2026 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM): IAB CEO Keynote Presentation

In this powerful 30th-anniversary keynote, IAB’s CEO, David Cohen, lays out a bold call to action for the digital advertising and media industry as AI, agentic systems, and shifting consumer behaviors reshape the internet at unprecedented speed. As we prepare for a world where bots outnumber humans online, the session explores how commerce, measurement, media, the creator economy, and workforce workflows are fundamentally evolving.

The keynote also spotlights IAB’s major initiatives for the year ahead — including AI transparency frameworks, next-generation measurement standards, retail and social commerce guidance, creator economy standardization, and Project Eidos to modernize measurement in the data ecosystem. Blending urgency with optimism, the message is clear: the future will be built by an industry willing to rethink everything — together.