Why 2026 could be the year of anti-AI marketing

A backlash against AI is taking root. – miniseries/E+/Getty Images

A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

It’s getting harder to escape slop, the artificial intelligence-generated pablum that has crept into our colleagues’ slide decks, our social media feeds, our news outlets, even our real-estate listings.

“Slop oozes into everything,” wrote the editors of Merriam-Webster, who chose “slop” as their 2025 word of the year. “Like slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch.”

That’s why I’m taking a moment to peer into my crystal ball and make one of those dreaded year-end predictions: 2026 will be the year of “100% human” marketing.

Hear me out.

AI “slop” tends to evoke innocuous images of “Shrimp Jesus” or big-eyed cat soap operas. But the slop imagery is getting more sophisticated, creating a crisis of confidence among even those of us who grew up with the internet and fancy themselves expert, or at least decent, spotters of fake stuff. The usual tells — unnatural lighting, awkwardly rendered hands, incongruous background images — have been largely smoothed over.

A casual scroll on TikTok now feels like a test: Did you spot the fake or did you mindlessly double-tap on that video of bunnies bouncing on a trampoline? (You know you fell for it! We all did!)

It’s a crummy feeling, being duped. And some semblance of a backlash has already begun.

Last month, the radio and podcasting giant iHeartMedia rolled out a “guaranteed human” tagline, promising users that it won’t use “AI-generated personalities” or play AI-generated music.

The San Antonio-based audio company’s own research found 90% of its listeners — even those who use AI tools themselves — want their media created by humans.

“It’s important for us to remember, as marketers, that we’re in a very delicate position within a turbulent time,…

Source