Licensing Expo 2026 Wrap Up: AI, Deals & What’s Next in Licensing

What really happens at Licensing Expo?

In this episode of Born to License, David Born shares a behind-the-scenes look at Licensing Expo 2026 in Las Vegas - from speaking about AI in licensing, to insights from his team on the ground, to conversations with exhibitors building the next wave of IP.

This isn’t just a highlight reel. It’s a real-time look at where the licensing industry is heading.

🎙️ In This Episode:

• David’s talk on AI in the licensing industry
• Why trust and relationships still matter more than ever
• How AI is already being used across licensing workflows
• Key risks of AI (including confidentiality & entry-level roles)
• Insights from the Born team live on the show floor
• Conversations with first-time exhibitors & global IP owners
• What it’s actually like to exhibit at Licensing Expo

🧠 Key Takeaways on AI & Licensing:

• AI can increase efficiency across the licensing lifecycle
• It helps with IP discovery, content, and productivity
• But it cannot replace relationships or deal-making
• The industry must protect entry-level opportunities
• Confidentiality is critical when using AI tools

🌍 About Licensing Expo:

Licensing Expo is the world’s largest event for the brand licensing industry, bringing together:

• Global licensors & licensees
• Retailers, manufacturers & agents
• The biggest brands in entertainment, lifestyle & more

It’s where deals are made—and where the future of licensing takes shape.

🎙 Born to License – Hosted by David Born

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Transcript

Hello!

Licensing Expo 2026 has just wrapped. I'm speaking to you from my hotel room in Vegas. After what was a very busy week. You can tell that my voice is still here, but only just. Those who are following me on Instagram would have seen the play by play from me. From Teletubby spotting to barreling through the Tetris obstacle course, I've created a highlight on my profile for those who want to play a bit of catch up. Okay, so there is a lot to say about this week. For this episode I wanted to focus on three perspectives. The first is a highlight of Min, which was speaking at the Networking Hub about AI. The second is the check in with my team, which we recorded during the week when they were literally living and breathing the show. 

 And the third is from some of the exhibitors, I popped by some of the booths to ask a few questions to an interesting array of those exhibiting, many of which were exhibiting for the very first time. So this is the first of our Licensing Expo 2026 wrap up episodes. I'm david born and this is Born to License. The first thing I wanted to bring to you was my chat at the Networking Hub Licensing Expo had asked me to join for a chat about AI and licensing. I must admit that I don't feel like a real expert in the area, but I do have some strong opinions about how AI could benefit the licensing world as well as the damage it could potentially do. So here's a few moments from that panel. 

 So let's start with the basics and talk about AI in the licensing industry and where AI is creating real value for licensing, not just hype. So, david, what is AI and what does AI mean to you? 

 This is a great question. You know, I still feel like the world of AI is kind of the wild west. I think we're trying to all figure it out. Not just the licensing industry, but the world itself. For me, as a business owner, I've told all of my team that we really need to find ways to embrace AI to make us more productive, to make us more efficient. One thing I did want to mention though, is what AI is not. AI is not a replacement for two fundamental things that drive the licensing industry. The first one is trust, and the second one is relationships. Everybody under this roof, you know, works around trust and relationships. There are people that have been in the licensing industry for decades and have built up those relationships and they just cannot be replicated through AI. 

 So I feel like that those elements are untouchable in our industry. And as we're talking about all the great things that I can do for our industry. We need to bear in mind that it won't replace everything. 

 I love that discussion of trust and relationships. But tell us, how are you personally, how are you and Born to License and Born Licensing using AI in your business? 

 Yeah, so what I've been doing a lot of with my content. So on the Born to License PODCAST, I've been working with AI to help me generate scripts, help the recording better quality. My entire team have also been helping using AI to help generate their content. Talk about all the work that we're doing as well. I would say that we're not necessarily going as deep as we would like to be going with AI right now. We're also in a bit of a wait and see phase, so I wouldn't say we're doing anything that's more exciting than what a lot of other people are doing in this room at the moment. But we're watching to see where it's going. 

 How do you see your AI tools changing your business over the next couple of years? 

 When I look at the life cycle of a licensing deal, from identifying the right IP to negotiating the agreement, to working through the contract, to the product development stage, to royalty reporting, to CMF reports, to forecasts, I think that AI tools will help make every part of that much more efficient. Licensing is still can be a laborious task. There's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot of paperwork. And I particularly the product development process is what takes the longest amount of time. And I think what the future holds is as AI tools are adopted and embraced by our industry, it will really, they'll really find a way to really streamline that so we can get licenses signed quicker and products to shelves faster. 

