The brand safety conversation in 2025 isn’t about facts or integrity, it’s about how quickly the ground beneath it is shifting. Brand safety is becoming a continuous effort to keep pace with context as the tenor of certain topics change with time and public response. Likewise, the amount of content now made capable by AI-generated systems and AI assisted tools are scaling at warp speed, putting pressure on agency monitoring and legacy brand safety systems built for more predictable media cycles. Additionally, as Creators emerge as a growing force in brand communications, their grasp on brand safety nuance is variable, making for uneven messaging across platforms.
When Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg claimed AI would soon automate much of the ad business, it rattled Cannes Lions conversations this summer, even as Meta tried to clarify that his comments as directed at small businesses - not major brands. Regardless, the message was clear: the cadence of media buying is being rewritten. Platforms stand to benefit even more in the age of AI, as the litany of new AI generated content will flow primarily through their pipes. The good news is that Meta recently received re-accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC) for its content-level brand safety processes. This is a notable reassurance for advertisers navigating Meta’s evolving policies. However, a significant blind spot remains.
The MRC notably excluded misinformation from its certification, citing ongoing evaluation of Meta’s shifting enforcement approach around Community Notes (not yet proven effective). YouTube, meanwhile, is embracing the creator economy as both an opportunity and a risk management strategy. The “Open Call” feature, announced at Cannes, allows brands to crowdsource content from vetted creators through YouTube BrandConnect. By curating partnerships directly within the platform’s creator ecosystem, YouTube is offering advertisers the opportunity to get in on the Creator “craze” - and both add creator influence and a degree of content adjacency control - important as traditional media fragments and social commerce accelerate.
All this while in the political & legislative realm, creator and analyst MatPat (Matthew Patrick) announced the formation of the bipartisan Creator Economy Caucus, aiming to formally connect lawmakers with an understanding of the fast-evolving digital creator landscape. Now, as we steam towards 2026, brand safety will be a moving target that demands adaptive tools, platform accountability, and honest conversations about how AI, misinformation, and influencer economies intersect. The best competitive advantage? Frameworks built on scaled clarity, discrete context capabilities, fluid culture fluency, and effective brand safety stopgaps. In an era when AI and creator-led content will drive much digital reach, these dependencies underscore the difficulty of navigating shifting practices and standards across a fragmented and fast-moving ecosystem.
