3 ways marketers are setting themselves up to fail in 2026

Three senior figures at marketing technology companies handling billions in advertising spend released predictions on December 17, 2025, that challenge fundamental assumptions about content creation, measurement methodology, and brand identity in an industry facing artificial intelligence saturation and privacy restrictions.

The executives—representing Jacquard, used by Sephora and Best Buy, and Funnel, which processes over 10% of global digital advertising spend for clients including Uber and Adidas—identified critical inflection points where current industry practices will fail at scale. Their warnings address different crisis points across the marketing technology stack, from creative production bottlenecks to attribution model obsolescence.

ChatGPT's cadence dominates 85% of marketing content

According to Toby Coulthard, Chief Product Officer at Jacquard, "85% of brands today use ChatGPT for their marketing content, and it shows." The widespread adoption of ChatGPT has created what he describes as a recognizable and increasingly stale AI cadence that permeates marketing across industries.

ChatGPT democratized content creation, providing organizations of all sizes access to competent copywriting capabilities. However, this democratization eliminated differentiation. When multinational corporations and small businesses use identical tools with similar prompts, their output becomes indistinguishable.

Coulthard emphasized that ChatGPT's distinct patterns are "recognizable and growing quickly stale." Consumers already recognize these linguistic signatures, he noted, and will increasingly gravitate toward brands making extra effort to stand out.

"In 2026, expect linguistic identity to separate the wheat from the chaff," according to Coulthard. Brands that input prompts and click generate will fade into static, while those maintaining distinct voices will operate above most competitors.

The distinction matters particularly as brand voice becomes a premium asset. A truly differentiated voice cuts through what Coulthard called "the AI chatter"—the homogeneous output that dominates when every organization uses the same generation tool without customization.

Marketing professionals should consider the implications for brand perception. The platform's ubiquity means consumers encounter similar phrasing, sentence structures, and rhetorical approaches across completely unrelated brands and categories. Recognition of these patterns erodes trust and attention over time.

Meltwater's GenAI Lens monitoring solution tracks how brands appear in AI-generated content across platforms, addressing concerns about representation in an environment where 30% of brand perception will be shaped by generative AI content rather than traditional media by 2026, according to Gartner forecasts.

The challenge extends beyond written content. ChatGPT referral traffic dropped 52% between late 2024 and August 2025 as citation patterns shifted dramatically toward concentrated sources like Reddit and Wikipedia, demonstrating how AI-mediated discovery reshapes traditional marketing channels.

Hyper-segmentation creates unsustainable content demands

Coulthard identified content creation, not data, as the main bottleneck for marketers in 2026 as hyper-segmentation increases. The fundamental problem has shifted from collecting and analyzing data to producing enough content for sophisticated audience segments.

"The issue used to be collecting, analysing and activating data - but in 2025, with the wealth of tools and rubrics available, this is a problem no longer for most brands," according to Coulthard. Modern segmentation capabilities enable increasingly complex audience groupings based on behavior, location, and purchase history.

These sophisticated segments multiply content demands exponentially. Copywriters cannot keep up with dozens or hundreds of personalized voices for corresponding micro-segments. Manual production becomes impossible at required scale.

Outsourcing to ChatGPT produces copy that sounds like everyone else and still requires manual effort to distribute content to customers, according to Coulthard. Successfully managing this balance—ensuring enough personalized content exists for all channels while distributing it appropriately—will be the critical task for marketing teams.

The scale challenge reflects broader industry patterns. HubSpot research published in December 2025 found that 93% of United States marketers using personalization or segmentation say it has moderate to high positive impact on marketing-driven leads or purchases. Most marketers incorporate personalization or segmentation into a quarter of their monthly content.

High-performing teams deploy even more sophisticated approaches. The HubSpot study found 28% of high performers say more than half their content includes personalizations based on buyer personas or demographic details, compared to 11% of underperforming teams.

IAB Australia's December 10 retail media blueprint outlined 16 distinct segmentation approaches retailers must implement, from foundational RFM analysis to advanced predictive customer lifetime value modeling. Each segmentation type requires corresponding content variants to maintain relevance.

The challenge compounds across channels. Email, push notifications, SMS, social media, display advertising, and in-app messaging each require content tailored to segment characteristics and channel constraints. Creative teams cannot scale manual production to meet these demands without sacrificing quality or brand consistency.

