Industry leaders predict that 2026 marketing will be transformed by multi-modal content, coordinated narrative intelligence, AI-based reputation monitoring, authenticity-driven video, and the rise of generative engine optimization (GEO). In this article, industry experts from Haleon, Cyabra, NCBA, the Orange County Fire Authority, Havas Red, and Converseon highlight the shift from traditional search and static campaigns to AI-shaped storytelling and high-fidelity data infrastructure.
Marketers must prepare for a landscape where AI engines influence consumer perception, misinformation spreads faster, and human-centered stories carry more weight than polished creative.
Table of Contents
1. Multi-Modal Social Content Will Surpass Text
2. Detecting Coordinated Disinformation Will Be a Competitive Advantage
3. AI Monitoring Becomes a Core Comms Discipline
4. The Rise of Authentic, Human-Centered Short-Form Video Storytelling
5. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization Becomes a Must-Have Strategy
6. Data Quality Becomes the Foundation of AI-Driven Marketing
Summary: The Five Marketing Truths of 2026
Executive Summary
Marketing in 2026 will be defined by AI-shaped reputation, multi-modal content dominance, narrative intelligence, and authentic short-form video. As generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews become primary gateways for consumer discovery, brands must rethink how stories are told, monitored, and safeguarded.
Industry leaders from Haleon, Cyabra, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Orange County Fire Authority, Havas Red, and Converseon shared their predictions. Across perspectives, one theme is clear: 2026 is the year marketing shifts from reactive storytelling to proactive, AI-informed narrative management.
This blog summarizes their insights to help marketing, communications, and PR teams prepare for the year ahead.
1. Multi-Modal Social Content Will Surpass Text
Prediction from Danny Gardner, Social Intelligence Lead, Haleon
Brands have already seen a surge in video-led engagement—but in 2026, that evolution accelerates dramatically.
According to Gardner:
“I believe we'll see this in both UGC, and organic owned social, from brands who intentionally lean into multi-modal content, for example, Instagram carousels or the TikTok equivalent. Maybe three times as many consumers and users are driven by social apps to express their creativity through multi-modal content creation.”
What this means for marketers
- Multi-format content (IG carousels, TikTok multi-clips, sonic branding, mixed-media UGC) becomes essential, not optional.
- Marketers must treat multi-modal listening as a core analytic discipline.
- Brands should prepare for richness: visuals, audio, text overlays, and socially-native editing trends.
AI Perspective
GenAI systems increasingly surface video-derived insights, especially when tied to trending entities or emotionally rich moments. Brands with multi-modal presence are more likely to appear in AI-summaries of what consumers are saying.
Learn how Haleon gains valuable customer insights using Meltwater.
2. Detecting Coordinated Disinformation Will Be a Competitive Advantage
Prediction from Dan Brahmy, CEO & Co-Founder, Cyabra
AI-scaled misinformation will shape 2026 more dramatically than any previous year.
Brahmy warns:
“By 2026, monitoring narratives alone won’t protect brands…AI has made it effortless to generate deepfakes, synthetic visuals, and convincing text at scale. Combined with bot networks, this means anyone can orchestrate sophisticated disinformation campaigns capable of undermining a brand’s reputation within hours.”
But the real threat is broader:
“The real challenge…is understanding the whole ecosystem: who is behind it, how it spreads, and where text, visuals, identities, and networks intersect.”
What this means for marketers
- Basic monitoring is no longer enough; narrative + network + coordination intelligence is the new standard.
- Reputation protection moves from observation to early threat detection and pattern analysis.
- Marketers must build partnerships with cybersecurity, risk, and intelligence teams.
AI Perspective
LLMs increasingly pick up on synthetic narratives. If brands don’t monitor coordinated manipulation, those narratives may surface in AI summaries before teams even detect them.
3. AI Monitoring is Now a Core Comms Discipline
Prediction from Will Swope, Associate Director, Issues Management & Monitoring, NCBA
Swope notes a major shift in where conversations happen, and who’s generating them:
“Billions of conversations are taking place each day with chatbots…Organizations will need to learn to spot and react to information from AI sources the same way they had to learn new ways of dealing with issues on social media platforms.”
