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IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Driven Business Cycle in the Media Industry 2026 Vendor Assessment

Alex Holtz — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study assesses global vendors that enable AI-driven business cycle in the media industry, highlighting the shift from isolated AI features to an agentic orchestration layer spanning business operations, production, distribution, and monetization. The document details market trends, adoption trajectories, vendor strengths and challenges, and strategic recommendations, emphasizing that orchestration architecture, data governance, and outcome-based measurement are now central to competitive advantage and investment decisions for media organizations worldwide.

"In 2026, the media industry's competitive edge won't be defined by isolated AI features, but by the orchestration layer that unifies business operations, production, distribution, and monetization. The question is no longer which tool to buy, but which architecture to anchor your future on. Are you ready to compete at the speed of agentic intelligence?," asks Alex Holtz, research director for Media and Entertainment Digital Strategies at IDC.

Agentic Orchestration Fills the Chart: Media Networks Reach Maturity in Grocery Retail

Alex Holtz, Ornella Urso, Filippo Battaini, Margot Juros — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines how grocery retail media — the most mature, highest-revenue commerce media vertical IDC has studied — is confronting agentic AI shopping assistants that plan and build a shopper’s cart directly, ahead of the sponsored search inventory that the category has monetized for a decade. Confirmed, disclosed programs at Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing, Albertsons Media Collective, and Instacart’s Carrot Ads already generate billions of dollars a year through named DSP integrations and clean room infrastructure; Walmart’s Sparky, Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping, and Kroger’s Google Gemini–built assistant are the next front, arriving with no disclosed advertising layer built around them yet. This document details what is confirmed to exist, what remains an open question, and what operators, brand advertisers, agencies, and technology vendors need to do differently over the next 24 months.

“Agentic shopping assistants like Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping are built to finish the purchase decision before a sponsored placement ever gets a chance to compete — the same upstream interception challenge we’re already watching AI concierges create in travel, arriving in the one vertical that has monetized shopping the longest,” says Alex Holtz, research director, Worldwide Media and Entertainment Digital Strategies, IDC.

“Grocery retail media didn’t just arrive first — it built the DSP integrations, clean rooms, and identity infrastructure that every other vertical is still trying to replicate. The next test isn’t scale; it’s whether this infrastructure can be extended to cover a cart an AI agent builds before a shopper ever sees a sponsored placement,” says Filippo Battaini, research manager, IDC Retail Insights.

Market Forecast: Worldwide Telco Cloud Infrastructure Software (NFVI, VNF, and CNF) Forecast, 2026–2030

Ajeet Das — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents how communication service providers are increasingly adopting cloud-native network functions, which not only offer benefits but also introduce challenges like a lack of in-house expertise, complex security, and managing multiple infrastructure types.

U.S. MVNO Earnings Analysis for 2Q26

Jitesh Gera, Jason Leigh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note discusses how cable is pulling away in the U.S. MVNO race. Comcast, Charter, and Optimum together added 904,000 wireless lines in 2Q26 and are increasingly building their own Wi-Fi and CBRS network capacity — plus a bigger business wireless opportunity via a new T-Mobile agreement — to reduce their dependence on wholesale hosts. EchoStar’s Boost Mobile is heading in the opposite direction, shedding subscribers as it winds down its own network and shifts to AT&T’s under a new hybrid MNO model, trading growth for margin.

“Cable operators are no longer content to just rent capacity from the big three — they’re building their own Wi-Fi and CBRS networks and pushing into business wireless to control more of their own destiny,” said Jitesh Gera, research manager, Wireless Services, IDC. “EchoStar’s retreat from network ownership is the cautionary tale on the other side: owning a network and owning a customer relationship are different businesses, and Boost Mobile is learning that the hard way.”

IDC Survey: Worldwide Telco DX Network Infrastructure and Cloud Survey, 2026 — Satellite and NTN Responses

Simon Baker — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey, conducted in April 2026, builds upon a prior study from 2025 that explored how global telecommunications service providers are prioritizing technology investments, modernizing their operational and commercial infrastructure, and scaling AI across their organizations.

IDC's 2026 Telco DX Network Infrastructure and Cloud Survey captures insights from 350 telecom operators across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific regions.

Responses related to satellite communications show a big jump in telco interest in using satellite services. The main interest is in broadband service, ahead of satellite IoT and then direct smartphone to satellite (D2C) service. The telco respondents have more interest in working with Amazon Leo than they do with Starlink, despite the Amazon service not yet being operational at the time the survey was conducted.

Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide XR Headset and Wearables, 2026

Bryan Bassett, Ramon T. Llamas, Francisco Jeronimo — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Analysis Perspective provides insight into the current and future state of the XR headset and wearables market. It includes an overview of the current market landscape, a tech leader perspective, a market outlook, and IDC's advice for technology suppliers/service providers.

"The worldwide XR headset market is heading for certain growth in the years ahead. With several key platforms emerging in Apple's visionOS, Google's Android XR, and Meta, the market is taking important steps forward in its development to offer similar experiences across different devices. Meanwhile, companies operating outside of these platforms will guard their installed bases with specific solutions. The end result: a more diverse and robust ecosystem for work and for play. Meanwhile, AI is slowly making its way into the worldwide wearables market in meaningful ways by understanding context and user behavior to make informed suggestions. In addition, the greater diversity in products — namely rings and glasses — provides greater choice and more AI-driven experiences. The end result: an evolving market that connects users with actionable information. — Ramon T Llamas, research director, Mobile Devices and AR/VR, IDC

Market Forecast: European Wholesale Telecom Services Forecast, 2026-2030

Jan Hein Bakkers — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Forecast study provides the five-year forecast for the European wholesale telecom services market and delivers insights into the drivers and inhibitors of growth.

“AI is redefining connectivity requirements of wholesale buyers and their end-customers. AI, automation and APIs will be key building blocks in the Wholesale 2.0 era,” said Jan Hein Bakkers, senior research director, Telecom at IDC.

Agentic Orchestration Checks In: The Opportunity for Media Networks Has Arrived for Financial Services

Alex Holtz, Dorothy Creamer — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective explores how agentic orchestration and the rise of financial media networks are reshaping advertising as margin compression and credit tightening drive card issuers, payment networks, and fintech wallets toward first-party data monetization. With the emergence of programmatic access to authenticated transaction data, operators such as Chase, American Express, Mastercard, and PayPal are pioneering closed-loop, high-intent advertising surfaces. The document details the architectural, operational, and measurement challenges and opportunities as financial media networks formalize, offering a blueprint for stakeholders to capture non-endemic brand demand and sustainable growth.

"As margin compression pushes card issuers and payment networks to rethink their revenue mix, financial services emerges as the fastest-growing frontier for commerce media," says Alex Holtz, research director, Worldwide Commerce Media and Advertising Strategies, IDC. "The closed-loop infrastructure that transformed retail, and then travel, is now redefining how brands reach authenticated, high-spend audiences through banks, card networks, and fintech wallets. The question isn't if this shift will happen — it is who will own the loop, and how quickly they will build before the market consolidates."

Fighting Fire with Fire: Retailers Arm Themselves with AI to Supercharge Defenses Against AI-Fueled Cybercrime

Margot Juros, Cristiano Quattrini — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping the cybercrime and fraud landscape confronting retailers, making attacks faster to design, cheaper to execute, and harder to distinguish from legitimate customer or employee behavior. The report looks at three converging risks — a surge in AI-enabled breaches, the acceleration of existing fraud and cyberattack patterns across omni-channel retail, and new vulnerabilities introduced by AI agents, chatbots, and GenAI-powered tools — and shows how retailers are countering with AI/ML, GenAI, and agentic AI defenses of their own. The document offers guidance on building a unified security control plane, governing AI agents before they touch transactional systems, and modernizing employee and customer protection programs against AI-enabled social engineering.

“Retailers face a growing incidence of cybersecurity threats, as AI changes the economics of retail cybercrime — attacks are faster to launch, cheaper to run, and harder to tell apart from legitimate customer or employee behavior,” said Margot Juros, Research Director, and Cristiano Quattrini, Senior Associate Advisor, IDC Retail Insights. “Retailers that fight fire with fire, addressing the problem with AI/ML, GenAI, and agentic-fueled defenses, are best positioned to contain these threats quickly and navigate the next wave of AI-driven fraud and cybersecurity with confidence.”

Tech Buyer Survey Spotlight: How Are Vertical Sectors Addressing IT/Connectivity and Related Cost Impacts?

Paul Hughes — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This Tech Buyer Survey Spotlight examines how enterprises view the impact of tariffs and economic shifts on the cost of IT services, and how tech-specific tariffs or currency changes will most affect budgets. Over 60% will simply increase their IT budget to address increased costs; however, that percentage differs significantly by vertical market.

The data in this Spotlight comes from IDC’s 2026 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey Wave 4, with 1,835 respondents across 27 countries and 15 vertical industries.