Human craft signals premium positioning

Carl Ronander, VP Marketing at Funnel, predicted "the human craft will be the new flex in marketing in 2026." Brands will signal premium positioning by showing the work—telling backstories of how creative was made rather than hiding production processes.

Apple's demonstration of this approach garnered significant attention. The company created its new Apple TV logo by hand, then promoted the creation story. Apple's behind-the-scenes video showing how they made their advertisement with singing animals became important for marketing credibility, according to Ronander.

This approach aligns with Rory Sutherland's theory of "costly signalling value," where apparently irrational or wasteful actions actually demonstrate commitment, confidence, and trustworthiness. Brand campaigns by OpenAI and Anthropic exemplify this principle, according to Ronander.

Physical manifestations of brand will become increasingly important. Ronander pointed to Louis Vuitton's new flagship store in Shanghai as evidence that events and in-store experiences carry elevated significance in an AI-saturated environment.

The paradox: generative AI use in creative production will continue accelerating despite growing emphasis on human craft. Brands with limited budgets now produce campaigns and assets previously restricted to major advertisers. According to Ronander, this flood of AI-generated assets makes communicating brand position consistently critical.

"Brands with a clearly defined creative concept will be those able to build mental availability," Ronander stated, citing Liquid Death as an example of maintaining distinctive creative identity.

Media experts surveyed in December 2025 demonstrated cautious adoption patterns, with 36% indicating they are cautious about advertising within AI-generated content and will take extra precautions. Forty-six percent cited increasing levels of AI-generated content not suitable for brands as a serious threat to media quality.

70-80% still use last-click attribution despite alternatives

János Moldvay, VP Measurement at Funnel, offered a blunt assessment: marketing measurement in 2026 looks almost identical to 2025. The industry pretends new techniques and tools transform the sector annually when they represent natural evolution.

"Marketers should focus not on all the external changes that are inevitable, but should finally start acting on what they can control: adapting and moving away from last-click attribution, which 70-80% of marketers are still using," according to Moldvay.

Last-click attribution assigns all conversion credit to the final touchpoint before a transaction, ignoring earlier interactions that influenced the purchase decision. This methodology persists despite widespread acknowledgment of its limitations and availability of alternatives including multi-touch attribution, data-driven models, and marketing mix modeling.

The measurement challenge intensified throughout 2025 as platforms restricted attribution capabilities. Meta announced October 18 it would deprecate 7-day and 28-day view-through attribution windows effective January 12, 2026, eliminating measurement options advertisers relied upon for awareness campaigns. Historical data retention limits were set at 13 months for unique-count fields and six months for frequency breakdowns.

Research published October 24 found 67.4% of marketers identified proving incremental ROI as their most pressing measurement challenge, followed by aligning marketing metrics to business outcomes at 66.3% and improving cross-channel attribution accuracy at 55.1%.

Platform-provided attribution remains the most common methodology at 65.8%. However, marketers increasingly supplement it with incrementality testing and experiments at 52.0% and marketing mix modeling at 49.5%. Nearly half—46.9%—plan to increase investment in MMM over the next 12 months.

Moldvay connected measurement capability to broader economic conditions. An estimated 90%+ of United States GDP growth in the first half of 2025 came from investments in data centers for AI. A potential burst of the AI bubble would have significant macroeconomic impact, likely resulting in recession with decreased consumer and media spending.

Slashed marketing budgets would make measurement critical, according to Moldvay. What isn't measured can't be optimized. Without optimization, marketers make decisions in information vacuums.

AppsFlyer announced November 18 eight new products including Enhanced Attribution Model with real-time AI behavioral analysis and Incrementality for User Acquisition quantifying true incremental contribution of touchpoints. These launches reflected industry recognition that measurement remains the foundation for effective budget allocation.

LinkedIn's September 23 launch of Company Intelligence API demonstrated platform responses to attribution demands. The API enables B2B marketers to track entire organizations through attribution partners, with early beta customers showing 287% increase in companies reached when combining organic and paid touchpoints.

Funnel research published in December revealed 86% of in-house marketers cannot determine channel impact despite data abundance. The disconnect between available information and actionable insights persists across organizations at all sophistication levels.

Measurement methodologies affect campaign performance interpretation, optimization strategies, and budget allocation decisions. Amazon added November 3 Brand Store page views attribution for Sponsored Brands campaigns, filling gaps between advertising investment and brand engagement.

