AI and shifting consumer habits to reshape media and advertising by 2027

The media and advertising industries are facing significant structural shifts driven by artificial intelligence and changing consumer habits. According to research from Forrester, major media companies may face revenue pressure by 2027 as linear television audiences decline and streaming subscriber growth slows. This is expected to lead to a pivot toward new advertising models, including the potential introduction of free, ad-supported tiers by major subscription video-on-demand platforms like Disney+ and Netflix.

AI is also expected to transform how consumers discover products and entertainment. Conversational advertising is predicted to become a multibillion-dollar channel as users shift from keyword searches to AI-driven interactions with platforms like ChatGPT and Google.

In the streaming sector, the challenge is shifting from content availability to content discovery. Industry leaders, such as Uttam Tiwari of Dish TV Group, note that consumers require better ways to navigate fragmented content catalogues across multiple platforms. To address this, companies are developing intelligence layers and knowledge graphs that use AI to understand content through themes, moods, and character relationships rather than relying solely on basic metadata like genre or cast.