2026 is going to be the year that countless brands are destroyed by leaning too heavily on AI.
Ope. I said it. And yes, I frequently use AI myself, so stay with me here because this is most certainly not a 'bash AI' saga (promise).
Let me start by saying, it's already happening.
I'm already in the rooms and having conversations with people who've gotten the ick and "unsubscribed" from brands they once trusted. Meaning these brands succeeded at winning people's attention and building trust via their content.
Like, they already did the hard part (!!) that so many businesses struggle to accomplish.
But after producing one too many AI-infused dumpster fires, they lost it all.
And I feel like this is what we're going to see happen with far too many businesses in 2026.
The brands you currently love and trust will get lazy, they'll get sloppy, they'll stop using AI as a tool, and instead they'll start using it as the whole solution.
As I said earlier, I'm not afraid to admit that I use AI almost every day in my business - but using AI to help you find the plot when you're lost in the sauce with your thoughts, or using AI to help you restructure your sentences when you're a rambling gremlin like myself, is a WHOLE different ballgame than using AI as your entire marketing department.
The thoughts are my own. The ideas, strategies, and concepts I share with you always come from lived experience and my own damn brain.
That type of AI use is encouraged. If it can help you streamline or optimize your human experience, have at it. Do your thang.
It's when you start using AI to REPLACE yourself - to replace the need for human experiences, to replace the ideation process or the opportunity for creativity altogether - that is when AI is going to hurt your business and ultimately lose trust with your audience.
Don't let AI run (or better yet, ruin) the ship.
Because let's get real for a second, as a society, we are STARVED for connection.
And social media is where we go, desperate to fill that appetite.
It's why we continuously open those stupid little social apps day after day and cling to something as insignificant as a parasocial relationship with internet influencers or other business owners because we want to feel connected to anyone, even when we know the content we're consuming is highly curated.
It gives us the dopamine hit, and it 'scratches the itch' of feeling like we belong to something.
But what happens when those "connections" start to unwravel?
What happens when everyone's content starts to lose substance because no one is thinking for themselves and everything sounds exactly the same...across industries and niches?
What happens when your favorite podcast hosts start sounding a bit too scripted and a little less real?
What happens when social media becomes less human, less "social", and purely AI-generated media trying to play human?
The humans will lose interest.
We'll 'unsubscribe' both figuratively and literally.
No one wants to feel duped. No one wants to feel ignored. No one wants to be lied to.
People want to be seen, heard, and felt.
In the same way we all currently despise calling customer support lines and just scream "human! give me a human!!" into the phone until the robot figures it out, is exactly how we'll start to think about social platforms.
So sure, AI might seem like it makes your content creation process easier right now when you can simply type what you want into a box and it magically pops out a half-baked caption or graphic - but my take?
It's not making your content creation process faster if you're driving away your customers in the process.
Because, babe, don't lose the plot (!!!)
We might be in a content-based world, but our business is not just content.
It's not about how much content you produce. It's not about how many people like your photo. It's not about how many followers you can get.
At the end of the day, all content is meant to do is amplify the brand that already exists.
And if you remove the brand from the equation...then what the f*ck is the point???
Let's roll it back a sec.
This month alone, my feed was FLOODED with cringey AF candy cane AI-Christmas photos paired with captions like "LOL! I had to jump on the trend! Aren't I so cute?!"
Like no, babe. That's not you. It's pixels on a screen. Come back to earth for a sec and put your business owner hat on.
How....in any reality... is 'catfishing' someone on your appearance, voice, style, teaching technique, etc. going to benefit you in the long run?
I'm not just talking about a silly candy cane trend, or putting yourself into an action figure box, or whatever other crazy AI bullsh*t trend went down this year.
I'm talking about literally any time you let AI speak for you, create for you, or even THINK for you.
Like truly? Think about it.
How is that going to benefit you in the long run??
Because let's not play dumb here - you and I both know that anyone can be anything they want to be on the internet.
People are already out here lying about experience, expertise, income claims, etc. etc.
But when it's crunch time?
When you're face-to-face with someone, or someone purchases your offer and you have to deliver based on expectations you previously set?
Well by golly, if what you portrayed online doesn't equate to reality... You dun f*cked up a a ron.
Any trust built? Immediately gone.
And it's one hell of a mountain to climb trying to continuously attract, nurture, and convert NEW leads because none of them stick around when they realize none of what you 'sold' is something you can deliver.
I wholeheartedly don't understand the obsession with showing up in some curated 'mask' because when push comes to shove, the masks always come off.
Your clients and your customers WILL see who you are and what you can deliver....so why not give it to them raw, honest, and human from the get-go??
It'll save you a f*ck ton of headaches in the long run.
And on that note....
Merry Christmas Eve!
I hope you eat your weight in cheese this week and unschedule any AI slop that you thought could 'fill the calendar' while you're OOO. hehe LOVE YOU SO MUCH bye ✌️
Catch ya next week,
Marissa
