The Vanguarden team attended DMEXCO 2026 in Cologne to explore how artificial intelligence is moving from experimentation into everyday business practice — and what that transformation means for brands, digital marketing, commerce, and the modern customer journey.

With over 40,000 attendees, more than 700 partners — including 100 agencies — across 10 percent more exhibition space, and approximately 1,000 speakers delivering more than 230 hours of content on 17 stages, DMEXCO 2026 was once again Europe’s premier gathering for digital economy professionals, marketers, and technology leaders.

• DMEXCO is increasingly business-driven: With 2,200 brands represented, roughly one in three visitors held a C-level position — a clear signal that AI and digital strategy are now boardroom priorities.
• Commerce is expanding across the entire digital ecosystem: With around 30 percent more partners, the World of Commerce has grown in both scale and diversity, reflecting the rise of omnichannel and retail media.
• Digital marketing is moving beyond traditional channels: Eleven summits explored the business areas shaping what comes next — from AI-powered commerce and new media models to brand management, creativity, and the creator economy.

For a fine-dining audience, however, the most compelling takeaway from DMEXCO 2026 was not simply how quickly AI technology is advancing.

It was the growing value of everything technology cannot fully automate: creativity, trust, personal connection, and the ability to craft an experience that feels genuinely human.

When Everything Becomes Personalised: AI and the Customer Journey

AI is fundamentally changing the way consumers search, compare, and make purchasing decisions. At DMEXCO 2026, discussions around intelligent search, conversational AI, and automated commerce showed how rapidly the customer journey is migrating into new digital environments — from AI-powered assistants to social commerce and beyond.

For restaurants and hospitality brands, this raises an intriguing question. If technology can increasingly understand what a guest prefers, predict what they might order, and personalise recommendations at scale, where does true hospitality begin?

Technology can support and accelerate that process. But it cannot replace the human intuition, creativity, and personal touch that define a truly memorable experience.

The two-day Commerce Summit drew on real-world examples to show how AI is transforming product discovery, customer advice, and purchasing decisions. Product search is increasingly moving through intelligent systems, social media platforms, creators, and retail and commerce media networks. Brands must respond by providing reliable, structured product information and ensuring visibility across new digital environments. As a result, the boundaries between digital marketing, media, and commerce are blurring — a trend explored in depth across our Business coverage.

Technology Scales — But Relevance Remains Human

On the second day of the event, the CMO Summit examined the strategic consequences of AI-driven transformation for brand leaders and marketing managers. Discussions covered how companies are leveraging AI and first-party data while simultaneously investing in long-term brand equity, customer trust, and sustainable growth. One point emerged clearly: as technological possibilities expand, the importance of deliberate, human-led decisions about where AI creates genuine value — for businesses, brands, and customers — only increases.

“One of the interesting parts of the conversations we are having here at DMEXCO is understanding how AI is changing the strategic direction of CMOs and Marketing teams and how AI visibility is part of that strategy” says 
Ben Porter, Regional Field Marketing and Sales Campaigns at Profound.

Media in 2026: Automation, New Competition, and Ecosystem Diversity

The AdTech Summit, MarTech Summit, DOOH Summit, and Future TV Stage collectively demonstrated how the planning, creation, delivery, and measurement of digital advertising are being reshaped by AI. They also underscored the critical importance of the open web as an advertising platform — and as a foundation for consumer trust. Agentic media buying, new identity solutions, automated marketing, data-driven creative production, and cross-channel full-funnel strategies were among the key focus areas, alongside a broader discussion about what the digital advertising industry needs to grow sustainably as a diverse, open ecosystem.

“The quality of AI is always also a question about the quality of its data — that’s why a reliable data foundation, trust, and transparency are crucial prerequisites for more value creation through automation. The open web has enormous potential in this context with its strong publishers, high-quality environments, and valuable first-party data — and we collectively need to make better use of it. For me, formats such as the BVDW Masterclasses and DMEXCO are important forums for discussing precisely these topics with other market players and driving solutions forward together,” says Rasmus Giese, CEO of United Internet Media.

The media landscape is becoming less defined by individual channels and more by the ability to integrate data, technology, creative production, and distribution into a coherent whole. Connected TV, digital out-of-home, retail and commerce media, search, social platforms, and creator services are converging into a networked media ecosystem — where AI acts as the connective layer.

DMEXCO 2026 underscored just how far-reaching the impact of digital transformation has become. AI is now strategically relevant wherever it transforms existing business models or opens pathways to new ones. At the same time, strong brands, creativity, trust, personal business relationships, and functioning digital ecosystems remain essential to long-term competitiveness and digital sovereignty. “Scaling Intelligence” ultimately means translating technology responsibly into economic and social value — without losing the human connection at the heart of every great customer experience. Read more about how these shifts are affecting the hospitality and restaurant industry in our News section.

The next edition of DMEXCO will take place in Cologne on 22 and 23 September 2027. Brands and agencies can register for DMEXCO 2027 now — and take advantage of repeat booking offers.