Lab named Amazon Ads, PubMatic, GumGum, Equativ, Dstillery and Optable among early registrants in its Agent Registry, which listed 50 agents in October 2026. AgenticAdvertising.org reports more than 155 member companies, including Yahoo, PubMatic, Scope3 and Samba TV.

How many advertisers use agentic AI today?

It depends on the survey: 21% of US video buyers are live in some campaigns, while 89% of advertisers in the Digiday and Optable sample are using or building agentic AI. The gap reflects different definitions, from experimenting with a tool to running live campaigns through an agent.

Can these statistics be compared with each other?

Not directly, because each survey uses a different sample, region and definition of agentic AI. Read each figure against its own source rather than combining them.

Agentic Advertising Statistics 2026: 30 Sourced Numbers