The future of broadcast
is here now.
NAB 2026 was different. Not louder. Not flashier. Just more real. The industry stopped talking about what's coming and started showing what's already running. Here's what we took home from the show floor.
5 trends that defined NAB 2026
01
AI grew up. A year ago, AI was a chatbot hidden in the corner. At NAB 2026, it sat at the core of workflows. It's not a gimmick anymore: it's doing real work. The single-trick pony made room for mature and embedded artificial intelligence.
02
MAM and PAM are hot again. Media asset management and production asset management drew serious attention. Broadcasters are rethinking how they store, find, and use content across their operations, and with reason. The possibilities are ample today.
03
The move to software is real. Less hardware. More software. More cloud. Broadcasters have finally embraced it — but they want hybrid, so having theur tools both in the cloud and on-prem. We have the impression that the industry understands the true meaning of cloud washing and has begun the search for tools with a solid cloud foundation at the core.
04
Legacy systems: everyone's done. Across every conversation at our seven demo pods the appetite to move past old systems was clearly captured. Broadcasters are ready to go digital, to be integrated, to collaborate live and to do so FAST. Not as a plan but as a reality.
05
The creator economy is reshaping broadcasting. Broadcasters are becoming media houses. More publish points, faster breaking news, stories across socials, YouTube, and linear channels. The competition isn't just other broadcasters. It's everyone.
About AI reaching maturity at NAB:
"Only 23% of vendors showcased something about AI on their booth. So not everyone is slapping AI on their product. vendors are thoughtful about it."
That stat, surfaced at the DevonCraft event, stuck with us. AI is everywhere — but the industry has stopped performing it. The teams actually shipping AI-powered workflows are the ones not shouting about it. And that's what we saw.
Story-centric journalism is no longer a wish
We've heard about digital newsrooms for years. At NAB 2026, it stopped being a thought experiment. Real newsrooms are moving toward story-centric journalism — a workflow built around the story, not the rundown. The shift is happening now.
Broadcasters that do more with less are winning. They know that the industry has to be open. Tools need to talk to each other. Teams need to move faster without adding headcount. And we're all realizing that this requires a different kind of platform.
Cuez: built for what's next
We gave a full demo of Cuez Storydesk at NAB 2026. Here's what powers it:
We play nice
We also identified that the industry can only grow if it can connect what's there already. Interoperability isn't a feature — it's a principle. And this awakening insight might be the greatest revelation of NAB 2026. The biggest broadcasters in the world are building on open standards because the future demands it, and we're proud to announce that we're a part of this new industry model. And we're not alone in this. Enter: the Story Object Model!
The Story Object Model (SOM)
This open standard, the Story Object Model (SOM), aims at communicating story context between different systems from newsgathering all the way to distribution.
Think of a story as a backpack. It travels from one system to another: your newsroom, a partner platform, a distribution tool. Inside there are embeddings such as text, related articles, supporting videos, metadata, embargo rules, camera instructions, and more.
What's special about this backpack? It comes with a backpack tag. And this tag contains very detailed instruction for AI Agents about what's inside.
These instructions are exactly what the Story Object Model aims to do: help AI understand what to do with a story, because it understands the structure. AI can add instructions as well.
This allows the industry to tell every system exactly what to do with a story, automatically. It lets AI interact with stories faster and with more autonomy. And it's an open standard — built alongside some of the biggest names in the industry.
SOM(e) Partners
