2026 Digital Marketing Predictions

I know there are a lot of these digital marketing predictions articles about. But so many of them talk about best practice marketing techniques that are so well established they will undoubtedly be around for a while longer.

There’s nothing wrong with writing about these things, but if the title of the article is ‘predictions’, then what I really want to know is ‘what’s likely to happen?’ rather than ‘what’s already happened’. So here’s hoping I don’t fall into that same trap (I’m sure I will a little bit). These are my top 6 digital marketing predictions for 2026, and I really hope you find them useful. But first…

We can’t talk about 2026 without talking about AI

Most of you will already be using AI to some degree. Even if you’re not consciously using AI right now, you probably are using AI unconsciously. You don’t need to be brainstorming with ChatGPT, creating images with MidJourney or creating videos with HeyGen – to be using AI. AI has already become integral to almost every digital marketing platform we use. So if you work in marketing, you will be using AI in 2026 – whether you intended to or not. (That’s not one of my predictions btw. That’s just fact).

Marketing technology has been evolving for as long as I’ve worked in marketing. It’s just evolving a little faster now. So embrace the changes. But do so with your usual marketing rigour. The fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed just because our toolkits are evolving.

Which takes me to my first prediction…

1. Trust in marketing will decline in 2026

Why? Because our marketing toolkits will continue to emerge faster than the governance required to ensure their safe implementation. This means we’ll likely witness further compromises to consumer rights, privacy or the environment. Whilst at the same time, the sophistication of our toolkits will mean that the boundaries between real and fake will become increasingly blurred. The result of course will be that overall trust in marketing will decline.

So what do you need to do? You need to do your due diligence; give credit where credit’s due, act ethically and transparently. Do whatever you can to deepen the credibility of your brand. Credibility will matter more than ever.

2. Emotional intelligence will become your differentiator

In a world where AI will play such a significant role, there’s the obvious danger that everything starts to get a bit samey. Particularly from a content perspective. So how do you avoid that? You go back to basics. Marketing is all about connection. Always has been. Always will be. That doesn’t change, just because our toolkits are evolving.

But creating real connection is the one thing AI doesn’t do so well yet. Because it requires emotional intelligence. Something your team no doubt have in abundance. So use that as your differentiator. Lean into the strengths of the humans on your team – that’s what will give you your competitive edge in 2026.

Technology will enable you to pump out content at scale. And it’s great to get scale efficiently. But marketing’s not about creating higher volumes of content that your audiences will tolerate. It’s about creating content that your audiences will choose to spend time with. Because they feel seen. Because they feel heard. Because they feel something.

3. Employee Generated Content (EGC) will be key

Your audiences are going to be drowning in content. Even more so than they already are. As a result of AI, we can expect to see more posts, more emails, more videos, more ads. But all with less human credibility. Which if we again go back to the basic principles of marketing, is exactly what we need, to build trust.

Real people inside real organisations become trust signals – proof that a brand is competent and human. Whilst at the same time, algorithms reward consistent faces and known voices.

We know that people trust recurring formats more than one off campaigns. So your brand needs visible humans to show up consistently. Which is exactly what Employee Generated Content will do for you.

It proves that the people behind the brand are real experts who think deeply, and care. This builds trust.

Each employee becomes a micro channel, building organic reach.

They’ll tell their own unique stories through their own unique personalities.

Employee Generated Content becomes your infrastructure for trust, reach and differentiation at a time when trust and differentiation are the things that will be needed most.

Following a similar thought process (although it didn’t quite make it into my top 6 predictions) I think micro-influencers will also be key. People with really niche but highly engaged audiences will really help brands to reach new and interested audiences in a trustworthy way.

4. We’ll see increased wastage in ad spend

Bit negative? Perhaps. Okay how about we’ll see increased wastage in ad spend if we don’t redefine how we’re spending? Bear with me…

Why will we see increased wastage? Because we’ll see more bot traffic. 

Why will we see more bot traffic? Because AI makes bots cheap, scalable and more like humans. (There’s of course also huge financial incentive to generate fake traffic). Bots are also harder to identify and verify due to privacy regulations which means that bots can hide more easily. Combine this with the fact that AI means that more of the marketing ecosystem is automated. That means fewer human checks. And faster exploit cycles.

Not only is there more bot traffic, bots are also becoming increasingly sophisticated (better at mimicking human behaviour). This means that advertising platforms reward signals that bots can mimic. This means that bots get distribution. And then your automated ad platforms optimise towards more bots. Which means you’re spending money on reaching bots instead of people (wastage).

So what do we need to change? We can avoid this to some degree with precision first marketing. Sorry for the buzzword.

What does this mean? Well you start with the quality of the environment you’re advertising in – go for private market places over open exchanges for example. Then you optimise towards more meaningful signals. So instead of optimising toward views or clicks (that can be easily mimicked), you optimise towards depth of interaction or conversion quality. Higher quality advertising environments and higher quality optimisation signals will help you to reduce wastage.

5. Attribution will become less precise

I know I’m full of the joys of spring aren’t I? (Just trying to be realistic). But this one’s important because your finance teams are going to need educating. They’ll want an ROI. That’s not something you can confidently give at a channel level anymore.

In the past, measurement was getting more and more precise to the point that we could say with a degree of (illusional?) confidence “this activity caused this sale”. Not any more.

Attribution is getting less precise because the digital environment that made precision possible no longer exists (technically, legally or behaviourally). It doesn’t exist because:

Privacy improved

Behaviour became more complex

Fraud increased

Automation replaced human visibility.

As marketers we have to get comfortable with ranges instead of exact values, and numbers not aligning across platforms. We need more experimentation. We need to ask the right questions to understand success (for example “If we increase spend here, do results go up elsewhere?”). It feels messy, but I think it’s more real. And I think that those adapting to directional truth will make better marketing decisions than those clinging to fake precision.

(Have I just given a summary of something that’s already happening rather than a prediction? Maybe. Kind of. But we’ve got a long way to go when it comes to measurement and I think attribution will be a hot topic in 2026, so I’m keeping this in).

6. Social will become search. Search will become social.

We’ve already seen these lines start to blur. I talked a lot about the changing search landscape in 2025. And I’ve talked a lot about people searching through social platforms.

But what I think will shift further in 2026 is that search will become more like social. We’ll see more rich media in our search experiences, more conversations and dare I say it, more community input. I honestly think that the boundaries between these channels will blur even further. 

As marketers I think we’ve been focussing on the wrong things. Everyone’s hung up on GEO and what they need to do to show up in LLMs, when actually (spoiler alert) the basic principles of SEO apply across the board. Whilst the search landscape has changed significantly, SEO hasn’t actually changed as much as the people pushing GEO courses might have you believe – it’s just about upweighting certain signals to be found in certain places. 

And whilst so much focus has been given to SEO, I’m not sure enough focus has been given to how to incorporate discoverability into our social strategies. Social is no longer just about engagement. It’s also a key channel for discoverability. So your social strategy needs to consider for example, ‘what are the ten questions audiences are searching before they buy’? 

With this in mind, researching search intent will be a key skillset in 2026.

Thinking about it, I’d question whether we need channel strategies any more. I think with blurred boundaries, I’m more inclined to think in terms of a discoverability strategy and an engagement strategy, rather than having a search strategy and a social strategy. But maybe that’s just me.

View from The Den

Those are my six marketing predictions for 2026. What do you think’s going to happen? 

I’m hoping I’ve provided some food for thought as you think through your 2026 priorities.

I don’t think it’s going to be an easy ride for marketers to be honest. But I do think it will be exciting.

Here’s to an awesome 2026 for you!