AI Is Fueling a New Era of Out-of-Home Advertising

Artificial intelligence may be reshaping the digital world, but some of the category’s fastest-growing companies are turning to the physical world to build their brands.

According to the OAAA revenue report, U.S. out-of-home advertising revenue reached $2.12 billion in the first quarter of 2026, the industry’s highest first-quarter total on record. Revenue increased 7.1% year over year, extending OOH’s growth streak to 20 consecutive quarters.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) was a major driver of that momentum. DOOH revenue increased 12.9% compared with Q1 2025 and represented 36% of total OOH revenue. Digital growth occurred across every major format, including transit, street furniture, place-based media, and billboards.

Behind those numbers is an even more interesting shift: AI is influencing OOH from both sides of the advertising ecosystem.

AI brands are investing in real-world visibility, while AI-powered tools are making it easier for advertisers of all sizes to plan, launch, and optimize DOOH campaigns.

AI Brands Are Moving Into the Real World

Technology was one of the strongest advertiser categories during the quarter.

Spending from computers, software, and internet services advertisers increased 139% year over year. AI companies Genspark, OpenAI, and Lambda were among the newest and fastest-growing OOH advertisers, and all three increased their OOH spending by more than $2 million during the quarter.

It may initially seem surprising that companies building advanced digital products are investing heavily in physical advertising. But OOH provides something that even the most sophisticated online campaign can struggle to replicate: a visible presence in the real world.

AI products often exist behind a login screen, inside a browser, or within a workplace workflow. OOH allows these companies to step outside those environments and become part of the cities, neighborhoods, transportation systems, and everyday routines surrounding their customers.

A prominent presence on billboards, transit screens, urban panels, or place-based displays can help an emerging technology company feel more established and recognizable. It can also communicate a simple brand idea without requiring consumers to stop scrolling, click an ad, or already understand the technology.

As the AI category becomes more competitive, that physical visibility can help brands differentiate themselves, establish credibility, and reach audiences beyond technology-focused digital channels.

Digital Growth Is Expanding What OOH Can Do

The increase in AI advertising comes as the OOH industry itself becomes more digital, flexible, and performance-focused.

Digital transit revenue grew 25% during the quarter, while digital street furniture rose 21.5% and digital place-based advertising increased 17%. Digital billboard revenue grew 8.1%.

These formats allow advertisers to build campaigns around specific audiences, markets, venue types, schedules, and real-world moments. Rather than approaching OOH as a single billboard placement, brands can activate coordinated campaigns across multiple screen types and locations.

Through AdOmni, advertisers can access more than one million digital screens and plan campaigns across DOOH and video channels. Campaigns can be designed to reach audiences while they commute, shop, work, travel, exercise, and move through their daily lives.

That accessibility is important because the continued growth of OOH will depend not only on larger brands increasing their investment, but also on making the medium easier for agencies, emerging companies, and smaller advertisers to use.

Jeen AI Helps Make DOOH Planning More Accessible

AI is not only creating a new category of OOH advertisers, but it is also changing how OOH campaigns are planned.

Traditionally, developing an OOH strategy could require extensive knowledge of markets, venue types, inventory, audiences, budgets, and media-buying processes. For advertisers unfamiliar with the medium, deciding where to begin could be one of the biggest obstacles.

AdOmni created Jeen AI to simplify that process.

Advertisers can provide Jeen with their campaign goals, audience, budget, and other requirements. Jeen then helps build a recommended strategy, including locations, screens, targeting, and budget allocation. Through AdOmni’s self-service platform, an advertiser can use Jeen to move from an initial campaign idea toward launch in minutes rather than weeks.

This does not make strategy less important. It makes the knowledge required to develop that strategy more accessible.

An advertiser interested in reaching business travelers, for example, may know its target audience but not which airports, office buildings, transit environments, or urban screens should be included in the campaign. Jeen can help translate that business objective into a practical media plan.

For agencies, it can accelerate the journey from a client brief to a recommended campaign. For self-service advertisers, it can provide greater direction when choosing audiences, locations, inventory, schedules, and budgets.

The result is a more approachable entry point into a channel that has historically seemed difficult to navigate without specialized expertise.

AI Can Connect Planning With Real-World Context

AI’s value in OOH is particularly powerful because the medium is inherently connected to place.

An effective DOOH campaign requires more than identifying a target demographic. Advertisers must consider where audiences spend time, how they move throughout the day, what environments are relevant to the message, and when the creative will be most meaningful.

AI-assisted planning can help organize those variables and turn a broad objective into an actionable campaign.

A restaurant advertiser may prioritize screens near stores during lunch and dinner hours. A technology company may focus on business districts, airports, transit systems, and neighborhoods with high concentrations of relevant professionals. An entertainment brand may build its plan around venues, cultural moments, or markets where audience interest is strongest.

The technology can process the complexity, but the outcome remains distinctly human: reaching people in the places where they live their lives.

OOH Is Supporting Both Awareness and Action

The quarter’s growth extended well beyond technology.

Nine of the 10 largest OOH product industries increased spending year over year. Financial advertising grew 29%, local services and amusements increased 12%, and legal services—the largest category by total spending—grew 18%.

Major consumer advertisers also remained heavily invested. The top 10 OOH advertisers included Morgan & Morgan, Apple, McDonald’s, Verizon, Dunkin’, T-Mobile, Coca-Cola, Richemont, Disney, and Universal Pictures. Among the top 100 advertisers, 72% increased their OOH spending compared with Q1 2025.

This advertiser mix reflects the medium’s ability to support different objectives.

Established brands can use OOH to maintain cultural relevance and reach consumers at scale. Emerging companies can use it to introduce themselves and establish legitimacy. Local businesses can reach customers close to their locations, while performance-focused advertisers can connect exposure to outcomes such as website visits, store traffic, app activity, and conversions.

AdOmni also allows advertisers to extend DOOH campaigns across connected TV and online video, helping brands reinforce their messages after reaching audiences in the real world.

That combination makes OOH part of a broader customer journey rather than a channel operating on its own.

AI and OOH Are Growing Together

The record-setting first quarter builds on the $9.46 billion in U.S. OOH revenue generated during 2025.

The results show that OOH is not being left behind as media becomes more automated and technology-driven. Instead, technology is helping the medium become easier to access, more flexible to activate, and better connected to broader advertising strategies.

At the same time, AI companies are demonstrating the lasting importance of physical presence.

The products may be digital, but the competition for attention is happening everywhere.

By investing in OOH, AI brands can move beyond the browser and establish themselves in the real world. Through platforms such as AdOmni and planning tools such as Jeen AI, more advertisers can access the same opportunity without needing to be OOH experts before they begin.

AI is not replacing out-of-home advertising. It is helping more brands recognize, plan, and unlock its potential.