 David, do you find that you're using licensing more in the negotiating the license agreements, identifying the IP or once the agreement is signed, using it to develop the products and forecast the marketing trends. 

 What my team has been doing most on the Born to License side is using AI to help us find the right IP for our clients. But what were talking about before is you've got to be very careful with what you're putting into the AI tool because we everybody is signing non disclosure agreements left, right and center. Every licensing agreement has non disclosure language in there and we're all given sensitive information all the time. I was at the showcases yesterday, lots of and the day before, lots of NDAs being signed. We have to make sure that we're not putting Any confidential information, even in the questions that we're putting into ChatGPT or Claude, because that's something that we've agreed that we're not able to do. So that's how we do it on the born to license side. 

 But again, my whole team is instructed be very careful what you're actually putting on to the system, because once it's out there. 

 How can AI improve? Or how are each of you using AI for matchmaking? And how are you using it for deal negotiations? 

 Well, for the. 

 For the deal making side of things, to be honest, I'm not using AI. Going back to what I said at the start, it's all about relationships in this business and deal making can be a very personal thing. I think that's something that needs to be done human to human, at least in the short term. Who knows where AI will take us? But I still feel like those deal negotiations are something that needs to happen without AI's involvement. 

 So without revealing anything confidential, now that we've been warned by J. Scott david, can you give us a but one or two specific examples of where you've used AI and actually used it in practice? 

 Yeah, I mean, I hate to go back to the PODCAST that I mentioned, but to be honest, that PODCAST do once a week and five years ago it would have taken hours and hours to do. I decide on the topic based on having a bit of back and forth with AI to see what is trending in our world. It helps me draft the script. It's still very much my tone of voice, but it helps me kind of do the legwork with the script. Once I do the recording, it cleans it up for me and puts it in a really good place and it reduces it down to about half an hour. So it takes me about half an hour to do a PODCAST instead of many hours that would have years ago. 

 And then david, what are you seeing? AI in contracts. When we spoke about this earlier, you had a really interesting perspective about where you see AI in contracts going. 

 Yeah. 

 When I was asked to be on this panel, I wanted to think about what does the future kind of look like for AI and licensing. And one of the things that I started thinking about was dynamic royalty structures. There's been a little bit of a rumbling of dynamic royalty structures here. So let's say a theatrical release is coming out in 24 months time. The licensor is going and selling that to potential licensees, and the licensees aren't necessarily sure about It a dynamic royalty structure could actually have a royalty structure in place based on performance. So if it does really well, the royalty rate would be a lot higher. If it does poorly, the royalty rate would be a lot lower. And AI essentially would be responsible for calculating that across all of their different licensees. 

 It's like surge taxi pricing in New York City. And david, for our audience and for your clients, what are you suggesting they do to start to get comfortable and get ahead of the AI movement? 

 Well, there's something I wanted to say more of a word of warning. I don't want to be that negative person on this panel, but I think about what I was like 20 years ago. I entered licensing and I was doing a lot of administrative tasks, a lot of basic functions for the company that are being replaced as we speak. And I think we need to make sure as an industry, and this applies to a lot of other industries as well, is we're not eliminating the entry level jobs. What we're making sure we're allowing newcomers to come into our industry, new blood into our industry, and not replacing them with AI because we need a future as an industry. Where would I be if I didn't have that opportunity at Haven licensing in Australia 20 years ago doing a lot of administrative tasks? 

 I certainly wouldn't have a team of 14 people now bringing innovation to the industry. And I think we just have to be really mindful of that. It's tempting, it's really tempting to say we're not going to hire this junior, we're just going to have it all scooped up and done through AI. But the truth is that those juniors are the future of our businesses and of our industry. And we need to make sure that we're being really mindful of that now. 

 While I was in meetings and doing my thing at Licensing Expo, I had the born team share their thoughts about how the show was going for them. Let's hear what they had to say. 

 I really enjoyed how many people just come to the booth without having scheduled a meeting. You know, just I guess, walk ins. I wasn't expecting how busy were gonna get with the walk ins that we had and of the walk ins, how a lot of these people are interesting and actually have potential and could become a lead. So that took me by surprise. Also what took me by surprise is how many people come to our booth wanting to become a licenso because they have their own ideas. They are illustrators, storytellers, they've created of cartoons or things like that. So I wasn't expecting too many people wanting to be a licenso. You know, I was really looking for the licensees, but we got them all. We got really them all. 

