AI, Algorithms & Authenticity: The 2026 State of Social

Katie Flynn: right in. Ashley Rieflin, back on the podcast. Hi. Thank you for joining us. Good to be here. I figure because you handle Flynn’s social media, and we’re kind of revamping that, and you are often making social media part of clients’ media plans, that we can do a little like 2026 state of social today. Yeah. So like get into a couple tactical questions, but mostly I just have like hot take stuff that I want your opinion on. that’s the plan. That’s good. Should we dive in? Let’s do it. All right, here’s my opening question. Okay. If you had to describe the current state of social media in one word, what would it be?

Ashley Rieflin: AI.

Katie Flynn: Oh, yeah.

Ashley Rieflin: Yeah, it’s kind of the hot topic right now.

Katie Flynn: It is the hot topic, but like do you think that’s just on the paid side or the organic?

Ashley Rieflin: too when it comes to content because people are already tired of it. I think we saw that in the aftermath of the Super Bowl where there was so much like AI generated ads that people are already trying to keep track of like what the fakes are. There’s a lot of organic stuff out there that is just very misleading. That’s AI created. So there’s definitely a trust issue that’s happening right now in the social space between brands and people. I see a lot too where like I see comments on like posts that I feel are very genuine and probably a real post, but there’s still a lot of people being like, “I think this is AI. I don’t trust this. I don’t believe this.” So I think that is certainly at the forefront of both consumers and marketers minds. As marketers, we’re trying to be trying to think of how we can use AI to make us more nimble, have better content, and just make our jobs easier. But at the same time, we have to make sure that we’re being trustworthy, especially in an organic space where we have a relationship with that audience and we don’t want to lose that trust that we already have.

Katie Flynn: Yeah. And I think what’s interesting about that is it’s harder to spot in specific instances. I do feel like in video, people are pretty good because we consume so much video. Think about how much time people spend on their phones every day. And so much of that is on like mediums where you’re watching video. Your brain is just pretty good at going, “Eh, something isn’t totally right there.”

Ashley Rieflin: Yeah.

Katie Flynn: But I feel like for other purposes, like captions and things like that, maybe we’re not so good at catching those things quite yet. And truth be told, I use AI to help pull together titles and descriptions for the podcast and then I’ll just edit them to make them feel really Flynn-like or more in my voice or whatever. And I feel like to me, that’s a perfectly good use case of just cutting down on a little bit of time saying, “Look at this transcript so that I can remember all the things we talked about.” Because usually it’s a week or two later. But it is tough in the video space. Now especially, I feel like now when you see Talking Head on video that is AI-generated, you can just tell there’s something not right there. I keep getting these great things on TikTok that are like doctors talking about how men need to understand women’s postpartum experiences because it’s targeting me. Yes. And I’m like, “Yes!” And then I’m like, “Wait, the edge of his face looks kind of weird.” I think that a woman did this.

Ashley Rieflin: Well, I had even seen a TikTok this morning of– I can’t remember her name– but one of the players on the women’s hockey team. It was a political video of her speaking out about the current situation. And I watched the whole thing and I’m reading the comments and someone’s like, “It says this is an AI-generated video.” I totally missed it. Because it’s her as a Talking Head and her laced with videos of the hockey team, her voiceover. So it’s that kind of stuff too where it’s like, “I was duped by that.” Yeah.

Katie Flynn: That thing I think is better than a person who actually doesn’t exist. Right. Because there’s like– especially somebody who has an online profile that you can pull different videos from so that you can really actually get their facial expressions and all those things, right? And they’re pacing of speaking. All right. Here’s what’s next. Does anything feel different to you in the social media space than it did even 12 months ago?

Ashley Rieflin: I would say– and this is more on the paid side of social. But I think the way social is being used by the consumer and how we tie that to targeting strategy is shifting. So social used to be a great way to kind of disrupt people in their day-to-day. It was a good kind of mid-funnel tactic. Social is now shifting. It’s kind of been shifting this way for years starting with YouTube, but it’s now more of a search space. So people are going into it with more search intent. The type of content they want to see is much more curated. So I think when we start to strategize going forward on where we’re reaching people with what type of messaging and those touch points, we’re going to start thinking a little bit differently about social. Social may start to replace what paid search has been doing for the past few years. And then we also now see chat GPT ads and those types of things launching as well. So there is certainly a huge shift coming when it comes to search and social, both with AI and then how people are using it, especially as new platforms come and evolve. But we’re definitely seeing it used more for search. YouTube has outperformed Google when it comes to search, but now we’re seeing that also come out in meta and especially TikTok.

Katie Flynn: That makes total sense. I mean, yeah, because people have long used YouTube as sort of a how-to area, like DIY, retie my bathroom or whatever. And I do that in TikTok quite a bit, like search for specific stuff. But you’re right on chat GPT and the different LLMs as well. I saw a stat, I was in a webinar on Monday and I’m probably going to butcher the exact numbers, but it was around Black Friday this year. And it said something to the effect of like 30% of Black Friday purchases were made after a search in chat GPT or something similar to that, which seems like a big number. That’s like a big representative sample.

