When the first quarter of 2025 wrapped up, I thought I was going to have my “best year ever.” Maybe I shouldn’t have dared the universe. LOL. Because the rest of the year was a major challenge for both me and soona. Naturally, I also dug in and did everything I could to try and survive. So best year ever? No. But a year of learning? Yes.
And that’s why I am now looking at 2026 with eyes wide open and some hope. Because while I am not daring the universe to make it my “best” year. I am hopeful that there is a lot of positive ahead in both brand creativity and commerce. Let’s talk about some of the things I am looking forward to:
- The end of an AI Hype Cycle: For the last 3 years, it’s been nonstop. But after lots of bad AI photos, some pretty ‘same-same’ looks from these models and a lot of missing fingers and toes, I think it’s time to officially move on from thinking AI will replace the industry. Instead, I hope it’s the beginning of embracing AI for workflows and automations in the most mundane of tasks, not the most fun of tasks.
- New discovery models in shopping: Both Perplexity and ChatGPT are adding shopping and checkout features natively to their chat as of Q3 of this year. With this in mind, don’t be surprised if customers start discovering your products in a more collaborative way, especially via LLMs.
- Doubling and tripling of authentic review videos: Shoppers are becoming more and more skeptical and increasingly thinking harder before parting ways with their credit card numbers. As a result, I am excited to see video featuring real reviews from customers more deeply integrated into ads and retail, as well as natively in the curated gallery of content on direct to consumer sites. It’s a massive opportunity and one that will reduce skepticism in shopping.
Whatever you are planning, I hope you’ll embrace one big idea: Your brand NEEDS to be more real and more human. Not less human.
Liz
When the first quarter of 2025 wrapped up, I thought I was going to have my “best year ever.” Maybe I shouldn’t have dared the universe. LOL. Because the rest of the year was a major challenge for both me and soona. Naturally, I also dug in and did everything I could to try and survive. So best year ever? No. But a year of learning? Yes.
And that’s why I am now looking at 2026 with eyes wide open and some hope. Because while I am not daring the universe to make it my “best” year. I am hopeful that there is a lot of positive ahead in both brand creativity and commerce. Let’s talk about some of the things I am looking forward to:
- The end of an AI Hype Cycle: For the last 3 years, it’s been nonstop. But after lots of bad AI photos, some pretty ‘same-same’ looks from these models and a lot of missing fingers and toes, I think it’s time to officially move on from thinking AI will replace the industry. Instead, I hope it’s the beginning of embracing AI for workflows and automations in the most mundane of tasks, not the most fun of tasks.
- New discovery models in shopping: Both Perplexity and ChatGPT are adding shopping and checkout features natively to their chat as of Q3 of this year. With this in mind, don’t be surprised if customers start discovering your products in a more collaborative way, especially via LLMs.
- Doubling and tripling of authentic review videos: Shoppers are becoming more and more skeptical and increasingly thinking harder before parting ways with their credit card numbers. As a result, I am excited to see video featuring real reviews from customers more deeply integrated into ads and retail, as well as natively in the curated gallery of content on direct to consumer sites. It’s a massive opportunity and one that will reduce skepticism in shopping.
Whatever you are planning, I hope you’ll embrace one big idea: Your brand NEEDS to be more real and more human. Not less human.
Liz
