By: Olena Lemeshko, Managing Partner Middle East, ROOTS Brand Strategy Consultants

In 2025, the defining shift in marketing has been from staged brand narrative to authenticity. Consumers no longer respond to overly polished brand campaigns, they seek emotional connection that can only be build through transparency and trust. I’ve seen brands and content creators lose relevance when their communication felt overly curated, disconnected from reality or not rooted in substance. Consumers expect brands to clearly articulate what they stand for beyond product. At the same time, craving for human connection has intensified, AI written copies or even campaigns led to disengagement and got punished by platform algorithms. 

In 2026, AI will advance from experimentation to operational backbone in marketing and branding. Businesses that use AI with precision will have a massive competitive advantage vs those that use it blindly or don’t use it at all. AI will keep driving efficiency, speed and smarter decision making especially when in comes to research, data analytics or media optimization. I also predict that attempts to substitute human connection through machine automation will lead to loss of trust with consumers, because AI generated communication misses tone of voice, language nuances and cultural sensitivity. I believe, strategic edge in AI will come from augmenting human intelligence with it and let it handle analytical and optimization tasks, whereas strategy, creativity and tone of voice must remain human-led.