Ready to peek around the corner into 2026? This edition dives into the trends shaping B2B priorities, why martech seems to be making everything look the same, and how AI is shaking up influencer marketing. Grab a coffee—this one’s a little bit spicy, a lot of useful, and very future-you approved.
Let’s dive in.
🥇 B2B CMO’s Top 5 2026 Initiatives
If you’re a B2C marketer mapping out next year, good news: your CMO colleagues just handed you a potential cheat sheet. Forrester’s latest CMO Pulse Survey reveals the five initiatives capturing the most attention. And yes, CX is finally back on top—where many would argue it always belonged.
Here’s what’s rising to the surface for 2026:
1. Improving customer experience. CX rockets back to the #1 spot, and for good reason. Better CX + aligned BX = revenue up, churn down, happier humans all around.
2. Advancing genAI capabilities. The hype cycle is cooling and the real work begins. Winning teams will treat AI as an effectiveness engine, not just an efficiency play.
3. Maturing marketing measurement. Still in the bronze medal position. The measurement tools are improving, but they’re only as smart as your data is clean.
4. Deploying or updating loyalty platforms. With economic pressure rising, loyalty is about to be stress-tested. Expect brands to double down on motivating incremental behaviors.
5. Increasing/optimizing personalization. Hyper-personalization isn’t the end goal—relevance is. Brands that define a clear personalization vision first will win.
How can you make sure you’re ready for 2026? Here’s a start:
- Audit your data readiness (for both measurement and AI)
- Map your 2026 “experience stack”—including CX, BX, and loyalty
- Align your personalization goals around actual customer value, not tech trends
And as you gear up for 2026, make sure your priorities serve your customers, your data, and your long-term momentum—not just the hype cycle.
🔗Get all the details at forrester.com
🖥️ Martech Is Thriving. Why Isn’t Creativity?
Martech was supposed to be our magic wand—a personalization powerhouse that would help us craft hyper-relevant, ultra-unique marketing. So why is everything is starting to look a little same-y? Why do great tools + overuse = instant blandification?
We may have more martech than ever, but it seems we’re thinking less. Instead of building strategy first, we’re pressing buttons, toggling features, and calling it differentiation. And AI—while amazing—often accelerates the sameness by recycling the same patterns. Personalization has become table stakes, not a differentiator. And unless we take a step back and rethink our process, we’ll keep producing campaigns that bear a striking resemblance to one another.
Things to keep in mind:
- AI-generated messaging ≠ meaningful differentiation
- Strong thinking frameworks beat feature-chasing every time
- Start every campaign with thinking, not tech—strategy before switches
- Use martech to execute differentiation, not to create it
At the end of the day, martech is powerful—but only when marketers bring the originality. When we lead with real thinking, tech becomes an amplifier, not a homogenizer.
🤳🤖How Will AI Influence Influencer Marketing in 2026?
AI is gearing up to give influencer marketing its biggest plot twist yet—and everyone in the ecosystem is reacting a little differently. Marketers are eyeing efficiency, creators are bracing for (and embracing) new tools, and consumers are … raising an eyebrow.
As we look toward 2026, the industry is trying to figure out where AI fits, what it should automate, and what still requires a human touch. Heading into the new year:
- Marketers are surprisingly pro-automation: 35% of brands and 51% of industry leaders strongly agree that influencer marketing should be fully automated with AI. Only 6% strongly oppose it.
- But virtual influencers aren’t taking over (yet): Just 9% plan to partner with virtual influencers in 2026, and only 2% plan to create avatars or clones. A firm 89% are a “hard pass” for now.
- Creators see AI as a workflow revolution: 28% say the next few years will be shaped by AI-generated content, and 27% expect AI-driven creator marketplaces to surge.
- Consumers remain skeptical: 52% worry about undisclosed AI-generated content, and preference for AI creator content has plummeted from 60% in 2023 to 26% today.
Why this matters: The gap between what marketers want, what creators expect, and what consumers trust is widening. Navigating 2026 will require balance—embracing AI’s efficiencies without losing the human spark that makes influencer marketing… well, influential.
🚨 New Podcast Alert!
In this fast, fun, and surprisingly hopeful episode of The Flynn Effect, Katie Flynn and Heather Riexinger unpack Resonate’s latest consumer trends report. From shifting economic vibes and evolving holiday spending to vaccine skepticism, healthcare worries, and where people actually get their news—this convo dishes up sharp insights and plenty of laughs.