Ashley Rieflin: they have any statistics around purchases made through TikTok shop?

Katie Flynn: I didn’t see anything specific to that, but like if my father’s any indication, a lot. Like every day something showing up for like Apple user 43425.

Ashley Rieflin: Yeah. What was that joke? Like, are you on the TikTok shopping?

Katie Flynn: Like there are little things that catch my eye as I’m going through it. It’s hard to resist until you get to the checkout and you’re like, wait, all of these shops have 6.99 or 13.99 shipping that adds up. Yes. You know, the price looks good until you get to that part. Yes. All right, moving on. And you know, the next couple of questions are about AI. So I guess we’re just making this an AI thing. It’s the theme. Of course. Do you think that we are in an AI optimization era or a human authenticity era or does it have to be both?

Ashley Rieflin: I think it’s going to have to be a hybrid thing because going back to what I said earlier about trust, authenticity is I think going to be the differentiator for different brands as they find a way to marry AI into their process. is supposed to make human, supposed to give human beings more room to be human, right? So that we can have that space. Do you think of new ideas, new content, new products for customers? So AI should certainly still be used as a tool. But yes, when it comes to content, authenticity is still going to be key, especially like I said, consumers are going to be savvy to it. They’re now looking for AI. And when they see AI, it kind of hurts the trust.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, at a certain point, true authenticity will probably become a little bit more of a differentiator. Yes. Which I think is a good thing too. Especially as an agency, right? There’s a lot that we can do that’s quick turn and we’ll utilize those tools and all of those things and follow best practices. But there’s going to be a time and a place for really connecting with the audience. I think that’s a fun challenge to figure out in the era of AI. Now in terms of how the social media algorithms are changing from an AI perspective, how does that change the way you think about creative? Because I know we’ve been having a lot of conversations about that.

Ashley Rieflin: Yes. So the way platforms are shifting, it’s now creative first in their targeting. So instead of us going in and being very prescriptive about we want to reach males 35 plus who have an interest in football, something very specific to that, it’s now this idea of creating a library of videos or images of men playing football and allowing that creative to kind of speak to the target audience. And the algorithms are using that to target. And especially pretty much everybody are pushing people to lean into their AI targeting capabilities. So they want you to give them less guardrails so that they can go off and learn and target the client to, I don’t know if their benefit are benefit. I don’t know who’s really benefiting from this new approach yet. Kind of remains to be seen. Yes. The spin is that the consumer is supposed to be benefiting because they are receiving content that is more relevant to them. And that would hopefully make that connection to the brand. But creative is becoming the most important tool in the media library. And I’ve seen it said throughout that agencies who kind of figure out and unlock that key to having robust creative and constantly refreshed creative and are thinking creative first are going to be the ones who kind of win in social media game in the next few years.

Katie Flynn: Just from an agency leadership perspective. I actually love it because I feel like although the teams have always collaborated from a creative and media perspective, this is even forcing it more because it has to be more consistent, more volume, more all of those things. So it’s been really interesting to watch all of those conversations happen to figure it out together collaboratively. Yes. But yeah, I guess we’ll find out if it’s a good or a bad thing. And especially for us, we work in such highly regulated industries like healthcare and financial services. So that’s hence the skepticism. But I can understand from a consumer brand perspective why it might be beneficial. I think they just have to figure out those highly regulated industries a little bit more.

Ashley Rieflin: Right. And the regulated industries are usually the last that are thought about. Obviously the commercial brands are going to get all the changes first because they’re the ones making those direct sales.

Katie Flynn: Yeah. And they tend to be on the cutting edge from a creative perspective. Just look at the Super Bowl commercials, for example.

Ashley Rieflin: Yeah. And there’s less room for nuance to your point in regulated spaces like targeting considerations and things like that. It makes it a little bit more difficult when you have those types of nuanced audiences or clients. Yeah.

Katie Flynn: But learn it every day. Yes. All right, girly pop, social media hot takes. You ready? Okay. This is our last segment. Okay. Threads. Over or underrated?

Ashley Rieflin: Overrated. It’s very rage-baity right now. I’m trying to get back into threads just because I feel like that’s where most of the conversations are happening. But it’s very difficult to train the algorithm. And I feel like the content’s very empty at the moment. I gave up on it. I’m not going to lie. No, I like when it launched, I was like, yes, this is awesome. I’m going all in on threads. And then six months in, I’m like, I’m going to get blue sky a try. Because I would find myself, there would be a threads question. A lot of the content, too, is around parenting, of course, because parent of the toddler, you know how it is. That’s all we get on social these days. Of course. But it’ll be something rage-baity like how are parents getting their toddlers to bed before 9? Just to get people to comment. Yes. And that’s not really rage-baity. But you know what I mean? I know what you’re saying. Just like you’re like, why would I– you feel compelled to comment. But then you’re like, oh, I’m just one of a thousand. And all I’m doing is getting this scene more. And then you go over to blue sky, which I like the structure of blue sky. But no one’s there. Yeah, I was just going to say, I’m not there. Right. So you don’t get the same type of conversations that you’re hoping to see. Or it’s more of like– Smaller community. Yeah, it’s like a whole new community where I’m like, hi, everyone. My name’s Ashley. Let me introduce myself to you. Because Threads is connected to Instagram, you kind of already had that like, I know these people feeling–

Katie Flynn: But maybe more intimate. I don’t know. Right. All right, next, TikTok search. Future of discovery or overhyped?

