By Eleanor Dickinson
Publication Date: 2025-12-24 00:28:00
If 2025 was the year marketing learned to live with AI, 2026 will be the year it decides what to do with it.
With “AI Slop” named Macquarie Dictionary’s “Word” of the Year, marketers are grappling with the question of whether automation will help them do more with less or simply create more noise.
Of course, every agency leader reviewing 2025 was keen to point out that creativity, not just output, is the true differentiator, but also acknowledged that AI is definitely here to stay.
Matt Michael, head of marketing practice at Accenture Song ANZ and CEO of Droga5 ANZ, called AI the “main workbench of work and play”, while Davy Rennie, CEO of Digitas, added: “AI. It’s not just one thing; it is.” In everything we do.”
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If used effectively, there will be no room for half measures in 2026, Rennie argued: “Go big, go bold, use whatever tools give you an advantage, automate the tasks that should have been automated decades ago.”
“Demand results, not bodies. Tell stories that…
