Editorial
The Gist
- AI is table stakes, not an advantage. With every brand accessing the same models and tools, differentiation now comes from judgment, relevance, and how AI is applied — not whether it’s deployed.
- Integration beats features. Winning brands embed AI deeply across the customer journey so experiences feel cohesive, trustworthy, and intentional, rather than fragmented or experimental.
- The next CX edge is understanding, not speed. As agentic AI and AI-led shopping rise, brands that balance automation with transparency, human oversight, and genuine customer understanding will pull ahead.
AI is no longer the differentiator it once was. It's the cost of entry.
Every brand now has access to the same tools, the same models and the same promises of speed, scale and efficiency. AI writes the copy, personalizes the offers, automates the service and increasingly shapes how customers discover, shop and engage.
None of that is remarkable anymore. It's expected.
What is remarkable, and increasingly rare, is relevance and judgment. Knowing when to automate and when not to. Knowing how to use AI to deepen understanding instead of flattening the experience. The fundamentals of great marketing and customer experience haven't changed. If anything, AI has exposed just how many brands skipped them in the first place.
The brands that will stand apart in 2026 won't be the ones racing to deploy the latest AI feature. They'll be the ones using AI with intent, discipline and a clear point of view about who they serve and why. That difference is already showing up in how leaders think about CX, trust, personalization and commerce.
Here are five marketing and CX trends that will separate brands that simply adopt AI from those that actually win with it.
Table of Contents
- 1. AI Will Stop Feeling Experimental and Start Feeling Expected
- 2. AI Features Will Fade as Integration Becomes the Differentiator
- 3. Agentic AI Will Force Brands to Rethink How They Build Trust
- 4. AI Will Continue to Reshape How We Shop
- 5. The Next Phase of Personalization Is Understanding, Not Speed
1. AI Will Stop Feeling Experimental and Start Feeling Expected
More than half of US consumers have already used generative AI. And yet many brands are still treating AI like a feature set to test and tinker with. A chatbot here, some automation there, a pilot program quietly tucked into customer support. That mindset won't hold.
"The era of using customers as AI guinea pigs is over," said Sam Dorison, CEO of Reflex AI. "People are no longer willing to be beta testers for clunky chatbots and unfinished automation. They're paying for outcomes, not features." Customers have little patience for brands that hand off customer experience to AI that still feels like it's learning on the job.
As AI becomes expected, having a clearly defined brand strategy rooted in customer needs becomes even more critical, along with clear guardrails for how AI is applied across CX and marketing. AI can't compensate for a lack of clarity. It only amplifies it.
Related Article: The CX Reckoning of 2025: Why Agent Experience Decided What Worked
2. AI Features Will Fade as Integration Becomes the Differentiator
Too often, brands struggle with consistency because they bolt on AI features without fully integrating them. The result is an experience that feels fragmented instead of simpler, smoother or more intuitive.
"The winners won't be the companies with the most AI features," Dorison said. "They'll be the ones that integrate intelligence deeply into the customer journey, so workflows feel natural and friction disappears."
Harnessing AI's potential isn't about launching another tool. It's about ensuring the experience actually holds together. Building on the rise of shoppable video, brands are beginning to weave conversational AI more deeply across platforms with the full customer journey in mind.
"AI is moving beyond chat and voice into truly lifelike, visual interaction," said John Callery-Coyne, chief product and technology officer at Reflex AI. "In 2026, we'll see the rise of video-based AI and avatars capable of holding natural, face-to-face conversations."
What Actually Separates AI Leaders From AI Adopters in 2026
A grounded summary of how AI is reshaping marketing and CX — and where brands are quietly pulling ahead.
| Theme | What’s Really Happening | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| AI Is No Longer Novel | Customers now expect AI to work smoothly across marketing, service and commerce. | Brands that still treat AI as experimental risk eroding trust and patience. |
| Judgment Beats Automation | The real differentiator is knowing when to automate and when human judgment still matters. | AI amplifies strategy — good or bad — rather than compensating for weak fundamentals. |
| Integration Over Add-Ons | Disconnected AI features create fragmented experiences instead of reducing friction. | Customers reward brands whose experiences feel cohesive across the entire journey. |
| Agentic AI Raises the Stakes | AI is beginning to act on customers’ behalf, not just answer questions. | Trust, transparency and clear opt-in become essential as decision-making shifts. |
| Personalization Matures | Speed-driven personalization gives way to understanding intent, context and timing. | Relevance — not velocity — becomes the foundation of meaningful customer relationships. |
3. Agentic AI Will Force Brands to Rethink How They Build Trust
Another trend gaining momentum is the rise of agentic AI, where AI doesn't just respond or assist, but acts on a customer's behalf, including shopping, managing tasks or accessing accounts.
"In 2026, we'll see AI systems managing tasks, accessing accounts and taking meaningful action on behalf of customers," Callery-Coyne said.
This raises the stakes for brands. When AI shifts from answering questions to making decisions, trust and transparency become non-negotiable. Customers need clear ways to opt in or out, understand what the AI is doing and provide real-time feedback. The brands that get this right will be the ones that know where automation adds value and where human judgment still matters. That balance will be tested most visibly in commerce.
Related Article: Agentic CX and Marketing: The Future of Customer Journeys
4. AI Will Continue to Reshape How We Shop
Consumers are increasingly turning to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AI answer engines to help them shop, including for the 2025 holiday season. According to a recent Adobe study, 32% of consumers have already used AI to assist with shopping, and nearly half say they have used or plan to use AI specifically for holiday purchases.
What stands out isn't just adoption, but impact. Shoppers who arrived at U.S. retail sites via AI tools were 30% more likely to convert than those coming from traditional search or other channels, and 81% said AI directly improved their shopping experience.
"You're going to see a lot more researching and purchasing through the likes of ChatGPT," said Michelle Kelly, Retail Expert at business communications company 8x8. "Companies are going to have to work out if they want to enable customer support to run through the ChatGPT window as part of that." In other words, the shopping journey is no longer confined to a brand's website, app, or storefront. It's happening earlier and elsewhere, inside conversations where AI is guiding decisions upstream.
"AI will evolve from chatbot to personal stylist and home designer, offering context-aware, image-based recommendations," Kelly said. "For example, upload a picture of your house and ask for suggestions for redecoration. Going to an event? Upload a picture of yourself, tell the AI what event you are going to, where it is, what the weather is, what you normally wear, and watch it come back with suggestions for what you can wear."
5. The Next Phase of Personalization Is Understanding, Not Speed
AI has already made personalization faster. The next phase is about how brands apply it in ways that feel more human, more relevant and more useful. This is where many personalization strategies quietly break down. They optimize for clicks instead of connection. They react to behavior, but miss tone, timing and intent.
"AI has made businesses faster, but not smarter about individuals and how to communicate with each person," said Nick Blasi, co-founder and COO of Personos. "As companies rush to automate, the real advantage will shift to those that apply AI in ways that make their brand more human, connected and responsive to individual preferences."
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The brands that win won't be the ones that talk the loudest about AI. They'll be the ones that use it deliberately, quietly and in service of better relationships in the moments that matter most.
In the end, AI won't be remembered as the thing that differentiated brands. It will be remembered as the thing that exposed them. It will expose who invested in understanding customers versus who chased efficiency, who designed experiences with judgment and restraint versus who handed everything over to automation and who treated AI as a means to strengthen relationships versus who used it as a shortcut.
The brands that win won't be the loudest about AI or the fastest to deploy it. They'll be the ones that use it deliberately, thoughtfully, and in service of something bigger than speed. Because when AI becomes invisible, what's left is the brand, and customers will notice the difference.
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