ImpressBox analyzes the impact of AI, retail media, and technological convergence on the next generation of digital signage.

Digital signage is undergoing a profound transformation driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and convergence with retail media and DOOH. ImpressBox shares its vision of the technologies that will generate real value for businesses and the role AI agents will play in managing the screen networks of the future.

The industry is talking extensively about AI, retail media, and personalization. Which technologies do you believe will generate sustainable business opportunities in digital signage over the next three years, and which ones do you think are still overrated?

We believe the most sustainable opportunities will come from technologies that reduce daily operational effort and make large screen networks easier to understand and manage.

AI is a good example, but only when applied in a practical way. For us, the real value is not “AI for the sake of AI.” It is AI that helps users create content faster, adapt visuals to different screen formats, schedule campaigns, manage devices, and perform complex CMS operations using natural language.

Another important topic I discussed during my panel at the Digital Signage Summit is trust and network intelligence. As digital signage networks grow, customers need confidence that the system is scheduled correctly and operating as expected. Traditionally, this relies on users manually reviewing reports, screens, schedules, and technical data. However, AI can analyze far more information than a person can realistically review every day. This enables the development of much more advanced tools to understand whether the network is healthy, whether campaigns are configured correctly, whether screens are behaving normally, and whether anything requires attention.

In my opinion, what remains overrated is generic personalization without a clear operational or commercial model. In many cases, people talk about hyper-personalized screen content, but the real challenge is still much simpler: how to create quality content quickly, publish it correctly, understand whether the network is performing as expected, and manage hundreds or thousands of screens without increasing staff.

The digital signage market is entering a phase of consolidation and increasing competitive pressure. How is your company’s strategy evolving to differentiate beyond hardware or CMS platforms?

ImpressBox is evolving from a CMS platform into an intelligent operations layer for digital signage.

Our goal is to simplify screen network management through AI-assisted workflows. Users can continue working through a traditional web interface, but they can also use natural language via chat, WhatsApp, or AI systems such as Claude Desktop through MCP connectors. This means the platform is no longer simply a place to upload content and create playlists. It becomes an assistant capable of helping users create content, adapt it, publish it, verify that it is live, monitor screens, and guide them through everyday digital signage operations.

We also differentiate ourselves through our practical deployment experience. We have worked with large retail screen networks, complex bandwidth limitations, content distribution challenges, and operational requirements such as monitoring, verification, and device control. That real-world project experience strongly influences how we design the platform.

The industry increasingly demands integration between AV, IT, data, and analytics. Do you believe the integration channel is ready for this new environment, or is there still a significant technological gap?

There is still a gap, but it is not only a technological one. It is also an operational gap.

Many integrators are highly skilled in hardware, installation, cabling, displays, mounting systems, and on-site service. However, digital signage projects are becoming increasingly connected to IT systems, data sources, analytics, APIs, security requirements, and cloud-based workflows. This requires a different set of competencies. In fact, this was the main reason we began operating as integrators ourselves in 2016: to provide a complete range of services to our customers.

Today, we see an opportunity to transfer that experience to our new partners in different regions, both through consultancy and by embedding it directly into our AI agent. In this way, integrators can leverage our expertise and become competitive in today’s digital signage projects almost immediately.

We see a growing need for closer collaboration between integrators, software platforms, IT teams, and data teams. The most successful partners will be those capable of connecting the physical installation with the software and business logic behind it. And the agent makes this process much easier and faster.

At ImpressBox, we try to reduce this gap by making the software layer easier to operate. If AI can help an integrator or end user perform CMS tasks, verify playback, manage devices, or understand network issues without extensive technical training, the entire channel becomes more capable.

Sustainability is no longer limited to energy consumption. How does it influence your decisions regarding product design, manufacturing, maintenance, and the lifecycle of installations?

For us, sustainability is closely linked to operational efficiency and lifecycle extension.

