Is the industry sleepwalking into a creative quality crisis? Why are we still building retail media on first-wave infrastructure? Are marketers ready to adopt audio as a full funnel channel?

This week, we're handing the mic over to our audience for another mailbag special. We’ve gathered burning questions from across the ad tech landscape and put them to our team, who’ll dive in and answer as best they can…

In this episode of The MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire's head of content, John Still, is joined by CEO Rachel Smith and COO Lindsay Rowntree to discuss generative AI content, retail media, and audio. The conversation explores if AI is doing more harm than good to public perceptions of advertising, the pace of retail media's evolution, and measurement challenges with audio channels.

Thank you to DAIVID's Barney Worfolk-Smith, VML's Kiessé Lamour, and Audion's Kamel El Hadef for this month's questions!

Barney asks:

Adobe expects Gen AI content to grow 5x. But 70% of Gen AI ads already generate below-average positive emotions and are 13% less trusted than the norm from our research at DAIVID. Is the industry sleepwalking into a creative quality crisis and who's responsible for catching it?

Our first question comes from Barney Worfolk-Smith, chief growth officer at DAIVID. Barney also spoke to ExchangeWire about the AdCP agentic AI standard and his 2026 predictions on creative optimisation in the age of AI.

Kiessé asks:

“If retail media is truly the third big wave of digital advertising, why are we still building it on first‑wave infrastructure, incentives, and measurement?”

Our second question comes from Kiessé Lamour, global head of media, commerce at VML. Kiessé joined John for 'A Coffee With...' back in December, where they talked about retail media's rapid growth and deceleration. Gemma Spence, CEO of VML Marketplaces (WPP Group), also joined Lindsay to discuss agentic commerce and AI readiness.

Kamel asks:

AI agents are enabling audio advertising to evolve rapidly; brands increasingly use it to drive tangible outcomes as well as build brand awareness. But are marketers ready to adopt audio as a full funnel channel?

Our final question comes from Kamel El Hadef, co-founder of Audion. Audion launched its Audio Performance Index last month measuring the effectiveness of digital audio advertising across the full funnel. They also gave their insights into opportunities in audio and where advertisers can find the most value.

Got a burning question for the ExchangeWire team? Drop your questions over to us and we'll answer in our next monthly mailbag special...