IBC2026 recap: Less hype, stronger foundations

As a team and as a product, Iconik has always done our best work with others. From the storage we connect to, to the editing tools we send assets out to, to the 65+ native integrations we've built, and the contributors we invite, Iconik works within and alongside systems that change, contract, grow, and evolve.

This year at IBC Amsterdam was all about that community of partners and customers.On the show floor, we presented onstage alongside AWS, Presidio, and Twelve Labs. We held 270+ meetings at our booth, scanned over 1,200 badges, gathered customers and partners around partner pods, co-hosted an afterparty with 150 attendees at The All Out, and gave away 500 canvas tote bags that generated more conversation than any new feature at the show. 

We also walked away with sharper thinking about where the industry is headed — and what that means for how we build.

AI at IBC: Hype has transformed into pragmatism 

For the last several years, media tech companies large and small have made outsize and vague claims about their AI capabilities. “Transform your workflows.” “10x production.” This year, that has changed to a narrower focus: how does AI actually help teams with daily tasks? 

For Iconik, our AI approach has come together around a few concrete goals for our customers and their media assets:

1. Increase content findability
2. Add more context to every asset
3. Make it clear which assets are useable and relevant to the user

At IBC we introduced natural language search, AI enrichment, and an MCP server. Together, Iconik's AI features create a media intelligence layer that empowers the user to make better decisions around their media. 

Our panel with Twelvelabs showed how we’re working with partners to deliver the clearest, most functional AI workflows for our customers. 

IBC Panel with TwelveLabs: Archives as revenue drivers

Jeremy Strootman, VP of North American and Global Channel Sales at Backlight, sat down with Allie Bernacchi, Global M&E Lead at Twelve Labs, to talk about what happens when AI meets a well-organized media library. They covered:

• How video-native AI models index content by moments and actions — not just names and faces
• How natural language search inside Iconik makes that indexed content usable day to day
• The concrete monetization paths: licensing, highlight reels, training data, localization, and compliance

The takeaway wasn't "AI will fix your archive." It was: AI is only as useful as the context underneath it. Without organized metadata, permissions, and governance, you're just adding another disconnected tool.

We don’t build AI features to add to the content overwhelm, to become another reason you have no excuse not to produce millions of assets at once. We want to work with teams to create libraries that can be searched, utilized, and monetized for years to come. 

From media management to creative ops coordination

Iconik started as a media asset management platform — aka a secure, cloud-based home for your video, audio, and text-based assets. But modern teams need more than just a place to park and share assets. They need a system that understands teams and their assets, and drives better decisions. It’s less a repository and more of an operational partner. 

That’s where governance comes in. A million-asset library can’t be controlled without good  governance practices and features built in. 

In order to give users oversight into their content, we’ve found a balance between integrating relevant workflows directly into the Iconik platform, such as synchronized review (built with Cinesync technology), and direct-to-social publishing (Wildmoka technology), with maintaining an API-first infrastructure that ensures any tools you bring into your Iconik environment will communicate directly with your media library. 

This ecosystem wouldn’t be possible without strong partnerships across the industry. The second of the two panel discussions we participated in at IBC showed our deep commitment to building the best ecosystem, not just the best tool. 

IBC panel with Presidio and AWS: Backlight’s pillars for building in the billion-asset era

Backlight CPO/CTO Andrei Dusu joined Presidio and AWS to discuss what it actually takes to move AI from experiment to production inside real media workflows. The conversation centered on four principles that guide how we build:

1. Powerful — the right context at the right time
2. Predictable — cost-effective and ROI-positive
3. Secure — governance built in, not bolted on
4. Extensible — built to plug into whatever comes next, because we can't predict the future any better than anyone else

The Iconik MCP server came up as a concrete example of that extensibility: a governed connection between a customer's media context and external AI systems, without requiring custom integration work.

Building flexible media infrastructure to prepare for an uncertain future

Media has always been an industry that moves fast. The addition of AI into the tech stack has only accelerated the rate of change. When constant change is the only guarantee in the lives of media teams, technology needs to be a foundation, not a fortress. 

We continue to build Iconik as a media system of record — a stable home for your assets — but one that adapts, pivots, and flexes with you when you need it to. 

Iconik’s partnership with the Associated Press exemplifies this. AP journalists are now plugged into Iconik as they file their stories, giving them access to the right assets to deepen their analysis and enrich their storytelling, even when working on a deadline. 

When customers come to us, they don’t have to get rid of all existing tools and migrate every asset into Iconik. They are able to change storage providers whenever they want. They can adjust their stack without losing the media intelligence they’ve built in their library, or the governance and control they have over their assets. 

We don’t have all the answers around which AI tools are going to be transformative three years from now. But we’ve built an infrastructure that’s flexible enough to respond to innovation when it happens while keeping assets secure and visible.

Stronger relationships, stronger solutions

IBC Amsterdam was a reminder that even in this digital age–especially in this digital age–real in-person conversations are invaluable. And as AI impacts every aspect of the creative process, we need these conversations, these relationships, more than ever. To cut through the hype, to reduce chaos for our customers, and to make sure that human storytelling continues to shine.

Explore how Iconik's AI features help media teams find, govern, and monetize their assets — schedule a demo.