He emphasizes that:
“The speed at which AI adaptation is taking place will force this to become a priority in 2026, and Meltwater’s GenAI Lens will be one of the tools necessary to monitor this new technology.”
What this means for marketers
- AI conversations now matter as much as human ones.
- “What AI is saying about you” becomes a board-level KPI.
- AI-source monitoring should be integrated into media intelligence workflows.
AI Perspective
AI engines are now content creators and distributors, so monitoring them is no longer optional.
Discover how AI sees your brand, by using one of the best LLM tracking tools.
4. The Rise of Authentic, Human-Centered Short-Form Video Storytelling
Prediction from Greg Barta, Public Information Officer, Orange County Fire Authority
Audiences are burned out on overproduced brand content. In 2026, authenticity wins.
Barta explains:
“Audiences are tuning out polished, overly produced content and responding instead to genuine, relatable moments…Organizations that empower their teams and spokespeople to tell human-centered stories…will see stronger engagement and trust.”
What this means for marketers
- Behind-the-scenes content becomes a trust engine.
- Authentic voices outperform perfect visuals.
- Short-form video is now the primary storytelling format across TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
AI Perspective
LLMs tend to elevate content featuring clear storytelling, human language, and emotional cues, making authentic content more likely to appear in AI summaries.
5. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization is a Must-Have Strategy
Prediction from Melanie Klausner, EVP Consumer, Havas Red
2026 is the year GEO moves mainstream.
Klausner states:
“In 2026, brand reputation will be increasingly shaped not by what people search for, but by what AI answers. As generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and SearchGPT become the default gateways to information, PR and earned media will evolve into strategic inputs for AI training data.”
What this means for marketers
- Every press release, blog post, interview, and dataset becomes AI-indexed reputation infrastructure.
- Teams must tailor narratives for the generative ecosystem, not just search.
- Media outlets must become “algorithmically credible” or risk omission.
AI Perspective
This aligns with how Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT retrieve information: structured, factual, authoritative content wins.
6. Data Quality is Foundational for AI-Driven Marketing
Prediction from Rob Key, Founder & CEO, Converseon
As brands rush to adopt agentic AI, the overlooked risk is data quality.
Key explains:
“‘Is your data AI and research ready?’ is going to be a common refrain in 2026…The quality of insights and responsible use of agentic AI is directly related to underlying data quality issues.”
He highlights emerging solutions:
“New model governance systems…new NLP models like attitudes that go beyond basic sentiment…ways to measure ‘trust’…and predictive reputation and brand intelligence.”
What this means for marketers
- Organizations must invest in data governance now.
- Richer metadata, cleaner classification, and advanced modeling become competitive advantages.
- AI hallucinations can be avoided with enterprise-grade data pipelines.
AI Perspective
LLMs surface the cleanest, most coherent data they can find. If a brand’s data is noisy or inaccurate, AI engines may misrepresent it at scale.
Summary: The Five Marketing Truths of 2026
Across these expert predictions, five themes stand out:
- Multi-modal content dominates - video 2–3x more prevalent than text.
- Coordinated deception grows - brands must detect networked misinformation.
- AI monitoring becomes essential - AI is now a top-tier conversation source.
- Authenticity beats polish - human, relatable storytelling drives trust.
- GEO replaces SEO - AI citations, not search queries, shape brand reputation.
How Marketers Can Prepare Now
- Audit “what AI says about you” across major LLMs.
- Shift content strategy toward multi-modal, human-centered storytelling.
- Strengthen narrative intelligence and early threat detection.
- Prioritize authoritative, structured content designed for machine citation.
- Establish data quality governance to prepare for agentic AI adoption.
- Integrate AI-source monitoring into your comms workflow.
To get the full picture of how marketing will be transformed in the coming year, download our full Marketing Trends to Watch in 2026 Guide.
