Co-op's Mel Matson, No7's Richard Bowden, Unilever's Amber Özgül and EY's Sian Brigg dissect the marketing challenges of 2026, moderated by Econsultancy MD Paul Davies. Image: Econsultancy
"People need to lead on AI - it needs to be humans, and it needs to be led by our skillset … to be able to cut through and have that competitive edge," said Sian Brigg, Global Brand & Creative Director at EY, speaking on a panel of experts at Econsultancy's Capability Leaders Forum.
New research from Econsultancy's annual 'Future of Marketing' report, presented at the forum, found that 76% of marketers agreed "AI will transform the function of marketing". However, an even higher percentage of marketers - 79% - say that "It is the people within an organisation that provide the competitive advantage."
As report author Rose Keen, Content and Insight Director at Econsultancy, noted, 2026 "is the year the promises - as well as the risks - of GenAI began to hit marketers' daily realities."
How marketers are navigating this reality and extracting value from AI while mitigating its drawbacks was a key theme of the research - as well the discussion from the senior marketing leaders who spoke at the event.
Richard Bowden, Marketing and Digital Director at No7, reflected that one of the best ways marketing leaders can set their teams up for success in the AI era is to give them practical opportunities to get hands-on with the tools.
"Nothing beats - to state the obvious - getting your hands on [AI] and actually using it," he said. "…It's not just about the [training] courses - it's giving access to it, but also looking after different cohorts, to be able to encourage them along."
Bowden highlighted the parallels to digital transformation programmes of 10 years ago and emphasised that getting teams on board with using generative AI is as much about change management as it is about technology.
"What we found was there were different types of behaviours - some people loved it, couldn't wait to get hold of it, were really curious; but some people were just naysayers and didn't want to use it; they felt like it was threatening their jobs.
"Rightly so, there are different people within your teams that need that encouragement and that support … and [need to] celebrate success, as well."
EY's Sian Brigg suggested a switch from talking about AI as 'artificial intelligence' to talking about 'augmented intelligence'. "There is something in there - because AI is augmenting what we do," she said.
She described how EY's marketing teams use AI agents to help them iterate on and improve briefs: "I think that's where you can speed up [the process] - but still use your critical thinking to actually elevate and make it different."
Brigg detailed that within EY, "Everything we do is AI-led now - all of our people are augmented by AI and technology," but she also emphasised the importance of "keep[ing] on with the foundational skillset of our people. …Brief-writing, insight, creative, cut-through, big ideas, how to connect the dots: that is really important to me as we move forward as well."
At the same time, Amber Özgül, Global Director of Social Strategy & Transformation at Unilever, spoke to the need for intentionality with usage of AI. She pointed out that using AI frequently for certain tasks can lead to "losing that muscle to really put in the effort of building your thought process."
"…Also, the power of going through some of the struggles and the resilience that makes us human - that's quite underplayed. … So, I do thoughtfully choose not to invest my time in it [for certain tasks]. …Being intentional [about AI usage], I think, will be key."
Another theme that looks set to dominate 2026 is the newfound discovery challenges that have arisen from an extremely fragmented customer journey - across social platforms, chat agents, web search, and more - and the impact of AI answers on search behaviour.
In the words of Mel Matson, Director of Customer Proposition & Comms at Co-op, "The funnel has collapsed - and we need everyone to be thinking about all of the touchpoints all at once.
"[Co-op is] almost ubiquitous in being across the nation, but that fight for share of attention is real. We are really trying to shift the focus from what has been quite traditional marketing to, now, a very fragmented environment - and making sure we've got the right skillset and capability, [as well as] the teams set up in the right way.
"…It's [about] how we move and evolve to capitalise are what are some fantastic opportunities, if you take them."
No7's Richard Bowden added that in beauty specifically, trying to surface the right product to customers is a challenge, particularly as the sector is subject to a lot of misinformation.
"How we serve that up in the right experience is key," he said. "How we, for lack of a better word, fight across other platforms, social, et cetera, to … provide the right information," so that customers can get what they need from the brand.
Image: Econsultancy
The question of brand trust in an age of realistic AI content and conflicting information is a critical one. In Econsultancy's Future of Marketing survey results, 83% of respondents agreed that "Building and maintaining brand trust is only becoming more important", while 76% said that "Achieving cut through with marketing is increasingly a challenge".
As Unilever's Amber Özgül put it, "In the world of social-first and the transformation that we're going through, we really have to make sure that the trust is exponentially growing together with your brand.
"How do we make sure that we're investing in brand power so that we can meaningfully show up in the cultures we want to resonate with? [This] has been one of the key things we have been focusing on."
As one of the things that can ensure cut-through in an increasingly crowded landscape, creative effectiveness was another key topic of discussion. "We're seeing a lot of [AI-generated] creative put out there at great volumes that is all looking the same," observed Bowden.
"What I'm championing around our teams is - what are the fundamentals of brand-building? How do you teach … not just critical thinking, but the craft of creativity, the eye for emotion? And then how do you use AI across certain channels to be able to … drive scale?
"It all boils down to - as marketeers, we have a responsibility to teach all the people that are coming through that 'You are the voice of the customer. You understand that person.'"
As we move into 2026, each of the panellists shared their resolutions and aspirations for the marketing industry in the year ahead.
Co-op's Mel Matson shared that her resolution was "Doubling down on brand-building - it can be quite easy in this world that is shifting and changing, where there's lots of new ways of getting out there, [to view brand-building as] quite old-fashioned and traditional.
"But it is fundamental - if you are really clear about who you are as a brand, it can really drive joined-up CX and take it to the next level."
Amber Özgül expressed a wish for the marketing industry not to shy away from AI usage, "because even when we are using AI in the background, there isn't really an embrace happening within the organisations.
"Being very transparent and also having the governance around AI … is one of the biggest unlocks that I will focus on in 2026."
Sian Brigg called for marketers to "stop the workslop" - a term coined by Stanford Social Media Lab and BetterUp Labs to refer to work that "creates the illusion of progress [but] rather than saving time, it leaves colleagues to do the real thinking and clean-up."
"We've got to do it - and we've got to bring in more of our skillset and our critical thinking as we move forward," said Briggs. "We have to use [AI] to augment our skills … and really believe in ideas again. [It's] not just about quantity going out but about quality going out."
Finally, Richard Bowden shared a desire for marketers to "fall in love with customer experience and creativity to drive growth. I think that customer experience and the voice of the customer is critical - so if you focus on that, and keep focusing on that, you can't go wrong."
