• by Wayne Friedman , July 16, 2025

All things generative AI- and connected TV (CTV)-related for the second half of 2025 are the strong focus of media and marketing executives, according to a new study from Mediaocean.

May 2025 research shows 72% of those respondents believe generative AI is “the most important consumer trend,” according to the media agency technology company.

This is up sharply from results of a late 2024 survey, when 57% of respondents touted AI. The May 2025 results are drawn from the insights of 464 executives.

“Gen AI is accelerating dynamic creative optimization (DCO) by generating personalized ad variants based on language, audience segments, placement context, and more,” the authors of the study say.

It adds that new text-to-video tools — provided by OpenAI’s Sora and Runway Gen-3 — have brought video AI production closer to real-world video processes.

Next among the most significant trends continues to be strong interest in CTV/streaming and social media video platforms -- each registering 51%.

One under-the-radar focus may be “political and advocacy trends” -- which jumped nine percentage points (82%) to 20% among respondents.

With regard to specific media channels -- in terms of adjusting spending. up or down, or maintaining --58% of the respondents will increase ad spend on CTV, with 32% maintaining their budgets.

For social media platforms, 56% expect hikes in ad spend, with digital display/video at 52% -- a downward trend for both versus November 2024's results of 68% and 67%, respectively.