Marketing Unfiltered Predictions 2026
The 2026 Predictions
Each year, I offer a set of predictions. This year, I reached out to friends in the industry and contributors to my weekly Marketing & Growth newsletter Marketing Unfiltered.
As you will see, there are a lot of diverse anwers, but an undertone you have to get AI right and a reset is coming.
If you’d like to see these predictions as a deck flick through above or download as a PDF here.
Simon Swan
→Connect On LinkedIn » Read Simon’s take on culture as the essential component to Marketing’s success
Time for Clarity - Marketers, companies, the industry is drowning in a fire hose of digital tactics and AI. Time for a reset by defining the business goals, the real problem and the role digital must play. Remove the noise and time for focus 🧘
The side hustle becomes more mainstream - 2025 was a year of restructuring and redundancies as well as downsizing. It seems it’s getting more risky to work as an employee for a company than it is to go out alone?
Squiggly Lines - there’s only so many jobs further up the corporate ladder and with the rampant restructuring happening, it’s time for orgs to embrace their employees who want to retrain or enhance their skills by working across a business, not necessarily the corporate ladder
Sophie Collins
2026 buzz words will be “brand moat”, “agentic workflows” and “human in the loop” as we figure out the role of AI in marketing teams whilst maintaining a competitive advantage.
The publisher landscape is going to have huge disruption thanks to… well, AI obvs. Proprietary or exclusive data moats will become a huge competitive advantage.
Sustainability will continue to slip back down the priority order for CMOs unless we take responsibility for the messages we deliver and the impact they have.
John Lyons
→ Connect On LinkedIn » Read John’s take on brand investment
AI assistants and search summaries will revitalise brand marketing before turning into an engineering arms race.
(I’m a big user of AI tools, but see it used poorly so often) - the misuse of AI in strategy and creative will lead to ever more homogenised and predictable competitive sets. Marketers who can grasp the true value of distinctiveness and differentiation will have a huge advantage.
Increasing opportunities for fractionals and interims, as businesses look for both less financial commitment and stage expertise.
Harry Lang
→ Connect On LinkedIn » Watch me grill Harry in a 🆓 brand mini masterclass below or read the recap
We’ll see a consolidation/mini crash in AI tools as the ‘me too’s’ run out of money and the big cheeses land grab
We’ll see agentic AI roll out as BAU in marketing orgs rather than a new toy to play with
Job market will remain fractured in H1 as everyone tries to save money/ streamline
Nicola Anderson
→ Connect On LinkedIn » Find out more about Nicola’s CMO group
World Cup madness - brands jumping on the bandwagon with very dubious connections
Fractionals going back to full time
Much more of a focus on retention/increasing LTV
Brands trying to get into / build their own communities
Microevents - we had this in last year but think it still sticks. Less trade shows - more owned events with smaller, more curated content/experiences
Nick Bottai
The shift from ‘Rented’ data to ‘Owned’ Intelligence. The AI models themselves (the ‘engines’) are becoming commodities; everyone has access to the same GPT/Claude/Gemini intelligence.So the competitive advantage shifts entirely to the unique proprietary data (the ‘fuel’) you feed them. If we just use public AI on public data, we get generic outputs. The winners will be the ones building unique data loops that competitors can’t copy
The CMO role will evolve into a “Chief Capital Allocator”.
Brand will come back, but in a very commercial way (pricing defence mechanism)
Oren Greenberg
→ Connect On LinkedIn » Here’s Oren take on Marketing & AI
Context engineering becomes the new moat: Everyone’s got access to the same AI models. So the differentiator isn’t the engine alone, it’s the fuel. Companies that build structured business context will outperform those that still copy-paste into ChatGPT.
GTM Engineering eats marketing ops: The fractional trend continues but the type changes. We’ll see less “strategic advisor,” more “person who can actually build the revenue system.” Technical marketers who ship workflows in Clay and n8n become more valuable than strategists who ship decks.