A digital signage network becomes more sustainable when devices are easier to monitor, maintain, and reuse. If software can detect issues early, reduce unnecessary site visits, simplify remote troubleshooting, and prevent premature hardware replacement, the sustainability impact is immediate.

We also believe that effective content and scheduling logic are important. Screens should not simply run at full brightness displaying irrelevant content all day. Smarter scheduling, device control, and remote management help reduce waste.

From a product perspective, we aim to support different hardware environments, including professional displays (our software runs on any digital signage display with an SoC system manufactured after 2016) and external media players when required. This allows customers to extend the lifespan of existing screens rather than forcing unnecessary replacements.

End users are demanding increasingly immersive and dynamic experiences, while also expecting operational simplicity. How do you balance creativity, automation, and ease of management in today’s digital signage projects?

That is exactly what ImpressBox is about. Our goal is to combine power and simplicity through an AI agent, enabling users to achieve more advanced results without making day-to-day operations more complicated. Users want better visuals, faster content updates, more dynamic campaigns, and greater control over their screen networks. At the same time, they do not want to spend more time navigating complex menus. This is where we believe the agent-based approach transforms the experience.

Instead of manually navigating every step, users simply describe what they want to achieve: create content from a product photo, adapt it to a screen format, schedule it for specific locations, publish it to selected screens, or verify that it is actually live. The agent organizes the workflow around that request.

The balance comes from allowing the system to manage complexity in the background while keeping user interaction simple. Creativity, automation, scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and verification should not feel like separate technical tasks, but rather like a natural conversation with the platform.

For us, the future of digital signage is not about choosing between advanced functionality and ease of use. The goal is to use the agent to deliver both and exceed the expectations users have of traditional digital signage software.

Retail media and DOOH are converging with traditional digital signage. What real opportunities do you see emerging from this convergence, and what role will manufacturers and technology platforms play?

The biggest opportunity is that existing screen networks in retail stores and physical venues can become measurable advertising assets.

Many companies already have screens in retail, hospitality, transportation, offices, and service environments. The next step is to manage those screens not only as communication tools, but also as campaign channels with proper scheduling, targeting, verification, and performance measurement.

For us, this is not just a theory. Our flagship project, the Screen Club network, is a practical example. It is one of the first and largest indoor DOOH networks in the Baltics, reaching more than 50% of Lithuanian households. This demonstrates how traditional digital signage infrastructure can evolve into a true retail media and DOOH platform when supported by the right technology, data, and operational model.

For this to work, technology platforms must provide the operational backbone: campaign management, playback verification, analytics, device monitoring, content adaptation, and integration with external systems.

Manufacturers and hardware partners also play an important role. Screens must be reliable, easy to manage remotely, and simple to deploy at scale. However, the real value will emerge when hardware, CMS platforms, AI-driven operations, and data workflows function together as a single ecosystem.

If you had to define what a truly competitive digital signage platform will look like in 2030, which capabilities do you believe are already essential today?

A competitive digital signage platform in 2030 will no longer resemble traditional software. It will not simply be a CMS where users manually upload content, create playlists, select screens, and review reports through multiple interface steps.

We are already moving in this direction with ImpressBox. Instead of forcing users to operate through a conventional interface, we are adding an assistant layer on top of the platform. Users explain what they want to achieve, and the assistant organizes the necessary context: content, playlists, schedules, devices, publishing, and verification.

By 2030, we believe this evolution will go much further. Platforms will be deeply integrated with business data: sales, inventory levels, customer behavior, location performance, weather, campaign results, and key operational KPIs. The platform will not only display content, but also understand what is happening within the business. In that sense, digital signage will move closer to becoming a business consultant. It will be capable of analyzing data, understanding business needs, recommending the right actions, creating or adapting content, publishing it to the right screens, and verifying the results afterward.

The essential capabilities are already clear today: AI-assisted operations, business data integration, automated content creation and adaptation, reliable verification, device monitoring, analytics, and extremely simple user interaction. The winners will not be the platforms with the most buttons. They will be the platforms capable of transforming business intent into the right screen action with the least possible effort.