Readpeak

Iran Conflict Threatens Global Ad Spend

The ongoing Iran conflict and related attacks on energy infrastructure have driven oil above $106 and prompted White House modelling that considers prices as high as $200. Industry figures warn sustained high oil and stagflationary pressures could sharply reduce global ad budgets: BlackRock’s Larry Fink warned of a steep recession and the World Advertising Research Center (Warc) estimated up to ~$50 billion could be lost from ad spend this year and a further $44 billion next year. Analysts (Ebiquity) estimate an ad-spend multiplier of about 1.7x versus GDP shock. Marketers are shifting to contingency planning—freezing budgets, pulling campaigns, prioritizing performance channels (paid search, retail media) and contextual activations—and agencies are seeking flexible media lines to preserve optionality. Early signs include cautious investment in innovation and an S4 Capital revenue decline for the first quarter. PQ Media highlights geopolitical tensions as a major near-term influence on media KPIs.

AI Enhances Jobs, Won't Replace Humans, Say Startup CEOs

At Web Summit Qatar, executives from AI startups Read AI and Lucidya told TechCrunch that AI is likely to replace tasks rather than entire human roles. Read AI CEO David Shim said humans will remain the decision-makers even as automation makes jobs easier, likening AI to navigation tools. Lucidya founder and CEO Abdullah Asiri said customer-support agents typically shift into supervisory, relationship-building or business-development roles when routine tasks are automated. Both companies report productivity gains from AI: Read AI says its small customer-service team supports millions of monthly users and that its sales tool has helped approve deals worth $200 million using CRM data. The firms also stressed transparency with customers when AI handles interactions and the need to hire people who are 'AI native.'

Open Web's Path: Embrace Standards for Growth

Ahead of ADZINE CONNECT 2026, industry leaders discussed how the Open Web can remain competitive with Walled Gardens by leveraging its strengths—transparency, contextual quality and cross-publisher control—while addressing technical and measurement gaps. Speakers argued Open RTB works well for single-impression programmatic trading but does not cover many premium, private-deal and direct-booking use cases. Measurement (notably attention metrics and cross-platform frequency capping) and fragmented standards for contextual targeting, identity and creatives are cited as key obstacles. Proposed remedies included new abstraction layers around campaign goals, allowing external measurement in closed platforms, adoption of deterministic identity where applicable, and protocols such as the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) and agentic systems to reduce complexity.