Google updated November 6 Display & Video 360 attribution capabilities with Floodlight linking, enabling conversion data sharing between Google Analytics 4 and Campaign Manager 360 configurations. Attribution model customization allows selection from last-click, first-click, and data-driven methodologies.

The measurement landscape fragments further as different platforms use varying attribution models, lookback windows, and conversion definitions. Media.net's October 1 launch of ELEVATE introduced sell-side attribution operating within the supply path itself, embedding capabilities upstream rather than relying on advertiser-side tracking.

Moldvay's warning suggests the measurement crisis will intensify before improvement occurs. Seventy to eighty percent of marketers continuing with last-click attribution operate with fundamentally flawed performance data. Their optimization decisions reflect incomplete understanding of customer journeys and channel contributions.

Structural challenges persist across the industry

The three predictions identify different failure points, but all stem from structural misalignment between available technology and organizational adaptation. Tools exist to solve each problem—brand voice systems, content automation platforms, advanced attribution methodologies—yet adoption lags significantly.

Coulthard's observations about ChatGPT's ubiquity and content bottlenecks reflect how accessible AI creates new problems at scale. Ronander's prediction about human craft as premium signal addresses second-order effects of AI democratization. Moldvay's measurement critique highlights how organizations resist changing established practices despite knowing they produce unreliable data.

Research on AI search transformation showed 84% of surveyed marketers observed shifts in consumer behavior away from conventional search and web browsing. Forty-five percent plan to shift brand budgets toward mobile in-app advertising within 12 months as AI-powered answer engines displace traditional discovery mechanisms.

The convergence of these trends creates compounding pressure. Brands need distinctive voices to stand out in AI-saturated environments. They need exponentially more content to serve hyper-segmented audiences. They need accurate measurement to justify budgets in potentially recessionary conditions. Most lack systems to address any single challenge, let alone all three simultaneously.

Timeline

• December 17, 2025: Marketing technology executives release 2026 predictions covering brand differentiation, content scale, and attribution methodology
• November 18, 2025: AppsFlyer releases eight measurement and AI automation products addressing attribution accuracy and incrementality testing
• November 3, 2025: Amazon adds Brand Store page views metric for Sponsored Brands attribution
• October 24, 2025: Research reveals 67.4% of marketers identify proving incremental ROI as most pressing challenge
• October 18, 2025: Meta restricts attribution windows and data retention in Ads Insights API effective January 12, 2026
• October 1, 2025: Media.net launches ELEVATE sell-side attribution solution with Claritas
• September 23, 2025: LinkedIn launches Company Intelligence API for B2B attribution tracking
• August 2025: ChatGPT referral traffic drops 52% as citation patterns shift dramatically
• December 2025: HubSpot survey reveals 93% of marketers say personalization drives leads

Summary

Who: Toby Coulthard, Chief Product Officer at Jacquard; Carl Ronander, VP Marketing at Funnel; János Moldvay, VP Measurement at Funnel released industry predictions for 2026. Jacquard is used by Sephora and Best Buy. Funnel handles over 10% of global digital advertising spend for clients including Uber and Adidas.

What: Three predictions warn that 85% of brands use ChatGPT creating indistinguishable content, hyper-segmentation creates unsustainable content production demands that neither humans nor generic AI can solve alone, and 70-80% of marketers still use last-click attribution despite known limitations and available alternatives. Human craft will become premium positioning signal as AI generation becomes ubiquitous.

When: The predictions were released December 17, 2025, addressing challenges expected to intensify throughout 2026 as AI adoption accelerates, content demands multiply, and economic conditions potentially tighten marketing budgets.

Where: The challenges affect marketing organizations globally across all industries, with particular impact on digital advertising, content marketing, brand positioning, and performance measurement. Platform changes from Meta, Google, LinkedIn, Amazon, and others compound existing measurement difficulties.

Why: Widespread ChatGPT adoption eliminated brand differentiation through language. Sophisticated audience segmentation outpaced content production capabilities. Organizations resist adopting advanced attribution methodologies despite understanding last-click limitations. These structural problems will intensify as AI generation becomes more prevalent, audiences become more fragmented, and measurement accuracy becomes more critical for budget justification in potentially recessionary economic conditions.