UK advertisers brace for AI content chaos as brand safety concerns surge

Integral Ad Science released its 2026 UK Industry Pulse Report on December 8, 2025, surveying 220 digital media experts in October 2025 to identify critical challenges facing advertisers, agencies, publishers, and platforms throughout the coming year. The research, conducted in partnership with YouGov, reveals an industry grappling with explosive AI-generated content growth while simultaneously investing heavily in channels where quality control remains elusive.

Digital video emerged as the overwhelming priority format, with 87% of respondents citing it as essential for 2026 strategies—significantly ahead of digital display at 81% and digital audio at 55%. Social media retained its position as the top priority environment at 82%, followed by influencer marketing at 60% and video livestreaming at 52%. This concentration of investment in video and social channels creates mounting pressure on measurement systems designed to ensure brand safety across billions of daily impressions.

AI content explosion drives demand for verification infrastructure

More than half of surveyed media experts—56%—identified ad adjacency to AI-generated content as a major digital media challenge for 2026, according to the IAS report. This concern reflects the proliferation of machine-generated text, images, and videos across social platforms and digital video environments throughout 2025. The technology enabling rapid content creation at scale simultaneously complicates efforts to maintain brand safety standards and suitability controls.

Despite widespread concern, 50% of media experts expressed excitement about AI developments in digital media and anticipated opportunities to advertise alongside AI-generated content. This cautious optimism suggests the industry recognizes commercial potential while acknowledging substantial risks. Forty-two percent indicated they would take extra precautions before advertising within AI-generated content, highlighting the tension between innovation and brand protection.

Content quality concerns dominated unsuitable AI content categories. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they would avoid content containing inaccurate information, misinformation, disinformation, or AI hallucinations. Sixty-three percent would avoid content providing ad-spammy or cluttered user experiences, while 61% would exclude content that regurgitates or plagiarizes existing material. These preferences underscore advertiser demand for distinguishing high-quality AI content from low-value machine-generated spam designed primarily to capture advertising revenue.

The report identified 40% of media experts citing that increasing levels of AI-generated content unsuitable for brands represents a serious threat to media quality over the next twelve months. This finding aligns with industry concerns about made-for-advertising sites that emerged throughout 2025, where fraudulent publishers deployed automated content generation to maximize impression inventory without regard for user experience or editorial standards.

Social media drives innovation while amplifying risk exposure

Social media maintained dominance as the top digital environment priority, with 82% of respondents identifying it as essential for 2026 strategies. However, 41% simultaneously identified social media as facing serious challenges across the industry—the highest percentage among all media types surveyed. This paradox reflects social platforms' unmatched reach and engagement capabilities alongside persistent content moderation difficulties and brand safety vulnerabilities.

Influencer marketing continues maturing rapidly, with 77% of media experts agreeing it will become an increasingly important component of social media advertising strategies. The growth trajectory brings corresponding scrutiny: 79% indicated brand safety and suitability of the social influencer or creator will be an important consideration when advertising adjacent to digital video content. This concern extends beyond the content itself to encompass the creator's entire online presence, past statements, and potential for controversial behavior that could damage brand reputation.

The proliferation of AI-generated content on social platforms represents a specific concern for 2026. Seventy-three percent of respondents identified increasing levels of AI-generated content in social media as a significant concern requiring monitoring. Eighty-one percent stated third-party measurement and optimization will be important in identifying and classifying AI-generated content within platforms, while 75% emphasized the importance of avoiding advertising adjacent to deceptive AI content on social media.

Media quality measurement emerged as critical for social media success. Eighty-five percent of respondents identified viewability as an important metric when assessing social media campaigns, with an equal 85% citing attention measurement as important to evaluate campaign performance. Seventy-one percent indicated insufficient transparency regarding media quality metrics within social media platforms will negatively impact media spend decisions, suggesting platforms must provide greater visibility into placement quality to maintain advertiser confidence.

Digital video expansion demands sophisticated content analysis

Digital video's 87% priority rating reflects continued consumer shift toward video consumption across mobile devices and social feeds. Eighty-one percent of media experts cited the accelerating consumption of social video platforms as a factor that will continue driving programmatic video ad spend throughout 2026. However, 31% identified digital video as facing serious challenges across the industry—the second-highest concern after social media.