Authenticity gets commoditised, conviction doesn’t: Everyone will claim human-led content. The actual differentiator becomes having a point of view worth defending and the business context to back it up.
AI rate of improvement momentum will keep: Just like we’ve seen with ChatGPT 5.2, breaking new records, we’ll see additional advancements in AI’s ability to perform many specialists’ tasks.
Competitive proliferation will continue: I’m seeing so many clone variants of GTM systems in marketing/sales pop up now. Many folk out there with a Loveable/Bolt license think they’re building the next HubSpot.
Beth Gladstone
→ Connect On LinkedIn » Check out Beth’s new company GetTrendie
For freelancers - High demand for fractional services, BUT mainly for those who can own both strategy + execution. Goodbye to the strategy deck (which most of the time dies after initial delivery), and instead a focus on end-to-end strategy delivery and management with freelancers increasingly owning roadmap and implementation.
For Marketers - (I hope) realising that AI cannot, and will not, own either creativity or expertise, and instead learning how to bookend projects with both. What does that look like in reality? Marketers returning to coming up with their own creative campaigns, then using AI to execute them. Or using AI to write the base of a blog, before returning it to an internal expert to add nuance and anecdote.
For business owners - Owned awareness (followers) on social media will end, as many platforms move into a “flash content” model, basically emulating TikTok’s FYP where you see lots of content rather than seeing lots from the same creators. Meaning we’ll start to think about social media as broad brand awareness (like advertising on TV) rather than the past content > following > community model.
Carl Hendy
→ Connect On LinkedIn » Listen to Carl’s guide to the future of SEO & AI - this has actually aged really well!
Simplification of analytics and attribution: Website analytics will continue to become harder to interpret as privacy regulation, cookie restrictions, VPN usage, AI-driven search, and increasingly fragmented user journeys distort attribution models. This will drive a return to simpler measurement frameworks and a move beyond the Google Analytics-led performance marketing era towards alternative indicators of success.
Owning audience relationships: Brands will place greater emphasis on owning first-party audience data through community building. Reduced reliance on third-party tools and datasets will be required, alongside a broader definition of the user journey that extends beyond the website. Understanding where audiences actually spend their time and how they engage across platforms will help define marketing strategies.
SEO evolving into web visibility: SEO will continue its shift towards broader web visibility. This has been underway for some time, but growing interest and budget allocation will accelerate the transition. Success will be measured less by rankings alone and more by overall presence across search, platforms, and emerging discovery environments.
A correction to AI hype: As the initial hype around AI settles, AI-derived data is likely to become less central to decision-making. Brands will refocus on direct communication, qualitative insight, and genuine customer understanding rather than relying solely on abstracted or synthetic signals.
Rory Woodbridge
→ Connect On LinkedIn // » Listen to Rory’s great breakdown of Product Marketing & why the PMM role is so misunderstood
AI starting to deliver on its promise: “2025 was the year AI moved from interesting to actually useful. I’m hoping 2026 is when all these really cool concepts become truly usable.”
Complexity is a challenge, but we’ve faced this before: “AI products aren’t inherently harder to explain than any other technology. The real challenge is having the discipline to make strategic choices about what to communicate, when, and to whom.
Speed trumps perfect more than ever: “What took 6 months will need to happen in weeks, which doesn’t mean abandoning craft. It means condensing it and practicing the fundamentals at a higher tempo.”
Holding the quality bar: “AI makes it easy to produce polished-looking work that lacks substance, so marketers become the guardians who ensure work is exceptional and authentic, not just efficient.”
Jonathan Wagstaffe
→ Connect On LinkedIn // » Listen to Jonathan and I discuss how we run effective AI workshops
1. The Urgency of AI Skill Acquisition: There are four key things I see coming. The first is the massive opportunity in AI. Regardless of the long-term prospects for humanity and the job market, there is no doubt in my mind that acquiring AI skills quickly as an individual, and executing on AI experimentation as a business, is going to be essential in 2026. No matter what the future holds, you cannot go wrong right now by understanding AI to whatever level you’re comfortable with. You need to plan how to use it and start experimenting within your business immediately.