 And quite surprised as well how many people turned up to the booth knowing much about licensing, which obviously I would then refer them to Learn to License. A lot of people need a Learn to License course. 

 So we're here on day two of Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. I'm at the Born to License booth right now. These shelves, as you'll see, I had an instrumental part in constructing the other day, so I'm very proud of them with the team. We were doing all that assembly, my first expo and I'm having a great time taking a lot of meetings with our team and others. Met a lot of characters today. That's been a highlight for sure. Met Peppa Pig, just spent some time with how to Train youn Dragon Cast. Thinking about moving to the Isle of Burke, which is where they're from, where I think I could become maybe a chief of a village or if not maybe an assistant to the chief of a village. 

 But having a great time so far and looking forward to the rest of the day and tomorrow. 

 My name is Alyssa and I'm at the licensing Expo Day 2. And some things that I've done today were go to the SEGA Summit where I got this knuckles plush and I also had a meeting with Jazwares for Squishmallows. I also got this cam and it's been so much fun meeting with all of my contacts and I'm just having a great time showing off the wonderful work that we've done for this entire past year and hope to see you there. 

 My licensing expo is full of meetings and events, the biggest booths on and off the show floor, from Disney, Mattel to Netflix and Universal. But there is so much more to Licensing Expo than those big entertainment companies. I wanted to ensure that I learned about some of the exciting exhibitors at the show as well. Many of which I'd never come across and many of which were exhibiting for the very first time. So have a listen to those chats. 

 My name is Helen H. Wu. I'm a children's book author, illustrator and publisher. The brand is called Capifung. It's a capybara inspired lifestyle IP and we promote comfort and emotional well being. 

 Oh, very good. And, and capybaras actually mean a lot to me because I did marathon training in a city in Brazil called Curitiba and there's a lot of capybaras there. That had to like, leap over. So why do you think capybaras is so popular right now? 

 Yeah, capybaras, they're chill, friendly and they're literally friends to everyone. And I think they're really special because they naturally have this personality, like chill and enjoy life's little being, little moments. And that's we all need as a human being. And that's how I really love this animal. And I also inspired me to create stories featuring capybara and their friends and also with other animals. And we have a little universe to include everyone. 

 And is this your first time at Licensing Expo? 

 It's actually my first time here. Before capybara, I also created lots of other characters like dragons, glottals and pandas. And it's so fun to introduce capybara and continue to grow this little universe. 

 And for anyone that's considering exhibiting at Licensing Expo in the future, do you have any tips for them? 

 Oh, yeah, sure. I think it's great to have like a good portfolio to include your artwork, your stories behind your ip. Like, I started as a book author and illustrator and publisher, so I have quite some stories behind this IP and I to support the character and the universe and the little world. So I start from book publishing and gradually expand to different categories and different merchandise and I hope to character from books into other lifestyle merchandise so people can use in their everyday life. So I think it's why I attended Licensing Expo because there are so many possibilities to partner with different partners in different industries and yeah, I think to prepare some your portfolio, your stories and why you really love your characters and love your ip. 

 And I believe you all meet great people and expand and explore a lot of opportunities. 

 So you mentioned merchandise and those listening on the PODCAST won't be able to see what's in front of me, but there's a lot of really great product. Can you do your best to kind of describe what I'm looking at? 

 Yeah, sure. We literally have capybara everything from head toe, from winter to summer. We have copy bar, backpack, like stationery, puzzles, games, footwear, like slippers and sandals. And we also have stickers, keychains, coloring books, picture books, board books, and all types of apparel from babies to kids to teens and to adults. So I, I'm so excited to work with multiple partners in different categories and bring capybara to life. 

 I'm Peter Geckis and I'm co founder and the owner and IP steward along with Dr. Miguel Benet. Of Walter Mercado, the most famous Latin astrologer in the world. And My business partner, Dr. Benet, is the great nephew of Walter Mercado. 

 Fantastic. And is this the first time you've been here at licensing expert or you've been many times? 

 Well, we haven't been many times, but this is our fourth time. 

 And have you found the response this year to be positive? 

 I think it's been very positive, yes. I feel it's been a very successful show. I don't think you need a lot of people to come to your booth or maybe even a lot of people to come to the convention to have a successful show. I would say I feel attendance is down, though, this year, Dramatically down. You can tell by the parking lot. You can tell by the advertising support, or there aren't as many banners in the hallways of people who are buying advertising. You can tell by the attendance. But I still feel I had a successful event. 

