Canto Releases 2026 Digital Content Trends Report

New research highlights the business impact of content and creative operations fragmentation.

Published on Feb. 11, 2026

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Canto, a leader in AI-powered digital asset management, has released its fourth-annual State of Digital Content report examining 2026 digital content trends. The report, developed in partnership with Ascend2 Research, reveals the significant business impact of fragmentation in content and creative operations, including employee burnout, wasted budgets, and missed revenue opportunities. The data also highlights the performance advantages of teams with full connectivity between product content and digital assets, as well as the challenges around governance, speed, and consistency of product information across channels.

Why it matters

As content and creative teams face increasing pressure to produce more content across more channels, the report underscores the concrete costs of fragmented tools, workflows, and repositories. The findings demonstrate the business value of centralizing and connecting digital assets with product data, enabling faster updates, stronger governance, and more measurable ROI.

The details

The report found that when digital assets are poorly managed, respondents reported issues like employee frustration or burnout (44%), wasted or misused budget (39%), duplicated or redundant work (38%), missed revenue opportunities (35%), and delayed campaign launches (35%). Teams with full connectivity between product content and digital assets were over four times more likely to report significant improvements in content ROI. Other key findings include the advantages of AI-powered asset search, the challenges of managing product information across multiple systems, and the breakdown of product content consistency across channels.

  • The survey was fielded in November 2025.

The players

Canto

A leader in digital asset management (DAM), helping global brands maximize the value of their digital content with an intuitive, AI-powered platform.

Ascend2 Research

Canto's research partner in developing the State of Digital Content report.

Jen Neary

Director of Content & Communications at Canto.

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What they’re saying

“Content and creative teams are under so much pressure right now to move faster across more and more channels while still keeping brand and product information accurate.”

— Jen Neary, Director of Content & Communications (Canto)

What’s next

The report highlights key areas for improvement, including making product data easier to access, eliminating duplicate or outdated product data, and managing product data alongside creative assets. As content and creative budgets continue to rise, brands will need to address these challenges to drive stronger ROI.

The takeaway

The State of Digital Content 2026 report underscores the tangible business impact of fragmentation in content and creative operations, from wasted budgets to missed revenue opportunities. By centralizing assets, connecting them to product data, and leveraging AI-powered capabilities, brands can streamline workflows, improve governance, and achieve more measurable returns on their content investments.