The age of agentic marketing has begun, says WPP Media

At This Year Next Year 2026 report launch, WPP Media unveiled its 10 trends and insights that will shape the year,  a roadmap spanning agentic AI, precision media, influencer ecosystems, quick commerce, live experiences and the commercial rise of women’s sports.

The company described how AI is moving from single-task assistants to interconnected agentic ecosystems that collaborate across research, analysis, forecasting and execution. This transformation is also reshaping search,  from keyword rankings to “answer ownership”, where brands must optimise for AI-driven responses rather than just traditional search listings.

Content, too, is entering a hybrid era. The model is no longer human versus machine, but human purpose combined with agentic scale, where AI enables faster production, localisation and optimisation while strategic direction remains human-led. Influencer marketing is evolving in a similar way: brands are moving from chasing mega reach to building micro trust within niche, high-intent communities. Measurement, compliance and commerce integration are now central to influencer strategy.

Experiential marketing is also being redefined. Live events are shifting from sponsorship-led visibility to architected, social-first ecosystems that begin months before the event and extend long after it ends. Meanwhile, quick commerce is transforming from a last-mile fulfilment channel into a discovery and decision-making layer within the consumer journey. In parallel, micro-dramas, bite-sized, episodic storytelling formats, are emerging as a parallel entertainment economy built for mobile-first, habit-driven consumption.

Culturally, women’s sports are entering a commercial inflection point. Once positioned within CSR narratives, they are now becoming mainstream marketing investments. Across all these shifts lies a deeper transition: from “presence” to “precision.” Advertising is increasingly outcome-based, powered by signal intelligence, predictive modelling and first-party data ecosystems. Underpinning everything is privacy, now framed not as compliance, but as a core marketing responsibility.

Following the announcement, Social Samosa spoke with Vishal Jacob, President, Choreograph South Asia; Vinit Karnik, Managing Director, Content, Entertainment & Sports South Asia; and Muralidhar Thyagarajan, Senior Vice President, Media Delivery & Operations India. Here’s what WPP Media’s leaders told Social Samosa:

AI agents and expanding client conversations

Explaining the shift from AI assistants to agentic ecosystems, Vishal Jacob described an agent as “a program that is designed to look at data, understand that data in a certain context, and act on a specific task.”

Earlier, agents performed simpler tasks like summarising documents. Today, he explained, complexity has increased significantly, requiring multiple agents to collaborate. One may gather data, another collate it, a third quantify opportunity, and a fourth structure it into actionable insights.

Importantly, he shared that client conversations have expanded beyond media planning. He said, “Media planning and buying remain core, but the nature of conversations has expanded.”

Clients are increasingly seeking:

• First-party data enrichment via clean rooms

• Predictive modelling before campaigns go live

• Two-year trend forecasting

• Guidance on marketing investments

“This shifts the conversation from media planning to product and business consulting,” Jacob said.

Women’s sports moving from CSR to strategy

Speaking about 'The commercial coming of age of women’s sports' trend, Vinit Karnik told Social Samosa that women’s cricket has undergone a structural shift.

“Because of the Women’s World Cup win, women’s cricket has now become strategic. It was tactical,” he said, pointing to the fiercely competitive BCCI tender as evidence of mainstream brand interest.

He traced how investments have evolved. Earlier, funding for women’s sports typically flowed through CSR budgets.

“The investments in women's sport used to be through the CSR pipe. That has moved from a CSR pipe to a marketing pipe, which is more strategic, more futuristic in nature and not tactical.”

While cricket remains the primary pillar, Karnik added that investments are increasingly flowing into individual sports such as golf, squash, badminton, shooting and wrestling. Women’s cricket, he noted, is now firmly part of brand marketing calendars.

Outcome-based advertising and precision

As advertising becomes increasingly performance-led, Muralidhar Thyagarajan emphasised accountability.

“Deliver the outcome. There is nothing else. You have to deliver the outcome,” he told Social Samosa.

But delivery today depends on signal intelligence. Agencies must understand client systems, the media ecosystem and the interplay between data and technology.

“What is important is to understand signals, understand client systems, know the media ecosystem and therefore take the responsibility and deliver it.”

When asked where WPP Media holds an upper hand, he said, “It’s about knowledge, data, technology, and people.”

These conversations reinforce that marketing in 2026 will be defined by complexity, collaboration, cultural relevance, predictive intelligence and accountable growth, all operating within privacy-first frameworks.