In 2026, AI Forces Marketing and Media to Grow Up

Artificial intelligence will continue to define 2026, but the narrative is changing. From talking about AI’s potential, it’s now about results.

After years of experimentation and inflated expectations, brands, agencies, and media companies are entering a more demanding phase—one where results matter, audiences are less forgiving, and low-quality automation is becoming a liability rather than an advantage. Birnbach Communications’ 2026 media and marketing trends point to three areas where those pressures will be felt most acutely: marketing strategy, content quality, and the media ecosystem itself.

AI Reshapes Marketing—For Better and for Worse

What’s changing faster than expected is where marketing begins. Leapfrogging traditional search engines, AI is, or soon will be, the preferred vehicle for discovery because consumers expect AI to make things more convenient, intuitive, and faster. For marketers, messaging must be clearer and more differentiated because it will be filtered, summarized, or delivered via an AI intermediary. You’re already getting AI-produced summaries of emails in your inbox.

At the same time, AI’s productivity gains are triggering hard decisions, including how to define and add value. To improve control and lower costs, some companies are experimenting with bringing marketing and communications in-house. We’ve seen major layoffs at large agencies last year, and there will be more this year.

That may reduce expenses in the short term, but it’s a risky strategy. Marketing is hard to do effectively when the primary goal is continual cost-cutting. AI can generate language, but it can’t replace judgment, experience, or an understanding of how messages land with real audiences.

The Backlash Against “AI Slop” Is Real

As it becomes ubiquitous, tolerance for low-quality AI-generated content is wearing thin. People can tell the difference—at least for now (and em-dashes aren’t the “tell” some people claim). Producing more content faster doesn’t necessarily produce better results. 

Pushing out too much content, especially when it’s inaccurate, flat, generic and doesn’t sound human, overwhelms customers, undermines trust and credibility, and weakens relationships. This growing backlash against “AI slop” is already forcing brands to rethink volume-driven strategies.

That’s why a Wall Street Journal article declaring that companies are “desperately seeking storytellers” struck such a nerve. The piece spread quickly on LinkedIn because it captured a shift many communications leaders are already seeing. Some organizations are rediscovering storytelling.

This is good news for PR, which has traditionally valued creativity, judgment, relationship-building, and trust. AI can be helpful in supporting the creative process but developing effective thought leadership and compelling stories requires human insight.

In 2026, the Media Is the Story

Given the industry’s volatility—the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced it will cease publishing while I drafted this article—the media will spend much of its time covering…the media. 

First, the media landscape is fragmenting.

Newspaper circulation has dropped precipitously—the circulation at the top three U.S. papers plummeted from 8,549,737 in 2014 to just 845,000 in 2024. That 90 percent drop has reduced revenue and the number of full-time working journalists.

Local journalism continues to struggle as good reporting becomes harder to fund, leaving more communities in a news desert, without consistent coverage. National outlets face their own uncertainty as ownership changes reshape priorities and direction.

Seeking stability, many journalists have launched their own newsletters. Many may be worthwhile, but it’s like they don’t remember that after we hit Peak Podcast, between 2020 and 2021, there was a podcast reset as people realized they didn’t have time to listen to everything, and many of the thousands of podcasts failed. 

The proposed $87 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Studios by Netflix underscores that streaming continues to draw audiences and producers away from traditional platforms. 

All of this makes reaching audiences more challenging.

Signaling further volatility ahead, ad giants WPP and Dentsu have issued conflicting forecasts. 

Furthermore, trust in traditional outlets remains fragile. That’s particularly true among young adults who feel disconnected from mainstream news narratives due to a perceived lack of authenticity. Instead, many get perspective from social media influencers—even as they recognize those sources aren’t necessarily reliable. Increasingly, they’re using AI to summarize news and information to inform decisions.

Many news organizations now look beyond the newsroom for growth—through events, digital products like games, and recipes.

A More Demanding Year Ahead

The brands that succeed won’t be the ones chasing speed, volume or cost-cutting. They’ll prioritize authenticity over automation, use AI to enhance human expertise rather than replace it, and recognize that credibility is still earned the hard way.