AI use in advertising is expected to increase the global media and entertainment industry’s revenue to $3.5tn by 2029, according to consultancy firm PwC.
The firm shared its predictions in its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2025-29 report, a series of data predictions for consumer and advertising spending over a five-year period.
The report revealed that advertising spend is expected to grow twice as fast (6.1 percent) as the industry’s consumer spending (2 percent). This ad spend growth is attributed to AI advancing advertising through the use of AI tools to bolster personalisation.
The expansion of technology like AI will drive digital formats of advertising. Digital formats, which contributed to 72 percent of overall ad revenue in 2024, will increase to 80 percent in 2029 with the help of AI, PwC said.
In 2024, Connected TV (CTV) advertising revenue accounted for 22 percent of total traditional broadcast advertising, a jump from 2020’s 5.9 percent. PwC predicts that the increase of “AI-assisted hyper-personalisation” could boost this to 45 percent. As a result, CTV ad revenue will grow to $51bn in 2029, the report stated.
“As the E&M industry continues to be impacted by broader economic uncertainty and constrained consumer spending, advertising is emerging as the leading powerhouse of the global entertainment and media industry’s revenues – a transformation expected to continue as AI transforms delivery models, democratises content production, serves highly curated content experiences, and reduces barriers to entry.” said Bart Spiegel, global entertainment and media leader, PwC US.
The Future of Advertising
The rise of AI has brought a level of uncertainty to creative industries. But AI tools have also been quickly adopted by advertisers. The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend report recently shared that 90 percent of advertisers will use AI tools to create video ads by 2026.
Considering this widespread adoption, and so soon, advertisers will need to get to grips with AI tools, and think about how the technology can be used in the connected advertising ecosystem.
“If entertainment and media businesses are to capture new audiences and generate growth, they must be thinking about the connected ecosystems in which they operate, leveraging the power of advertising and AI, the combination of which is allowing for far more cost-effective and personalised content creation and engagement models.” said Wilson Chow, global technology, media and telecommunications leader, PwC China.
