Marketing in 2027: The Return of Human Connection

AI is making it easier to create content, but real value for marketing and the point of differentiation between brands, will come from real human connections.

I feel every year, Marketing is becoming more and more interesting and complex and 2027 is going to be one more such year. I believe that we are going to see the spotlight shift back to the most important thing in marketing: “human connection.”

Over the last two to three years, AI has changed how we create and consume content completely. From social media posts, visuals of campaigns, articles and even marketing strategies can be generated in seconds.

For all companies and brands, this sounds like an amazing situation. Content can be produced faster, at a much lower cost (or sometimes at no cost at all), and makes the whole process so efficient. But here’s something I have been thinking about.

Just because the process of creating content has become faster and we are able to produce more, it does not mean we are actually getting better at marketing our brand, product or service.

Open any social media channel, or podcast or any video or any brochure, we’re surrounded with AI created content. LinkedIn articles that look the same, post designs that look the same, videos that don’t have real people or places and everything that seems to follow a very similar pattern. Tell me the last post or design that has made you stop mid scroll? There would be very few examples. And then tell me two days later, what you read or saw, chances are you would remember very less.

The problem of creating content just because we can

Producing more content does not necessarily mean effective marketing. Whilst with AI, it is easy to produce marketing materials easily and at a lower cost, as all those people such as copywriters, designers, creatives, editors, can be all done with a few well written prompts. From an everyday perspective, this is good news. But are businesses really looking at what is happening to the content after it is being published?

We need to start looking at whether people are engaging with the content? Is it making them feel something? Are they able to remember the brand? Or are brands and companies simply adding more content to digital space that is already very overcrowded. Reducing the cost of creating content does not necessarily always equal effective marketing.

So, what’s making a comeback in 2027?

Digital marketing and AI driven assets are all here to stay, but equally there is going to be more appreciation for content that feels real, authentic, is human and meaningful. Three areas that I think come into focus:

1. Physical Events and Brand Experiences

Things like events, workshops, customer gatherings, demonstrations of products and opportunities for people to interact with brands directly. These experiences are again going to be very valuable. There’s definitely something about a face to face conversation that a digital campaign cannot create. Asking questions, understanding the challenges of customers, exchanging ideas and building a relationship, can all happen in a physical interaction.

For brands and businesses that operate in complex environments, where credibility and trust influence purchase decisions, these face to face interactions are very helpful. Obviously, just organizing an event is not enough, it has to be of value to the customers. But definitely, brands that are able to create an experience for customers, would be in a position of benefit.

2. Digital Marketing campaigns that make people feel something

Digital marketing is not the problem really! Average marketing is. Take a moment to think about campaigns that you remember even today. Mostly, those are campaigns that made you feel something, whether you laughed, got scared, became curious or felt inspired. The common thread is that they make you feel connected to your emotions. I feel that this creativity would make a comeback.

Not every campaign requires a big budget or a complicated production set up. Mostly a simple idea, communicated effectively, can work wonders than an expensive campaign which is only good to look at. The most important thing is if the campaign gives people a reason to care about.

3. Real creativity and storytelling

Everybody likes content that feels real, lived and authentic. A real customer experience, stories that people narrate, original photos that someone has taken even if they are imperfect, honest opinions and point of views, and brands that are able to show some personality, have a perspective, and stand up for something it believes in.

We have forgotten along the way, that not everything has to look perfect. Obviously, being real and authentic does not mean completely forgetting about professional design or good quality production, it just means there is something real and honest, that is being communicated behind all of that. It is more interesting to see a brand share something that feels personal to the brand, than just a beautiful image that could belong to anyone.

Does it mean that as marketers, we should completely stop using AI?

Not at all. I use AI myself and I believe it is a wonderful tool. In fact, there are many areas where AI can be used effectively, some of them are:

• Overall Marketing Research: whether we want to look at what competitors are doing, what other companies in other countries are doing, understanding industries, reviewing websites, discovering trends in the industry and learning about new subjects. All information needs to be verified, but it’s always a good point to start.

• Editing and Refining Creatives: uses such as editing posts, checking grammar, improving the structure of the sentence,  making a message clear, AI can absolutely become a good support tool. It is important to make sure that the content is original and AI is only a supporting system.

• Brainstorming and Idea Generation: Concepts for campaigns, hooks for social media, scripts for videos, themes for events or different ways of approaching a concept. Many times, AI does not have to give us answers, just a nudge to explore options that we may not have thought of.

• Developing scratch creative concepts: I believe that AI is useful for creating rough scratches, visual ideas or basic design directions. These can then be used by design teams that truly understand the brand, the audience and customers, to further develop into a creative concept.

• Analysis and repeating tasks: There are so many tasks that require organizing information, analyzing large amounts of data, and simplifying repetitive work. This really helps marketers focus on those activities that are relevant.

There is an important point to remember though, AI should help us think better not replace our need to think. Deep thinking is in fact going to become a very premium skill.

Where we need to be careful

Replacing all human creativity with AI tools: whether it’s a brand video, a campaign for social media, a marketing brochure, putting up an advertisement or a thought leadership article, the final brand asset should reflect an understanding of the audience and their needs. 

AI can absolutely help create these tools, but it should not be the only thing that’s shaping it. And this point becomes very important, when it comes to sharing articles written by senior leaders of a brand. These articles should be a reflection of their thoughts, and not some general sounding content piece.

We’re all seeing this on LinkedIn, such beautifully written posts but don’t really say anything or give a unique perspective to the person reading them. If we were to swap the names on top, most of the posts could have been written by anyone. And the same concept applies to brands! Customers should be able to immediately relate to a brand after reading its marketing materials.

What I believe marketers should be focusing on in 2027

• Instead of looking at how much content we are able to produce, we should start looking at how much of this content is valuable.

• Instead of only looking at how much cost is being reduced, we should be understanding if we’re able to make any authentic connections with our customers.

• And instead of simply using every new technology because it’s available, we should be looking at if it’s actually adding any value.

In 2027, it’s not about choosing between human creativity and AI capability. The most successful marketers are those that would be able to combine both. Utilizing technology to become more efficient, but making sure that time and effort is spent on making marketing meaningful: understanding people, developing original ideas, building trust and creating experiences worth remembering.

Marketing is not just about producing content, but rather about connecting with people. In a world where almost everything can now be generated, real and authentic human connections will become the most premium asset of any brand.