Brand safety concerns escalate alongside video volume growth. Eighty-two percent of respondents agreed brand safety will be a growing concern as the volume of digital video ads increases. Eighty-nine percent indicated brand safety and suitability of the influencer or creator will be an important consideration when advertising adjacent to digital video content, highlighting the intersection between creator economy growth and brand protection imperatives.

The complexity of video content analysis requires advanced technology capabilities. Seventy-eight percent of media experts stated harnessing machine learning to detect and classify multimedia content will ensure digital video ads are placed in brand-safe and suitable environments. This sentiment reflects recognition that text-based keyword analysis proves insufficient for video environments where visual imagery, audio tracks, and contextual signals all contribute to content appropriateness.

AI-generated video content presents unique verification challenges. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated the ability to identify, classify, target, and avoid AI-generated content will be needed as these content types become more prevalent within digital video platforms. Seventy-eight percent emphasized third-party measurement and optimization will be important to avoid digital video advertising adjacent to deceptive AI content, suggesting platform-provided controls alone cannot address sophisticated synthetic media.

Connected TV measurement gaps persist despite channel maturity

Connected TV has established itself as a cornerstone media environment, yet measurement capabilities lag behind advertiser requirements. Eighty-two percent of respondents agreed brand safety in CTV environments will be a growing concern as the volume of CTV inventory and the number of CTV sellers increase. This finding reflects the fragmented nature of streaming advertising ecosystems, where inventory quality varies dramatically across platforms, applications, and content providers.

Ad fraud concerns compound CTV measurement challenges. Seventy-six percent of media experts indicated ad fraud—including bots, malware, and spoofing—will be a greater concern as the volume of ad-supported CTV inventory grows. Invalid traffic detection proves more difficult in CTV environments compared to web-based programmatic advertising due to limited device-level signals and restricted measurement capabilities imposed by streaming platforms and device manufacturers.

Attention measurement emerged as a critical CTV metric for 2026. Eighty-four percent of respondents stated measuring attention in CTV ads will become a growing concern as marketers seek clearer indicators of campaign performance. This emphasis reflects frustration with completion rate metrics that fail to capture whether viewers actively watched ads or simply left rooms while content played automatically.

Cross-platform integration requirements intensified throughout 2025. Eighty-three percent of media experts indicated it will be critical for advertisers to integrate cross-platform targeting and tracking into CTV campaigns. This finding acknowledges that consumers engage with content across multiple screens and devices, requiring unified measurement approaches that connect CTV impressions with broader customer journey touchpoints.

Frequency management represents another persistent CTV challenge. Seventy-six percent of respondents stated it will be critical for media measurement and optimization platforms to help advertisers avoid CTV ad frequency overloads. Excessive repetition damages brand perception and wastes budget, yet fragmented streaming ecosystems prevent effective frequency capping across platforms and applications.

Retail media networks demand programmatic-grade verification

Retail media networks evolved from emerging channels to essential commerce-focused advertising environments throughout 2024 and 2025. The 2026 Industry Pulse Report found 40% of media experts identifying retail media networks as a top priority digital environment, placing them fifth behind social media, influencer marketing, video livestreaming, and search.

Media quality considerations prove equally important in retail media as in traditional programmatic environments. Eighty-four percent of respondents agreed measuring attention is an important metric to evaluate retail media network campaign performance, while 82% cited viewability as an important metric. An equal 82% indicated brand suitability will be an important strategy to boost campaign performance in retail media contexts.

The expansion of retail media networks beyond on-site placements to offsite inventory amplifies brand safety requirements. As retail media networks extend reach through programmatic partnerships and publisher integrations, advertisements increasingly appear in environments requiring the same verification infrastructure advertisers apply across open web campaigns. Seventy-eight percent of media experts stated brand safety and suitability of an influencer or creator will be an important consideration when advertising adjacent to influencer content on retail media networks.

AI-generated content concerns extend to retail media environments as well. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated increasing levels of AI-generated content in retail media networks will be a significant concern requiring monitoring. This finding suggests retail media platforms cannot assume immunity from synthetic content proliferation affecting other digital advertising channels.

