Events & Webinars
London Home Show Spring 2026: Do It For The Future and the value of real conversations
16th April, 2026
Summary
- Amy Beeken, Strategy Director at The Media People (TMP), came away from the IAB AI Growth Summit 2026 (Kings Place, London, 21 May 2026) with three takeaways: confidence, challenge and grief.
- Confidence came from hearing brand clarity and business metrics championed on stage, the same things TMP already recommends to clients.
- The challenge was to treat websites as data sources for AI assistants, set bigger goals and aim for evolution rather than efficiency.
- The grief was for processes that still work but belong to a previous era.
- Amelia Torode, Head of Strategy at Ogilvy, gave the day its defining line: “The change will never be this slow again.”
If you’re working out what AI means for your brand and how you measure success, these are my IAB AI Growth Summit 2026 takeaways. I went to IAB UK’s summit at Kings Place on 21 May 2026 hoping for fresh thinking, practical inspiration and reassurance that we’re on the right track. I came away with all three, plus one feeling I hadn’t expected to name.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Event | AI Growth Summit 2026 |
| Organised by | IAB UK |
| When | Thursday 21 May 2026, 08:30 to 17:00 |
| Where | Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG |
| TMP’s role | Delegate: Amy Beeken, Strategy Director, attended |
| Amy’s three takeaways | Confidence, challenge and grief |
Confidence: are we closer than we think?
My biggest takeaway from the IAB AI Growth Summit 2026 was confidence. Much of what was discussed on stage mirrored the conversations we’re already having with clients and the strategies we’re already recommending. What felt like bold ideas in January 2026 are fast becoming best practice across the industry.
We’d covered similar ground with clients at our reAImagine AI summit in Leeds that January, from what AI is and what it can do for marketers to how to measure AI search visibility.
Why do brand values matter more in AI search?
As AI makes content and capability more accessible, brand values matter more, not less. One question ran through the whole summit: what do you want to be known for? When customers compare brands in a few lines of an AI-generated answer rather than visiting 10 websites, differentiation comes from clarity of purpose, trust and reputation. Glossy websites won’t do it.
Why do business metrics matter more than marketing metrics?
AI search is changing how success should be measured. The move from marketing metrics to business metrics is something we’ve always championed at TMP, and AI has only accelerated it. Reach, impressions and clicks still have their place, but they aren’t the destination, especially in a zero-click search economy where customer journeys through large language models (LLMs) can’t yet be mapped.
The brands seeing real impact are linking CRM and sales data to their marketing, and measuring what actually moves the business: growth, efficiency, profitability and customer value. The challenge is shifting from proving marketing worked to proving the business moved forward.
Challenge: be bold, be hairy, be audacious
Challenge was my second takeaway: rethink the website as a data source for AI assistants, set bigger goals, and aim for evolution rather than efficiency. If confidence was the reassurance, challenge was the push forward.
What is the great unbundling of the website?
The great unbundling of the website is the shift from websites as destinations to websites as structured data sources that feed AI assistants. The Microsoft AI session, Tracey Pilon’s “Invisible brands don’t win: the race to zero UI”, scratched an itch I’ve had for a while. We’ve spent decades treating websites as places people visit. But as customers increasingly discover, compare and evaluate through AI assistants, websites become the data those systems draw on. They don’t disappear. They become the infrastructure that powers experiences elsewhere.
Why do big hairy audacious goals still matter?
A big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) keeps a whole team pointed in the same direction, and the summit made the case for setting one. Microsoft’s founders had one: their original vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home”. In a world of chaos and constant change, it’s easy for a team to get lost or paralysed. That’s exactly why a BHAG matters more than ever. It’s the guiding light that helps people think bigger, move faster and believe in the seemingly impossible.
What's the difference between AI efficiency and AI evolution?
AI efficiency is doing the same things faster; AI evolution is doing things you couldn’t do before. That challenge stuck with me most. For two years, the conversation has been about doing the same things faster or slightly better. When electricity arrived in our homes, we just swapped gas lamps for light bulbs. It was only later, once we understood what it could do, that we built radios, microwaves and TVs.
Right now, we’re obsessed with the AI versions of the light bulb. The more interesting question is: what’s next?
Grief: the part nobody warns you about
The most unexpected takeaway from the summit was a feeling I’ve struggled to articulate: grief for processes that still work but belong to a previous era.
Why does letting go of processes that still work feel like grief?
It feels like grief because some of the processes and ways of working we’re being asked to leave behind genuinely worked. It isn’t that AI is replacing everything. It’s that those processes delivered results, and they made sense. Our processes run like a well-oiled machine.
How do you respect the past while building the future?
Progress means letting go of practices designed for a previous era. There’s a real tension between respecting what got us here and accepting that it won’t get us where we need to go next.
Looking ahead: the change will never be this slow again
I left the IAB AI Growth Summit 2026 optimistic, not because all the answers exist, but because the direction of travel is getting clearer.
One line keeps coming back to me. Amelia Torode, Head of Strategy at Ogilvy, said it in the first talk after IAB UK’s welcome, and IAB UK’s highlights of the summit record it too: “The change will never be this slow again.” It captures both the opportunity and the responsibility ahead.
Frequently asked questions
What were the key takeaways from the IAB AI Growth Summit 2026?
For Amy Beeken, Strategy Director at The Media People (TMP), there were three: confidence, challenge and grief. Confidence came from hearing brand clarity and business metrics championed on stage, and the challenge was to treat websites as data sources for AI, set bigger goals and aim for evolution over efficiency. The grief was for processes that still work but belong to a previous era.
When and where was the IAB AI Growth Summit 2026?
IAB UK held the AI Growth Summit on Thursday 21 May 2026 at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London. It ran from 08:30 to 17:00.
Who said "The change will never be this slow again"?
Amelia Torode, Head of Strategy at Ogilvy, said it at the IAB AI Growth Summit on 21 May 2026. IAB UK’s highlights note that the line resurfaced repeatedly in conversations afterwards.
Why measure business metrics rather than marketing metrics?
Customer journeys through AI answers can’t yet be mapped through clicks and impressions. Linking CRM and sales data to your marketing lets you measure growth, efficiency, profitability and customer value directly.
Want to talk through what AI search means for how you measure success? See how reAImagine works.