 And tell me about Walter Mercado. What is it about him that makes so appealing in the consumer product space? 

 Well, Walter Mercado at a television show on Univision and Telemundo that reached 120 million people every single day. Now, just to put that into perspective, I don't have the super bowl numbers this year when Benito was on, but for the previous year, super bowl is the most watched television show in America, and it received 157.6 million viewers. Walter received 120 million. Over 120 million viewers every single day at the height of his television appearances. We also have a Netflix documentary that was produced and released in 2019 of Walter on netflix. Mucho, mucho more. The legend of Walter Mercado. And that documentary has garnered over 45 million viewers. Walter was popular all across the Americas. Walter is a trusted spiritual guide and icon of the Latino community. 

 His. 

 He has a permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington. He has a revolving display, for example, of his Puerto Rican cape at the Smithsonian. He also had a portrait hanging in the national portrait gallery. So his contribution to Latino culture cannot be underestimated. 

 Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. 

 Hi, my name is Meg, and I have Meg's mashables, which is my business. I make mashables where I combine animals with one another. So a corgi and a shark is a cork, a flamingo and a sheep is a fleep. We have a whale and a cow, which is a. Wow. It lacks toes. It has only fins. And I have them as stuffed animals. Pins, stickers. I've been doing it since 2020 during the pandemic, I would just draw these silly things. I'd spin a wheel of animals twice. Whatever it landed on is what I would make in the video. I'd post it online. And then here we are six years later and I have a thriving business and I that has met a lot of wonderful people. 

 So amazing. Well, congratulations. Is this your first time exhibiting here? 

 It sure is, yes. It was very intimidating to come, but I'm so excited that I'm here. 

 But I mean, looking right behind you, it's Warner Brothers Discovery. Like, you got an amazing spot right next to like one of the biggest IPs on the planet. So congratulations there. Tell me any learnings that you've got from this week at Licensing Expo. 

 I would say my biggest learning is listening is just there's a lot of people from top to bottom all over the agencies, all over this world are all under the same roof and just listening and hearing the people that have been here and doing it for 30 years and being excited and seeing my IP. So the biggest thing that I've learned is to just let the professionals talk and to tell me how, what they're doing and what they want to do. 

 And any tips for anyone thinking about exhibiting here next year? Any thoughts? 

 Tips? It's worth it. Do it. It sounds scary, it's a big bite, but it's worth being able to get in front of people. I think that especially in the world of technology, it's very hard to connect with people via email or cold calls. Being able to physically be in front of people and make eye contact and handshakes and just feel the immediate vibe of somebody is super important for me as a business owner because I want to be able to work with people that I resonate with. I don't want just an email base. I want to know these people. I want to know that they're going to be on board with what I'm doing. So. 

 And do you think that you're walking away this week with deals? Do you think you're going to be have generated business from this week, this coming here? 

 I had a feeling that it was going to, but coming here is definitely the next launching pad chapter for my business. So. Absolutely. Yeah. 

 Oh, good. Very good. Well, thank you, Meg. 

 Thank you. 

 Hello, my name is Rodrigo. I'm CEO and founder from bifrog. We represent BDUC in whole America, including North America, Central America, Latin America. We are a licensing company in Brazil based in Sao Paulo. So we are very truly appreciated that you are here. So thank you so much. 

 And how many times have you been exhibiting here? Is this your first or have you been here many times? 

 No, I started my company in 2015. 2015 And I visited the show since then. Former Warner Brothers. So it's a great show for us. And BDuck comes, I believe, 2017, 2018, something like that. 

 Okay, so tell me a bit about bdug. 

 Bdog is a huge brand, the biggest brand in China. It's a huge IP. We are celebrating 20 years old, our anniversary about it and we are growing business in the United States. We started in Brazil, in Latin America and now we are growing the business in the United States. These are lifestyle brands. So it's a breed. 

 And tell me about Licensing Expo, how important it is for you to be here. 

 Yeah, to be here in the licensee expo is really important because here we receive a lot of companies, a lot of people around the world, not only for America, but for instance we received yesterday people from Mexico, people from Europe. So it's really amazing to grow the business not only here in the United States, but as well worldwide. 

 And you've been signing deals this week? Yes, very good. So it's a good return on investment, I guess, having a booth at licensing experts. 

