In 2026, marketing experts say creators will operate more like businesses than talent, prioritizing sustainable partnerships over scattered brand deals.

“Creator marketing will finally confront the identity crisis it’s been deferring for years,” said Tom Burke, CEO of AtData. “Creators who can prove they influence real humans will become premium inventory. The rest will face a reckoning.”

As AI search relies more on creator content, influencer marketing will grow, but only creators who win over LLMs while staying attuned to audience needs will succeed.

Creators advance as media networks

Marketers have long been told to treat creators like partners, but that advice becomes harder to ignore as more creators build their own media brands, IP, and agencies.

“We are going to see the rise of more creator-owned agencies,” said Gabe Gordon, CEO and cofounder of Reach Agency. “Creators will begin acting more like publishers and break beyond in-feed engagements.”

The market is splitting. Some creators remain focused on in-feed brand deals, while others are building broader businesses that extend beyond social platforms.

“The power continues to shift from influencers to creators as ‘creative operators’ who can concept, shoot, and distribute with studio-level craft,” said Nick Panayotopoulos, cofounder and executive creative director at Young Hero.

That shift is funded by trust, which has shifted from platforms to people. Audiences are seeking expertise, not just entertainment, from creators.

“In 2026, I expect creator partnerships in B2B to accelerate because audiences now trust and engage with individual experts the way previous generations followed news anchors or trade publications,” said Heather Barrett, vice president of strategy at Transmission.

Influencers become the trust layer in AI search

Daily AI search users in the US rose from 14% in February 2025 to 29.2% in August 2025, according to a HigherVisibility report. As AI search ramps up, it needs human credibility.

“AI is far more influenced by what others say about a brand than what the brand says about itself, which gives PR and influence an outsized role in training the models behind the scenes,” said Kaare Wesnaes, Head of Innovation for Ogilvy North America.

Discovery is already shared between search and social. Of the US social users who have made a purchase after seeing creator content, 34% said “I was already interested, and the content was a reminder,” in a March 2025 impact.com and EMARKETER survey.

“Search and social will continue bleeding into each other,” said Rachel Brandt, CEO at Corner Table Creative, emphasizing the role of “social credibility, creator content, and platform-native storytelling, because that’s what AI systems trust and surface.”

Not every creator benefits equally. While AI search increases content visibility, it also brings heightened competition, said Matt Bahr, CEO and cofounder at Fairing.

“Creator marketing is entering a more competitive, almost SEO-like phase,” he said. “As AI makes it easy for anyone to generate content, the volume of mediocre creator output will explode, and attention will become far more contested.”

Marketers study side conversations

Consumers may use AI to shop and plan, but they follow creators for connection and context.

“Community-driven retail, especially in live and peer-to-peer environments, will continue to dominate because shoppers increasingly want connection, trust, and authenticity baked into their buying experience,” said Armand Wilson, vice president of categories and expansion at WhatNot.

These conversations also influence AI results. Reddit is the top website cited by AI engines (40.1%), according to a June Semrush survey. The conversation on casual, niche forums shapes search results, making it integral for marketers to pay attention to every platform.

Brands will rely less on saturated main feeds and more on peripheral spaces like Discord, Substack, and Medium, “planting seeds where communities are easier to manage,” said listening and analytics expert Danny Gardner.

“We’ll stop thinking in channels and start thinking in chapters; building a unified brand story that feels consistent no matter where it appears,” he said.

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.