COHN AI: 2026 Marketing Predictions
Every year, we ask our team to share one trend or prediction they’re seeing in marketing. Not polished think-pieces. Not keynote speeches. Just real observations from the people doing the work every day.
We call these crowdsourced posts COHN: AI, short for Actual Intelligence. Because while AI tools are getting faster and more capable by the minute, the most valuable insights still come from human experience, pattern recognition, and a healthy dose of real-world perspective.
Here’s what our team sees coming in 2026.
Lisa Wieting, VP of Strategy
One of the biggest shifts happening in marketing is the rise of what many call the “dark funnel.” Buyers are researching, evaluating, and forming strong opinions long before they ever fill out a form or talk to a salesperson. By the time a lead shows up in a CRM, the real decision-making process has often been underway for weeks or months.
That means marketers can no longer rely on traditional attribution models to understand what is working. The most influential moments are happening in places we cannot fully track: private Slack channels, peer conversations, podcasts, online communities, and personal networks. The brands that win will be the ones that show up consistently in those spaces and build trust before the buying process becomes visible.
This shift changes how we think about content and visibility. Instead of focusing only on capturing demand, marketers need to invest more in becoming the trusted shortcut buyers rely on when they are ready to act. When a prospect asks their network, “Who should we talk to?” the goal is to already be the obvious answer.
Becoming that shortcut requires sustained credibility. Educational content, strong brand positioning, subject matter expertise, and consistent thought leadership all play a role. These efforts may not always show up neatly in dashboards, but they shape the conversations that lead to real opportunities.
In 2026, the brands that succeed will be the ones that prioritize trust, authority, and visibility long before the lead form is ever submitted.
Jeff Cohn, Founder + CEO
I see a continuation of the trend where people receive marketing and earned media through non-traditional forms of influence that lead to purchasing and engagement. Influencers are increasingly usurping direct media outreach. You can run all the linear broadcast ads you want, but they now need to be supported, and sometimes replaced, by non-traditional channels.
Unexpected brand activations that engage audiences in real time, earned media visibility through journalists or online chatter, and owned media that creates momentum are all part of the evolution we are living through. We might call it planned “unexpectedness,” where brands show up and make a positive statement in surprising ways.
Just look at my high-protein food shelf. It was not TV ads that filled it. It was a respected nutrition influencer, a YouTube creator, a New York Times story, or a sampling event at Costco. In all of these cases, the brand still matters. How it reaches consumers will continue to shift and evolve over the next 12 months.
CJ Powell, VP Brand
We will start to see the first visible wave of sponsored answers inside LLMs and AI assistants. It will look subtle and carefully labeled at first, more like recommendations than traditional ads, and it’s going to ruffle some feathers with users. Then, platforms will move cautiously because trust is the product, but the pressure to monetize growing usage will be impossible to ignore. Capitalism always wins. Brands will begin testing how to appear inside AI-generated recommendations, especially in categories tied to buying decisions like software, travel, finance, and healthcare. Marketing teams will realize that ranking in search is no longer the only visibility game in town. The race to become “recommendable by AI” will officially begin.
Chad Hadersbeck, Business Development
The ad industry reminds me of the cable and streaming world. For a long time, everyone had cable. Then streaming decoupled everything. Eventually, people grew tired of juggling too many subscriptions, and bundling started to return.
Marketing followed a similar path. The industry once relied heavily on full-service agencies. As digital marketing advanced, specialists emerged for every niche. Over time, that specialization led to a loss of big-picture thinking.
We see more clients searching for expertise in a single tactic instead of partners who can solve problems holistically. I predict a shift back toward strategy-led partners who can integrate specialists and bring the full picture together.
Paul Wood, Senior Developer
I worry that AI could disrupt creativity. I think about students studying graphic design or programming right now in the middle of this shift. We have all experimented with AI, and what it can do is mind-blowing. It is difficult to predict how far it will go.
At the same time, I believe creatives will figure it out. Creativity has always evolved alongside new tools. This moment will be no different.
Chris Thomas, Creative Director
I hope to see a move away from the homogeneous look and messaging in marketing. Everyone is playing it safe.
I want to see brands shake things up and take a stance. I want to feel passion from the brands I trust and from the ones I have never heard of. We strive to bring that passion to our clients, and it makes a difference. Life is too short for bland and uninspired marketing, so I predict brands will see declining engagement and move back toward stronger creativity in messaging and visuals.
Ali Lego, Chief Operating Officer
Marketing is becoming more human, more local, and more accountable, even as AI and automation continue to accelerate. Clients are not looking for the biggest agency or the flashiest tools. They want partners who understand their business, audience, and market, and who can use technology strategically to simplify execution and scale what works.
AI is no longer a differentiator on its own. It is expected. What separates effective marketing from forgettable output is how AI is used. The most successful agencies will streamline production, surface insights, and improve personalization while keeping strategy, voice, and decision-making firmly human.
Caty Carrico, Communications Director
In the PR realm, as newsrooms continue to shrink, PR’s value in 2026 will be less defined by the volume of coverage secured and more by how effectively a story can be activated across every channel. Effective organizations will treat PR as a core driver of their integrated marketing strategy, shaping narratives that can be extended across the entire ecosystem to maximize impact and investment.
Brands that win in this environment will build on strong PR foundations and ensure stories travel further beyond just earned media, whether through owned and paid platforms, employee brand ambassador content, aligned influencer partnerships, or proprietary channels that cultivate direct, trusted relationships with key audiences.
Debbie Berschling, Senior Account Director
Content will be king. Quality content tying in brand, mission and support/success stories in my opinion will really be necessary to differentiate and not just drive awareness but engagement from target audiences. And clients need to keep in my “target” audiences. Quality over quantity is typically better with respect to lead gen driven by SEO/marketing efforts.
As marketers continue to lean into AI, blogs written by real humans with real content/stories will be more important than ever to stand out and get found.
From the quick research I see online, ChatGPT and Perplexity love to cite blog articles. And the content that earns those citations often mirrors what performs well in traditional search rankings.
I think there will be (or should be) a big SEO trend of focusing on blog posts that are from lived experience and written by real humans to help not only influence search results both traditional and also AI search results.
COHN AI: Bet on Our Intelligence
The tools will change. The channels will shift. The dashboards will keep multiplying. But the through-line across all of these predictions feels clear: trust, creativity, and strategic thinking are becoming more important, not less. That is the kind of intelligence we are betting on.
