7 Things Marketers in 2026 Should Know

As marketing enters its most accelerated era yet, one truth cuts through prediction, platform shift, and AI breakthrough: Tools will change faster than people do.

Execution is being reshaped by automation, AI agents, and intelligent systems that can now create, optimise, and deploy at unprecedented speed. But the leaders shaping global brands today agree on something far more enduring—human understanding remains the real differentiator.

What follows is not a checklist of tools to learn or platforms to master. 

Instead, it’s a set of principles—shared by CMOs, growth leaders, and marketing operators—designed to outlast trends and prepare marketers not just to survive 2026, but to lead through it.

Learn the Tech—But Lead With the Human

As technology accelerates execution, the marketer’s real value increasingly lies in judgment, curiosity, and the ability to understand people beyond data points.

Suad Merchant | Global Chief Marketing Officer | GEMS Education, says,

“Learn the tech, but lead with the human. Your tools will evolve every six months. Your ability to understand people—what they value, what they trust, and what they choose—will last your entire career. 

Be curious, experiment boldly, build range, and never lose the instinct to ask why. The future belongs to marketers who are half strategist, half technologist and 100% human.”

Think Beyond Channels. Chase Impact, Not Trends

In a landscape obsessed with platforms and formats, long-term relevance comes from linking consumer insight directly to business outcomes—not novelty.

Neda Lazic | Senior Director, Marketing Network Operations & Capabilities, Eurasia & Middle East OU | The Coca-Cola Company, says, 

“Learn to think beyond channels—master the art of connecting business strategy with consumer insight. Tools and platforms will change constantly, but the ability to understand people, tell compelling stories, and link marketing to measurable business outcomes will never go out of style. 

Stay curious, build adaptability, and don’t chase trends—chase impact.”

Empathy Is Still the Ultimate Performance Lever

As optimisation becomes automated, emotional intelligence increasingly separates meaningful growth from short-term performance spikes.

Marwen Ben Messaoud | Director of Growth Marketing | Spotify

“In a world of automation, empathy is your competitive advantage. The brands that lead with humanity will always outperform those that just optimise for clicks.”

Marketing Is a Growth Engine—Own It

For those entering the workforce amid AI-driven uncertainty, confidence, adaptability, and outcome ownership will define career longevity.

Elspeth Rollert, CEO of The Marketing Cloud

“If a young marketer entering the field today wanted some advice, I’d say: Stay curious, embrace technology, and focus on driving measurable outcomes. 

It’s daunting to enter the labour force amid anxiety about AI-related job loss, especially within entry-level roles. School yourself in this technology early, rather than hiding from it or treating it as a threat. 

And once you’ve landed that first job, remember marketing is not a support function; it’s a growth engine. Maintain the mindset, know your worth, and you’ll adapt and thrive through this high-tech transition.”

Learn Finance—or Stay on the Sidelines

Modern marketing leadership demands fluency in business fundamentals, not just creativity, if marketers want influence at the decision-making table.

Ada Mockute Jaime, Chief Marketing Officer at Nordcurrent, says, 

“To young marketers entering the field, my main advice is simple: learn finance. Marketing isn’t the “shiny things department”- it’s a core part of a company’s performance engine. 

When you understand how budgets, margins, acquisition costs and lifetime value work, you stop being a content maker and start becoming a strategic partner. 

Finance gives you the language to justify your ideas, balance emotion with business impact, and make decisions that are not only creative but genuinely beneficial for the company.”

Don’t Compete With AI. Learn to Lead It

As AI takes over production, the marketer’s edge shifts to context, systems thinking, and the ability to translate complexity into strategy.

Michele Nieberding, Director of Product Marketing for AI at Treasure Data

“Young marketers entering the field today will grow up in an era where AI can produce copy, assets, and even campaign structures instantly.

Your advantage is not typing the right prompt. Your advantage is knowing the context behind the prompt — the customer truth, the data model, the competitive landscape, and the business math.

Become the marketer who understands how data flows, how AI agents make decisions, how to measure impact, and how to translate complexity into narrative. Creativity still wins, but technical fluency unlocks scale.”

Psychology + Building = Unfair Advantage

When behavioural understanding meets the ability to independently build and test ideas, marketers gain speed, autonomy, and disproportionate impact.

Igor Lyubimov, Founder of web2wave, says, 

“Learn two things: psychology and Cursor. Psychology, because marketing is fundamentally about understanding how people think and make decisions. Read about behavioural economics, cognitive biases, and persuasion principles. 

Cursor is the second thing. Through Cursor, you can create almost anything. ChatGPT, compared to Cursor, is like a bicycle versus a spaceship. Cursor lets you build landing pages, automate workflows, analyse data, and create tools specific to your needs. 

Most marketers don’t realise they can build their own solutions.”

ALSO READ: Meet the Martechvibe’s Expert Contributors for 2025