Brands’ social missteps could hurt ROI: Consumers want human content and service, while marketers double down on genAI content and automation.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss three big questions surrounding Spotify right now: Why has the audio giant’s ad revenue stalled? What would a Spotify lifestyle app look like? Has Spotify solved the AI problem by adding “Verified” badges to distinguish human artists from AI-generated ones? And more. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Editor of our Marketing and Advertising Briefing, Daniel Konstantinovic. Listen everywhere, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Only 7% of consumers say visible AI-generated marketing content makes them trust a brand more, while 31% say it makes them trust the brand less, according to December 2025 data from Klaviyo and Datalily.

This FAQ explores the evolving brand safety landscape, risks in creator partnerships and synthetic content, and the tools marketers need to protect their brands in 2026.

As product catalogs grow, content multiplies, and shopping journeys splinter across platforms, AI recommendation engines are becoming the connective tissue between desire and decision. In 2026, retail leaders expect the technology to move from responding to queries to proactively anticipating what consumers want and guiding them through increasingly complex choice environments.

Creator marketing will scale in 2026 as brands chase measurable outcomes. At the same time, pressures from AI, shifting platform incentives, and rising automation will reshape how creators earn and grow.

AI-assisted shopping and advertising will surge as the Gulf states support innovation, but a creator content boom will cause tensions around censorship.

For social platforms, AI hype is colliding with user fatigue and rising regulations. In the US, they face stalled engagement and tougher rules as people demand more control and more human experiences.

Shifts in what consumers watch, how they search, and where they shop are reshaping Latin America’s digital economy—and how brands will reach audiences in 2026. Explore the five trends to watch in the year ahead.

From short-form videos to AI-driven targeting, this report reveals how each generation assesses digital ads and whether they act upon them.

Over half (52%) of consumers in Australia, the UK, and the US are most concerned about brands posting AI-generated content without disclosure, tied with mishandling personal data as their top social media worry, according to Q3 data from Sprout Social.

The news: AI-powered search tools, including large-language models (LLMs) used by Perplexity and other AI companies, increasingly deliver unreliable data. Our take: Audit your AI stack. Don’t rely on outputs alone—verify the provenance of AI-generated data and prioritize tools trained on verified, high-integrity sources. Vet vendors based on transparency, update cycles, and data hygiene. If you’re using AI for decision-making, demand traceable accountability—because “good enough” answers can quickly become costly mistakes.

The news: AI-assisted content now dominates Google’s top search results, but pure AI rarely ranks No. 1, according to an Ahrefs analysis of 600,000 pages across 100,000 keywords. It found that most top-ranking content includes some AI input, but only 13.5% was purely human-written. Key takeaway: Google doesn’t care who wrote the content, only whether it’s of good quality. Marketers should use AI to move faster but rely on human oversight to ensure clarity, credibility, and connection. Optimizing content for authenticity, brand voice, and user engagement—as well as generative engine optimization (GEO)—could lead to higher rankings.

The news: Faceless creators and VTubers are gaining momentum as brands look for cost-effective, scalable influencer marketing options. Networks like AffiliateNetwork are growing rapidly, with top earners bringing in $30K–$40K monthly using AI-powered tactics. Creators run multiple accounts, post hundreds of videos, and rely on formats like AI-generated texting stories to deliver results. Our take: This shift marks a new phase in creator marketing—one defined less by personality and more by production speed and performance. As AI tools improve and creator skepticism fades, brands will increasingly work with digital personas that deliver value at scale—regardless of whether there’s a human on camera.

In this report, CMOs share how they’re transforming influencer strategies to deliver business impact—and what solution providers can do to help.

A growing majority worry AI will distort news, cut jobs, and mislead audiences—pressuring media brands to prioritize transparency and human oversight in AI use.