I explore how digital signage is now ubiquitous in retail and QSR spaces and the rise of employee-facing screens. The challenge of proving ROI for these screens remains, and I discuss future directions to address this.

Digital Signage Trends and ROI Challenges in 2026

So this year in digital signage, I've noticed that us as consumers have seen screens popping up absolutely everywhere. So every retail location, every QSR location, and most out-of-home advertising is now powered by screens and kiosks. I think this is almost finished completion, and almost everywhere now has those screens, but I think that will continue into 2026. The second trend is actually the fastest-growing emerging category for digital signage is employee-facing screens. This is where ScreenCloud focuses on. We are seeing this adoption at a massive rate, and I think that is being inspired by what we're seeing as consumers in retail and QSR. As we see bigger investment coming into digital signage, there is still the elephant in the room, which is the ROI of screens. We have not really determined this for employee-facing communication screens in the same way that we have in retail environments, where you can really pin it back to the money. So I think in 2026, we're going to be asked this question even more, and there are various ways in which we can tackle it. I'm really excited about looking at that because we already know screens work. We know the science is fantastic behind it, but now we really need to prove it as an industry if we're going to take this to the next level.