Ashley Rieflin: No, I think that is certainly a future of discovery. Like I said, we’re going to see people leaning more into things like TikTok search, TikTok shopping. TikTok is now a permanent thing. Picture in our life. Yes.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, I delete it like twice a year for like a month. And that’s great. And then I’m like, I need it back. Oh, good for you. Hashtags. Dad or misunderstood?

Ashley Rieflin: Misunderstood. I would say they need to be used strategically, not for the sake of using a hashtag. But they still have value, especially in platforms like TikTok. Yeah. Well, we’re talking about search, right?

Katie Flynn: Some people do use those for their search. Long captions, yes or no? Yes. OK. Trending audio, strategic or desperate? Trending audio, strategic. Yeah. For a couple of days, you got to get right in on it as a brand, I think. You can’t be a two-week slate. Or when it rolls over reels. That’s embarrassing.

Ashley Rieflin: We’re trying to be with the cool kids.

Katie Flynn: Pick us. LinkedIn personal brand, necessary

Ashley Rieflin: or exhausting? I think it’s exhausting at this point. I think LinkedIn has almost become a meme in the personal branding. Yeah. Which it doesn’t have to stay that way. But I will say there’s kind of like a see-as-save-ness coming right now with LinkedIn, especially with the thought leadership content. Yes. Again, why are we saying this? What are we contributing to the conversation? Or are we just trying to make sure we’re looking visible in the feed? Yeah. And I think a lot of people are just trying to look visible. I’m with you.

Katie Flynn: Organic reach, myth or mismanaged?

Ashley Rieflin: Mismanaged. I mean, organic reach, I think, when done well is going to be your base support structure. Ideally, your organic reach should be stronger than your paid reach if you’re doing your job right.

Katie Flynn: Yeah.

Ashley Rieflin: OK.

Katie Flynn: I’m skipping an AI question that we already answered. Influencer fatigue, real or overhyped?

Ashley Rieflin: Influencer fatigue? Overhyped, I think, again, goes back to authenticity. I do too. Also kind of ties into that whole LinkedIn thing. What are you contributing? And this is a struggle that has always come as social, whatever the trends. People want to be there and present and being like, “Hi, I’m here.” But they’re not always contributing anything of value. They’re just adding to noise.

Katie Flynn: I feel like from a consumer brand perspective especially, that authenticity side of it is important. You’re always going to get the naysayers on influencer posts who are like, “This is an ad. You got paid to say this.” But also, you get a lot of people who are like, “No, I appreciate a real person talking about their experience.” As long as I haven’t heard them say, “This is a 10 out of 10 about every single product they’ve ever been hawking,” then I believe it.

Ashley Rieflin: I will say TikTok especially. As soon as I realize it’s an ad, I will scroll. I’ll be like, “Oh, never mind.” I know.

Katie Flynn: I do this unless they’re like my favorite creators and then I like to throw them a like. Yeah. All right. If you had to delete one platform tomorrow, what would it be?

Ashley Rieflin: Oh, I would probably just delete threads again. And also, I actually haven’t used Instagram in probably six months.

Katie Flynn: I don’t use it very often. log in once a week and then see all the things people sent me. This is probably a bad thing. I’m a big TikTok user. I feel the dopamine hit of TikTok is a lot more enticing to me than on Instagram. You have to weed through a lot more boring stuff on Instagram to get to the exciting edit jobs and things like that. So I just don’t go for it.

Ashley Rieflin: To me, Instagram is real life people and then TikTok is just people I don’t know. Yes. Just total consumption.

Katie Flynn: True. We’re just like over the people that we know. Pretty much. All right. Closing question. You get one format for the next six months. Carousel, real or static? What are you choosing? They have to go with reels. Yeah. I think just even from a performance perspective, you can’t deny it. I mean, TikTok made it happen. Yeah. And carousels, I understand that they have a purpose, especially for certain brands and certain products and stuff, but I got to do this.

Ashley Rieflin: Yeah. I mean, I think we used to do it too on LinkedIn if you want to share a PDF of a white paper. That is just quick information.

Katie Flynn: Yes. Yes. There’s a time and a place for everything. I think in terms of engagement, you’re always going to get the most out of a reel. Yeah. All right, Ashley. Any final thoughts?

Ashley Rieflin: No, this was good. There’s a lot happening. Yeah. It’s kind of a weird scary time where you’re just like, “I don’t feel like an expert anymore.

Katie Flynn: I have to go back to school.” Lots to learn, lots to be proven out, but an