The new year is just around the corner, and this one is coming to a close. Based on the monthly deep dives I do into modern marketing and AI for my Swedish newsletter, I’ve pulled together 10 predictions for 2026.

These are the shifts I believe will shape AI development, and the trends that will define marketing in the year ahead.

Increased Focus on Niche, Specialist AI Models

Niche SLM, small language models, will define the future of AI in 2026. Models that are highly specific rather than general. With AWS’s new tool, it’s becoming far easier to build specialised LLMs that perform precise, tailored tasks (especially for larger organisations). Of course, OpenAI and the likes will continue to chase AGI. Focusing on what will be commercially viable for a business, smaller models will be in focus. 

Anti-AI Is Growing in Advertising and Marketing

Throughout 2025, the Anti-AI trend gained significant momentum. We saw old-school animated campaigns from Burberry, Polaroid’s “AI can’t generate sand between your toes” campaign pushing back against both generative AI and social media culture, and Oh Polly creatively shooting and photographing their summer product imagery with a deliberately anti-AI touch. 

Google Will Dominate AI Development in 2026

Given that Google has TensorFlow and uses the OKR methodology as its internal operating model, I believe they’re on track to overtake OpenAI as the leader in AI, potentially even before the end of the year. Google is fundamentally an AI-built company: it has the infrastructure, the organisational model, and access to vast amounts of data at a global scale. Just think about what they can do with everyone’s Google calendar information. Wild.

Will 2026 Be the Year the AI Bubble Bursts?

Several signals point to a potential market correction. Creative financial orchestration at companies like Nvidia and OpenAI, combined with leadership behaviours that raise questions, for instance, Sam Altman avoiding reasonable financial questions, and reports that OpenAI sought support from the US government to fund investment in critical infrastructure, paint a larger, and frankly more concerning, picture.

When just seven companies account for 40–43% of the entire US stock market, the consequences of a bubble bursting become significantly more severe. We’re sitting on a global economy where far too much power is concentrated in far too few hands.

Consumer Trend: Offline Is the New Luxury

We’re seeing more community-led brand activations from trend-setting brands, alongside a growing longing to be offline. This is why I’m convinced we’ll see a shift in Sweden as well: brands must activate IRL, not only online.

Building community online is no longer enough. We need to add real-world experiences, gatherings, and activities that strengthen the brand beyond the screen.

SEO methodology Is Here to stay and Expanding Across More Channels

We’ve all seen the numbers, both in trend reports and in our own web analytics reports: traffic from major LLMs like ChatGPT is increasing. This means our SEO strategies now need to include:

• Semantic understanding
  
• Data points that help LLMs correctly interpret and represent our websites
  
  

Alongside LLM-driven search, we also need to understand how SEO translates into our social channels. After Instagram’s recent updates, social SEO will grow rapidly. Users are already searching through YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok instead of Google, using social channels as their central discovery platform. 

Gatekeeping, Curated Content, ‘De-influence Me’, and Invite-Only Are In

A growing part of the consumer base is fatigued by influencers. Anyone who travels often knows what happens when a restaurant gets overexposed by a major influencer: suddenly, it’s impossible to book a table.

Exclusivity will appeal more: being part of a closed, curated circle, receiving information not everyone has access to. It creates that “in-the-know” feeling that some consumers value.

The Importance of Brand, Trust, and Safety in an Increasingly Fake World

The number of deepfakes, videos, product reviews, and testimonials is exploding and will continue to rise. This fuels a desire for authenticity and credibility. Strong, trustworthy brands will have a clear advantage.

Regardless of company size, the following will become non-negotiable:

• Genuine, verified reviews
  
  
• Authentic photography and materials
  
  
• Transparent communication
  
  
• Clear origins and sources
  
  

Trust, safety, and authenticity will shift from values to competitive advantages.

A Growing Need for Creative, Multidisciplinary Generalists Who Make Things Happen with AI

AI empowers people with a go-getter mindset, those who experiment, follow their creativity, and turn ideas into something tangible, fast. Thanks to new tools, we, as marketers, can now move from idea to reality in just a few days.

Generalists who understand data, code, design, and audience behaviour will thrive. The playing field is more level than ever, and hyper-specialisation is becoming less critical. We need to broaden our marketing skillsets and be ready to do more. 

Increased Investment in Owned Channels Such as Newsletters and Communities

With rising ad costs on major platforms and the exhaustion that comes from dancing to algorithms, more companies will bring their audiences into owned, controlled channels. We now have the tools to build more engaging, “social-first” websites and to personalise communication at hyperscale.

Both costs and risks are reduced when brands bring customer and audience data into their own ecosystems, newsletters, apps, or communities such as Circle. The platform grew 75% year-on-year in 2025 and is forecast to exceed that in 2026.