 Yes, yes, for sure. 

 Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for the chat. 

 I'm Steve Hauck. I'm one of the co founders of Be Cute B E K Y O O T. This is our first year licensing at the show. We've had some really good meetings. We're looking to grow our brand, our IP and our artist Christy is here. My other co founder and co founder Kendra is here. 

 So anybody that's exhibiting here for the first time, maybe thinking about it next year. Do you have any tips to share with us? 

 I would say come prepared. The people get on the app early and start trying to set your meetings. That's something we should have done a little bit sooner. But we said some really good ones. But when you do set them, do your homework, know exactly what the company does and be specific, more granular about what do you want to get out of it? What does a good meeting look like for you at the end of it? So that you have asking better questions and the same for them, they'll probably look at you. So be prepared. 

 And what did you want to get out of exhibiting here at Licensing Expo? 

 Ultimately closing deals. We wanted to get people. We have people come to us that are going into emerging markets in China, Japan, places like that, and then companies that just want to straight up, license our products. They just want to take the IP and cut a deal. So it's a way to grow the brand. We're looking to put more eyes on our brand. It does very well when people see it. So yeah, grow the brand and get more eyes and hopefully cut a deal or two. We've had a number of meetings, about 25 and if a few of those pan out it will be very much worth it. And we've already signed up for next year, so. 

 Oh, fantastic. Well I look forward to seeing you next year. 

 Yeah, very exciting. 

 We are Qjoy Qi Zhongji from China. So we are an IP operating company representing for 28 IP across Asia and we are just bringing them to the North America market for the first time. So it is the first time we ever came to Las Vegas to attending this expo. So yeah, very good. So far so good. 

 So this is your first time at Licensing Expo? Tell me, how's the experience been? 

 I think we have a very like. 

 The strong and very like amazing experience. 

 Also like the good meetings with many brands today and also like to also list this because we communicate so many like the concerning like the crossover collaborations or like the experiential, like official exhibitions like in the future. Yeah. 

 So that's why we can like still to explore more. Yeah, globally. And how far in advance do you start working? Because one thing I know is your stand is beautiful. Like honestly it's so visually appealing. When did you start planning for this and how did you kind of approach it? 

 Okay, so for this event the schedule is quite tight because we decided to attend by the end of February. So we only got three months to prepare for everything. But since we are in China and in Asia, we attend a lots of expos, maybe around 10 expos a year. So we have a very mature, you know, execution standard of everything. So yeah, so we make it in a very short time period. 

 Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for the chat. 

 My name is Alicia Rose. I'm exhibiting Jet the Adventure Pup. So he is an emotional kids based brand that is all about overcoming fear and nervousness and anxiety when it comes to traveling, going for sleepovers, going to the doctor, all that, everything that kids experience, Jet experiences in his life too. 

 And is this your first time exhibiting here? 

 Yes, it is. The brand's only two months old. We just got Jet in February and created the brand in March. 

 Oh wow. Congratulations. So how have you found and being at Licensing Expo? 

 This experience has been invaluable. Truthfully we have changed our direction of business probably 10 times in here of just talking to so many amazing people and experts that it's been mind blowing. Like we can't put a value on it. 

 And can you share some of the. 

 Learnings that you've come had this week? 

 Yeah, I mean, definitely. This is a digital world and we're learning that very quickly. We need brand exposure and we've already started to work with animator and designer to get Jet brought to life and that's been a huge one. Another one has just been don't give up on the, on your dreams of bringing it to life. 

 And will we see you again next year, do you think? 

 Absolutely. Well, and we're hoping to be bigger and better by then. 

 That's it. 

 Well, we'll see you next year. 

 I hope you found those chats to be interesting. I'm always eager to learn about upcoming IP and asking a few questions to the PODCAST was a great way to do that. 

 Before we wrap up, I wanted to. 

 Say a huge thank you to everyone who came to say hello and share that they were listeners of the PODCAST. It was truly heartwarming to see how many people were tuning in each week and it's really motivated me to keep delivering great episodes each week with valuable content about all things licensing. Now I've only just come up for air from Licensing Expo. There is a lot more to share and next week's episode will include more about what happened here in Vegas, which really is the biggest week of the year for our business and the licensing industry. I'll share some hot takes, some lessons learnt and I'll tell you which licensing event I'll be focused on next. For those who attended Licensing Expo, I hope your week was as productive and eventful as mine was until next week. 

 I'm david born and this is born to license.