2. AI Transforms the Shopping Experience: I think 2026 is the year AI really impacts online shopping. Whether or not the AI platforms launch ad-supported versions remains to be seen, but we are already seeing “agentic” pieces from Google and OpenAI. These agents will go out and research the market, find the best prices, and identify the best matches for your specific needs. This is going to be significantly more advanced by next Christmas than it is this year.
3. The Shift to In-House Marketing: I believe 2026 will be the year growing businesses realise they must take their marketing in-house. Marketing is increasingly about educating your customer, building trust, and maintaining authenticity. It requires high-quality content that answers every question a customer has, alongside transparency regarding how you work and how you price, even if you can’t put exact figures in the public domain. Businesses will look hard at their agency spend and ask: “Can we not do this ourselves? Can we not develop these skills and playbooks in-house to do this properly?”
4. The Rise of “Search Snake Oil”: Finally, 2026 will be another year of “snake oil” regarding AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). The world of SEO has been completely disrupted by AI. SEO as we knew it a few years ago is dead. While search itself remains very healthy, the way people navigate it is changing. There are many people selling “snake oil” claiming they have the secret methodology to succeed in AI search. It’s all nonsense. The whole industry is currently up in the air; nobody has the definitive answer yet, but the false promises will continue to proliferate through 2026.
Your Core Takeaways
The consensus among our Marketing Unfiltered contributors outlines three pivotal strategic shifts that will define competitive advantage in 2026:
1/ The Great AI Differentiation Challenge, 2/ The Talent & Organisational Reset 3/ The Return to First-Party Brand Clarity.
The simple ‘use AI’ mandate has expired. CMOs must recognise that the advantage shifts from the model (the ‘engine’) to Proprietary Data and Context Engineering (the ‘fuel’).
This requires an immediate pivot to building unique, internal data loops that power agentic workflows, moving beyond generic public AI outputs to secure a genuine ‘brand moat.’ This technological demand is mirrored by an essential Talent and Organisational Reset. With continued restructuring and budget scrutiny, businesses are favoring less financial commitment and more proven expertise, accelerating the fractional trend.
The new value can be in the ‘GTM Engineer’ the expert who can own both strategy and execution—transforming the CMO role into a Chief Capital Allocator who ruthlessly focuses on core business goals.
Finally, a necessary Correction to AI Hype will refocus strategy on retention, increasing LTV, owning audience relationships via community, and reinforcing brand commercially as a crucial pricing defence mechanism. 2026 is the year to cut the noise and execute on a focused, defensible strategy.
The 5 Key Calls to Action for CMOs in 2026:
Fund Your Data Moat: Consider reallocating budget from general MarTech to the development of unique, proprietary data and internal Context Engineering to feed your AI models, creating a non-copyable competitive advantage.
Become Chief Capital Allocator: Conduct an audit of all digital activities to eliminate 'noise,' clearly defining the real business problem and focusing investment solely on programs that demonstrably achieve core business goals.
Hire for "Ship" over "Deck": Move your talent acquisition focus to technical, implementational talent (GTM Engineers) who can build and deploy revenue-generating workflows, utilising the fractional model for specialised expertise and speed. You must have clear workflows and be operationally ready for such investments and shifts
Simplify and Own Attribution: Abandon complex, fragmented analytics models; revert to simpler measurement frameworks and invest heavily in first-party audience data and community building to own the customer journey and relationship.
Reinforce Brand as Defence: Make retention and LTV paramount, and strategically use authentic content backed by a strong point of view to reinforce brand, leveraging it as a commercial pricing defence mechanism against market commoditization.
Danny Denhard
