IAB seeks to standardize interoperable media measurement

• The IAB today, Feb. 2, announced Project Eidos, an industry-wide effort to address the trust gap marketers have with advanced measurement metrics and the growing role of artificial intelligence. The effort was introduced on the industry group’s Annual Leadership Meeting in Palm Springs, California.
• The recent unit inside IAB brings together leaders from 30 marketing firms, including commerce, experience, measurement and media firms, who’re working on developing an interoperable approach for measurement, accountability and AI-readiness. Amazon Ads, Google, WPP and Unilever are amongst the businesses represented.
• Among buy-side users of AI-powered data measurement, 60% to 75% imagine the approach falls short on rigor, timeliness, trust and efficiency, according to the IAB’s newly released 2026 “State of Data” report. None of them imagine all paid channels are represented in current marketing mix models.

Current marketing and media performance tools are fundamentally broken, per IAB’s 2026 State of Data Report. Project Eidos, named after the Greek verb meaning “to see,” will seek to replace the present channel-by-channel measurement models with a regular based on shared constructs and consistent language that will likely be designed to scale up and be privacy-resilient.

While AI can unify data, automate evaluation and increase measurement speed and frequency, it lacks transparency and governance for its data quality. As a result, AI risks reinforcing the black-box decisions that marketers are forced to make with current measurement systems, according to the IAB report. Moreover, many marketers are having difficulty understanding how they will use AI now, how they may give you the option to use it in 1-2 years and what may never be achievable.

Buy-side executives imagine AI-powered advanced measurement could unlock greater than $26 billion in media investment and $6.2 billion in productivity value over the following 1-2 years, the research found. Many of those executives even have significant concerns concerning the legal and security risks, in addition to the accuracy and quality of that data. However, fewer than 40% have or are planning to develop solutions to mitigate those challenges.

Beyond AI, there are long-standing problems with current measurement systems. Evolving privacy regulations and platform changes leave data scattered across disconnected systems, making it difficult, if not not possible, to tie exposure to results. With an inability to measure attribution, incrementality and ROI reliably, the present marketing mix models don’t reflect consumers’ media consumption, leaving billions of dollars in media spending unaligned with goals.

With Project Eidos, the goal is to develop shared structures, classification and data flows to underpin interoperable systems, develop cross-channel consequence, attribution and incrementality measurement and establish a contemporary approach to media mix and modeling.

Project Eidos will likely be guided by a brand new Media Advisory Committee inside IAB. The committee brings together senior leaders from brands, agencies, publishers, platforms and measurement firms. Included are representatives from Albertson’s Media Collective, Amazon Ads, Google, Havas Media Network, Horizon Media, Meta, the NFL, Unilever and WPP Media.