Sustainability priorities elevate among UK publishers

Carbon emissions monitoring emerged as a top priority for UK publishers surveyed in the research. Forty percent identified monitoring carbon emissions from programmatic advertising as their most important issue for 2026—the highest-ranked concern among publisher and platform respondents. This emphasis on sustainability reflects growing recognition that programmatic advertising infrastructure generates substantial energy consumption through data center operations, real-time bidding calculations, and content delivery networks.

The focus on programmatic advertising's environmental impact contrasts with advertiser and agency priorities, where 78% identified ad content adjacency as the top challenge, followed by 50% citing ad fraud and made-for-advertising sites, and 40% highlighting ability to assess measurement and outcomes. This divergence suggests publishers face distinct operational pressures around sustainable business practices while advertisers remain focused primarily on media quality and fraud prevention.

Sustainable media buying practices gained traction throughout 2025 as major advertisers began incorporating carbon impact metrics into campaign evaluation frameworks alongside traditional performance indicators. The IAS report positioned sustainable, responsible media buying as becoming a core pillar of media quality—expanding the definition beyond brand safety, viewability, and fraud prevention to encompass environmental considerations.

Made-for-advertising sites persist despite detection advances

Ad fraud and made-for-advertising sites represented the second-highest challenge cited by advertisers and agencies at 50%, according to the IAS findings. MFA sites continue proliferating despite industry efforts to identify and block low-quality inventory designed primarily to generate advertising revenue rather than serve user needs. These sites typically feature minimal original content, excessive ad loads, clickbait headlines, and aggregated or plagiarized material from legitimate publishers.

The Association of National Advertisers formalized MFA definitions throughout 2025, providing clearer standards for identifying problematic inventory. IAS developed AI-driven classification technology trained against widely adopted MFA domain lists, enabling detection and blocking at scale. However, fraudulent publishers continuously evolve tactics to evade detection systems, creating an ongoing arms race between verification providers and bad actors.

Digital display advertising remains particularly vulnerable to MFA site infiltration and fraud schemes. Twenty-nine percent of survey respondents identified digital display as facing serious challenges across the media industry in 2026—the third-highest concern after social media and digital video. Display advertising's programmatic nature and broad inventory availability create opportunities for fraudulent publishers to insert low-quality placements into legitimate campaigns.

The report findings emphasize that 40% of media experts cited ability to assess measurement and outcomes as a major digital media challenge for 2026 among advertisers and agencies. This concern reflects persistent transparency gaps around where ads actually appear, what contexts surround placements, and whether impressions reach real human audiences rather than bots or fraudulent traffic sources.

Viewability and attention metrics converge as performance indicators

Traditional viewability standards—measuring whether ads appeared in viewable screen positions for minimum time thresholds—continue serving as baseline media quality metrics. However, attention measurement gained prominence as a more sophisticated indicator of actual user engagement throughout 2025. The IAS survey found 84% of respondents agreeing attention measurement will be important when evaluating campaign performance across social, programmatic, and retail media environments.

Attention metrics attempt to capture whether users actually noticed and processed advertising messages rather than simply registering technical impression delivery. These measurements incorporate factors including placement prominence, surrounding content quality, device type, user interaction patterns, and viewability duration. The sophistication of attention measurement systems varies considerably across vendors, creating challenges for standardization and cross-platform comparison.

Viewability maintained importance despite attention measurement's rise. Eighty-five percent of media experts cited viewability as an important metric when assessing social media campaigns, 82% identified it as important for CTV campaign evaluation, and 82% emphasized its importance in retail media network contexts. This consistent emphasis suggests viewability serves as a foundational requirement while attention provides additional performance insights.

The convergence of multiple media quality signals—viewability, attention, brand safety, suitability, fraud detection, and increasingly carbon impact—creates complexity for campaign optimization. Advertisers must balance competing priorities while working within platform-specific constraints that limit third-party measurement integration. This challenge intensifies across walled garden environments including social platforms, streaming services, and retail media networks that restrict external verification access.

Third-party verification demand intensifies amid platform limitations

Insufficient transparency from platforms regarding media quality metrics emerged as a significant concern. Seventy-one percent of respondents indicated that inadequate transparency within social media platforms will negatively impact media spend decisions. This sentiment reflects advertiser frustration with limited visibility into placement details, content contexts, and performance verification beyond platform-provided reporting.

