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Stop spinning, start gaining traction in 2026
By Katie Miserany, CCO & Global Head of Marketing at SurveyMonkey
Marketers are at a strategic turning point. AI is on track to generate nearly 90% of online content. Gartner predicts that 30% of a brand's perception will soon come from generative AI, not human-created work. In this new reality, marketers are asking: How can we build real connection with our customers?
The answer, increasingly, is storytelling. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that companies are “desperately seeking storytellers” as AI floods every channel with look-alike content. Why? Because stories are central to the human experience. Stories help us learn. They make us care.
The real tension in 2026 won’t be whether marketers can produce things, but whether what they produce will matter. As sameness becomes the enemy, the teams that gain traction will be the ones who tell a damn good story.
Disciplined storytelling will cut through the noise.
Research shows that 75% of marketers say AI is now more important to their strategy than it was last year, but more content doesn’t always equal a deeper connection. Producing more video, more copy, more social, more bylines—none of that will matter unless it’s anchored in a coherent story.
The real differentiator in 2026 will be discernment. Producing more will be easy. Producing what actually moves an ideal customer to action will not.
The best brands will resist “random acts of marketing” (a term coined by MKT1 founder Emily Kramer) and create less, better: one core story, reinforced everywhere with precision and intent. When everyone is shouting, consistency and clarity quietly resonate.
Marketers who think in systems, not just trends, will win.
For years, marketing rewarded speed above all else. Now, speed without structure is collapsing under its own weight. The real edge in 2026 will come from how well teams connect the dots between moments, platforms, and outcomes.
The strongest marketers will stop chasing every trend and start architecting connected journeys that mean something to customers, where product, paid marketing, organic social, communications, search, and customer care reinforce each other under a singular, differentiated narrative. This is much harder to get right.
Some narrative bets will fail, but the right ones—the ones grounded in real customer insight and a deep understanding of what customers are up against—will shine. As AI makes execution easier, the connective tissue behind it becomes the true differentiator.
Consumers will reward brands with a unique voice.
The strongest brands in 2026 will stay grounded in who they are, while staying deeply attuned to who their customers are becoming. Authenticity and empathy won’t compete with one another, but rather compound each other.
What’s changing is how voice gets managed. As brand health, message testing, and continuous feedback loops become standard, voice is shifting from a creative flourish to a measurable asset. The SurveyMonkey Trends 2026 report shows a 167% increase in brand attribute measurement templates and a 75% rise in brand tracking, clear signs that brands are now engineering—not guessing about—their impact.
Technology can scale messages. Only human connection makes people feel understood. That understanding will continue to drive loyalty.
Trust will become the most measurable metric.
AI casts a long shadow over trust, truth, and responsibility. According to HubSpot and SurveyMonkey, 70% of consumers notice AI in marketing communications, but only 47% trust brands to use it responsibly. In 2026, communicators won’t treat trust as an abstract brand value. They’ll track it in real time and link it directly to performance.
With continuous feedback and brand health data becoming standard, marketers will measure how trust builds, erodes, and recovers—then connect those shifts to business strategy. Data from marketing’s brand health tracker should make its way into every executive business review, influencing everything from product decisions to taglines, your refund policy to what your support chatbot says.
Turn motion into momentum in 2026.
Volume and timeliness are out—AI has leveled that field. The real difference-makers will be the humans who bring judgment, restraint, creativity, and connection back into the work.
Going forward, marketing success will belong to the brands that rise above AI-generated sameness with clearer thinking, sharper stories, and a deeper understanding of the people they’re trying to reach. Brand strength will be defined by how deliberately leaders guide creation, and how often they ask the question: why? That responsibility can’t be delegated to technology or tools. It belongs to humans.
