DirecTV will let artificial intelligence put your face in shopping ads

DirecTV will place customer photos in artificial intelligence (AI)-generated shopping advertisements starting early 2026. The satellite provider partnered with AI company Glance to transform idle TV screens into personalized storefronts.

The system activates after a Gemini streaming device sits unused for 10 minutes. A QR code appears on screen. Customers scan it with their phone, download Glance’s app, and upload a photo of themselves, family members, or pets.

Minutes later, their digital twin appears wearing clothes they can buy. Or standing beside furniture available for purchase. Users can change outfits and settings using their TV remote.

Source: Glance

“We are making television a lean-in experience versus lean back,” Rajat Wanchoo, Glance’s group vice president of commercial partnerships, told The Verge. “We want to give users a chance to use the advancements that have happened in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV.”

Glance performs reverse image searches across what it claims is a database of one trillion products. When users like an AI-generated item, they can purchase similar real products through their phone.

The technology will also display real-time weather updates and sports scores alongside the shopping content.

This move seems to reflect DirecTV’s struggles to keep subscribers. The company had over 20 million customers in 2015. By 2024, that number dropped to about 11 million, according to Next TV.

Vikash Sharma, DirecTV’s senior vice president of product marketing, said in a statement that the screensavers will help with “content discovery” and “personalization,” providing an “AI-commerce experience.”

Some customers may not want this. More television ads, personalized or otherwise, could feel invasive. Data security adds another concern.

Glance is owned by InMobi, a mobile advertising firm that was sued for tracking unsuspecting users even after they denied the company permission. The company previously brought AI-generated lock screen ads to Samsung Galaxy phones and has pushed ad platforms into Motorola budget phones.

The screensavers can reportedly be disabled, though it remains unclear whether they’ll be turned on by default.

Glance Chief Operating Officer Mansi Jain hinted at expansion plans in an interview with The Verge. “This, we can integrate across different places within the television,” she said. “We are starting with the screensaver, but tomorrow… we can integrate it in the launcher of the TV.”