From AI gatekeepers to pre-crisis detection, the trends that will separate strategic leaders from the rest
2025 led to distinct shifts in the nature and tone of corporate communications as organizations navigated the politics of a new administration, the continued adoption of AI tools and industry-specific challenges.
As we look ahead to the coming year, we expect many of these shifts to solidify even as companies race to keep up with new innovations and changing audience expectations. Trust will continue to be the cornerstone of communication strategy – but exactly how it’s built, and perceived, will define communications in 2026.
Here are our agency predictions for the types of communications that will rise to the top and the trends that will affect both what you say and how you say it:
Imperfect will be the new standard. As AI content continues flooding the internet and social media, audiences – especially Gen Z – will reward brands that build connection through human touches and consistent, values-driven messaging. “Professional” won’t be enough: Organizations will want to lean into the brand’s unique tone of voice (and ensure there’s a human behind it); share more behind-the-scenes videos instead of polished photo shoots, and intentionally highlight personality, trustworthiness and company values across each piece of content.
Executives will prioritize candidness and clarity over corporate platitudes. Messaging will continue to be tight, and executives will prefer intimate meetings and conversations over public posts. But when leaders do offer a statement or interview, it will need to be warm, relatable and specifically tied to the company’s business or values. “Saying something just to say something” is out.
AI will be treated as an editor to impress. Search engine optimization is expanding to generative engine optimization (GEO), and personal AI tools – like ChatGPT, Claude and others – have already become gatekeepers of information. Google rankings will still be important, but organizations will shift their focus to building a reputation that AI will recognize and rely on. This means showing up on Reddit, being featured in earned media and regularly producing valuable, actionable content or data that can be digested by a machine and offered as a helpful response in a search query.
The “pre-crisis” will become a make-or-break moment for brands. Today’s crises can erupt and go viral at lightning speed, and the only way to buy time is to see them coming. Forward-thinking brands (and their agency partners) will be invested in sophisticated social listening tools that will monitor sentiment analysis in every important digital space, identifying potential crises before they explode. The tools will also provide the real-time data to determine where and when a brand should step in (or let something blow over) and pressure-test messaging to see what resonates best with affected audiences.
Traditional media will play a less important role in crisis communications. It’s still true that no company wants to be called out by the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. But next year’s crises are more likely to spark on social media or online forums and demand a response in kind. With the right detection tools in place, brands can respond quickly and directly to concerned stakeholders and offer personalized solutions, isolating the challenge and preventing it from blowing up into a newspaper-worthy crisis.