The importance of third-party measurement and optimization grew across multiple contexts throughout the survey findings. Eighty-one percent of media experts stated third-party solutions will be important in identifying and classifying AI-generated content within social platforms, while 75% emphasized their importance in avoiding advertising adjacent to deceptive AI content. Similar majorities cited third-party verification as critical for CTV multimedia content classification (79%) and retail media performance evaluation.

Platform resistance to external measurement integration remains a persistent industry tension. Major social media companies and streaming platforms historically limited third-party verification access, citing user privacy concerns, technical complexity, and proprietary competitive advantages. However, advertiser pressure for transparent verification drove gradual expansion of measurement partnerships throughout 2024 and 2025, with vendors including IAS, DoubleVerify, and others launching enhanced capabilities across previously restricted environments.

The Media Rating Council issued updated policies in October 2025 requiring that brand safety verification services analyze images, videos, and audio content rather than relying solely on text and keywords. This policy shift acknowledges that sophisticated content analysis proves essential for accurately assessing brand safety in video-first environments where visual and auditory signals convey meaning independent of accompanying text.

Programmatic infrastructure adapts to AI detection requirements

The rapid proliferation of AI-generated content throughout 2025 forced programmatic advertising infrastructure to evolve classification and targeting capabilities. Real-time bidding systems operating on sub-second response times must now incorporate AI content detection alongside traditional brand safety signals, viewability predictions, fraud screening, and audience targeting parameters. This added complexity strains computational resources while maintaining the speed requirements enabling programmatic efficiency.

Machine learning models power AI content detection by analyzing multiple signals including image characteristics suggesting synthetic generation, audio patterns indicating text-to-speech systems, linguistic markers typical of large language model output, and metadata suggesting automated content production. These systems must achieve high accuracy rates to avoid incorrectly flagging human-created content while reliably identifying machine-generated material across diverse content formats and quality levels.

The survey findings indicate 78% of media experts believe harnessing machine learning to detect and classify multimedia content will ensure ads are placed in brand-safe and suitable environments across digital video and CTV. This emphasis on multimedia analysis reflects recognition that AI-generated content increasingly appears in video formats rather than static display placements, requiring more sophisticated detection approaches than keyword-based systems provide.

Industry collaboration around AI content standards continued developing throughout 2025, though comprehensive frameworks remained nascent by year-end. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiated discussions around AI content classification categories, while the Interactive Advertising Bureau explored technical standards for labeling AI-generated inventory. However, the pace of AI capability advancement outstripped standardization efforts, creating ongoing challenges for unified industry approaches.

Budget pressure intensifies focus on quality-driven performance

Economic uncertainty throughout 2025 maintained pressure on marketing budgets, forcing advertisers to demonstrate clear return on investment for digital media spending. This environment elevated media quality considerations from brand protection priorities to performance optimization imperatives. Campaigns delivering impressions to fraudulent traffic, appearing in unsuitable contexts, or suffering from poor viewability waste budget without generating business outcomes—a reality that proves unacceptable when economic conditions demand efficiency.

The convergence of quality and performance metrics reshaped how advertisers evaluate campaign success. Traditional performance indicators including click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend now incorporate media quality dimensions. Campaigns achieving strong apparent performance metrics while delivering substantial portions of impressions to invalid traffic or unsuitable contexts receive scrutiny for inflated efficiency claims that wouldn't hold under verified measurement.

The IAS report positioned this dynamic explicitly, noting that with budgets under pressure, UK advertisers are doubling down on metrics proving real impact—from brand safety and suitability (cited by 82% of respondents) to attention (84%) across social, programmatic, and retail media. This emphasis suggests quality-verified impressions command premium value compared to unverified inventory, even when raw performance metrics appear similar.

Publisher monetization strategies adapted to this quality-focused environment throughout 2025. Premium publishers invested in brand safety certifications, sustainability credentials, and attention measurement integrations to differentiate inventory from made-for-advertising sites and low-quality environments. These investments aimed to justify premium pricing by demonstrating superior verified performance rather than competing solely on cost-per-impression rates.

Methodology and research scope

IAS partnered with YouGov to conduct the 2026 UK Industry Pulse Report survey during October 2025, gathering responses from 220 UK digital media experts working with programmatic advertising. The participant breakdown included 84 advertisers, 81 agency professionals, and 55 publisher and platform representatives. All respondents held decision-making or influential roles regarding digital media strategy and investment within their organizations.

The research explored media format and environment priorities for 2026, anticipated challenges across different media types, attitudes toward advertising adjacent to AI-generated content, media quality considerations for social media, digital video, connected TV, and retail media networks, and the role of third-party measurement and optimization solutions. Questions employed both quantitative rating scales and qualitative category selections to capture nuanced perspectives.

The October 2025 survey timing positioned the research to capture perspectives formed after a year of substantial AI advancement, platform policy changes, and industry discussion around emerging challenges. The findings reflect expert consensus developed through direct operational experience with programmatic advertising challenges rather than theoretical projections, though the forward-looking nature necessarily incorporates expectations about 2026 trends.

The UK market focus provides insight into a mature programmatic advertising ecosystem with sophisticated brand safety requirements, strict regulatory oversight through bodies including the Advertising Standards Authority, and advertiser expectations shaped by high-profile brand safety incidents throughout the 2010s and early 2020s. These characteristics position UK findings as relevant indicators for broader European and global market trends.

Industry implications for verification providers

The 2026 Industry Pulse Report findings validate business models for independent verification companies including IAS, DoubleVerify, and others providing third-party measurement separate from platform-reported metrics. The consistent emphasis on external verification across multiple contexts—AI content detection, social media measurement, CTV brand safety, retail media performance—suggests sustained demand for independent measurement infrastructure throughout 2026 and beyond.

However, the research also highlights escalating technical requirements for verification providers. The shift from text-based keyword analysis to comprehensive multimedia content classification demands substantial investment in machine learning systems, computational infrastructure, and human review processes. Maintaining competitive positioning requires continuous technology advancement to detect emerging fraud schemes, identify AI-generated content with improving sophistication, and analyze video and audio signals at scale.

Platform access negotiations remain critical for verification provider success. The industry emphasis on third-party measurement proves irrelevant if platforms restrict API access, limit measurement integrations, or impose technical constraints preventing accurate verification. Verification companies must balance advertiser advocacy for transparency against platform concerns about user privacy, competitive intelligence, and technical complexity.

The report findings suggest verification providers should prioritize several capability areas throughout 2026: advanced AI content detection across text, image, and video formats; frame-by-frame video analysis for brand safety and suitability assessment; attention measurement integration beyond basic viewability; fraud detection for sophisticated invalid traffic schemes; sustainability metrics enabling carbon impact reporting; and unified measurement dashboards providing consistent metrics across fragmented platform ecosystems.

Timeline

• October 2025: IAS and YouGov surveyed 220 UK digital media experts about 2026 priorities and challenges
• October 2025: Media Rating Council issued updated brand safety verification policies requiring image, video, and audio analysis
• October 2024: Meta introduced comment control capabilities for Facebook and Instagram advertisers addressing brand safety concerns
• April 2025: DoubleVerify launched pre-bid video controls for TikTok enabling advertisers to block unsuitable content placements
• October 2024: IAS expanded TikTok measurement with misinformation detection capabilities using frame-by-frame analysis
• December 8, 2025: IAS released 2026 UK Industry Pulse Report findings

Summary

Who: Integral Ad Science surveyed 220 UK digital media experts including 84 advertisers, 81 agency professionals, and 55 publisher and platform representatives working with programmatic advertising.

What: The 2026 Industry Pulse Report examined media format priorities, anticipated challenges, attitudes toward AI-generated content, and media quality considerations across social media, digital video, connected TV, and retail media networks. Key findings showed 87% prioritizing digital video, 56% citing AI content adjacency as a major challenge, and 82% emphasizing brand safety and suitability importance.

When: IAS conducted the survey in October 2025 and released findings on December 8, 2025, examining anticipated trends and challenges for 2026 in UK digital advertising markets.

Where: The research focused on UK digital media markets spanning social media platforms (82% priority), influencer marketing (60%), video livestreaming (52%), retail media networks (40%), and connected television environments alongside broader programmatic advertising ecosystems.

Why: As AI-generated content proliferated throughout 2025 while social media and digital video platforms dominated advertising investment, the industry required comprehensive understanding of quality challenges, measurement requirements, and brand safety priorities to balance innovation opportunities against reputational risks and budget efficiency imperatives throughout 2026.