2026 Communications Trends: Sharper Voices Thrive as Tools Get Smarter
It’s the year when communicators should loudly and proudly articulate that their value isn’t in producing content – it’s in making sense of the world.
Faur Sight × Applied Comms AI
A joint edition for anyone navigating both the human and technical sides of modern communications.
This month’s piece is shared across Faur Sight and Applied Comms AI because the trends shaping 2026 cut across both worlds: the strategic, stakeholder-facing work of communicators, and the practical, hands-on reality of AI-driven workflows. This joint edition keeps the analysis in one place — clear, simple, and useful wherever you’re reading it.
So, without further ado…
The 2026 Landscape: Calm Heads Required
If 2025 was the year everyone rushed to “add AI” to their workflow – with decidedly mixed results – 2026 is the moment where organisations realise that technology alone doesn’t deliver clarity, trust or credibility.
Audiences are overwhelmed.
AI-generated content is everywhere.
The teams who stand out now are the ones who combine technical competence with unmistakably human judgment and practical experience – the thread that underpins every trend below.
Let’s dig in.
1. AI Quality Becomes a Communications Issue, Not a Tech Issue
2025 revealed a simple truth: the problem isn’t “AI,” it’s unreviewed AI.
We saw brands, government bodies, and media organisations publish content containing:
- Minor hallucinations
- Inaccurate details
- Generic voice (and ‘em dash’ controversies)
- Tone mismatches
- Contradictory statements
- Unintentional bias or outdated information
All because AI was treated as an autopilot, rather than a writing partner.
2025 example
Air Canada’s chatbot incident became a global case study. Their website’s AI system confidently generated an incorrect refund policy, and the courts held the airline liable. This wasn’t a tech failure; it was a communications failure rooted in poor oversight.
What to do now
Produce and regularly refine AI editorial standards, ensuring to review workflows and introduce solid governance protocols – nothing like a solid approval process! – before any damage is done.
2. Comms Moves Closer to Product: Explainability Becomes a Must-Have
In 2026, communicators will need to understand the mechanics behind their products, systems, and AI tools, since audiences now ask how things work, not just what they do. (I particularly enjoyed Elena Verna’s piece around this for the Elena's Growth Scoop newsletter.)
Regulators, journalists, customers, and employees all expect clarity around:
- Data use
- Algorithmic decisions
- AI-assisted processes
- Safety mitigations
- Risk trade-offs
If you can’t explain it, people are likely to assume the worst.
2025 example
Whenever Google has launched new Gemini updates, the company has faced intense scrutiny over how the model handles safety interventions – forcing Google’s comms, policy, and engineering teams to jointly publish explainers, breakdowns, and blog posts clarifying how the system works. It became a textbook case of comms and product joining forces, and a strengthened approach has been evident in the recent Gemini 3 launch announcement.
What to do now
Create “explainability summaries” for all major launches, especially where AI is involved. If your team can’t summarise it clearly, your audience definitely can’t interpret it confidently.
3. The Return of the Homepage (Owned Channels Matter, Yet Again)
AI-overviews reshaped search behaviours in 2025. Social platforms splintered further (a subject from my 2025 trends piece which was borne out, and then some). Algorithmic visibility became inconsistent at best, nonexistent at worst.
Organisations realised the platforms they don’t control can’t be relied upon for reach or accuracy.
Expect a renaissance in:
- Email newsletters
- Homepage updates
- Content hubs
- Owned community spaces
- Subscription ecosystems
2025 example
The New York Times and several major publishers doubled down on direct subscription products after reporting their lowest year of social referral traffic in a decade. Some outlets saw over 60% drops from platforms like Facebook and X – pushing them to re-centre their homepages and apps as the primary audience gateways. The increasing prevelance of Google’s AI Overview in its search results was reported to be causing ‘devastating drops’ back in the summer – and this direction feels only one way.
What to do now
Build owned channels like media assets: ensure that you combine consistent rhythm, clear value, strong UX, and direct relationships.
4. Executive Visibility Goes Multimodal (a.k.a Your Face Matters)
Leaders can’t communicate through text alone anymore.
Stakeholders expect faces, voices, and spontaneous human presence.
LinkedIn continues to be key for professional audiences, but the increasing amount of obviously AI-written content – we’ve all noticed it – has made audiences sceptical and more likely to scroll on past, unless you provide them with a near-instant reason not to.
The best-performing executive communication in 2025 leaned into authentic multimodal formats:
- Short video explainers
- 30–90 second audio updates
- Livestream Q&As
- CEO “voice notes”
- Behind-the-scenes walkthroughs
It wasn’t about polish – it was about being real.
2025 example
For its June 2025 WWDC rollout, Apple supplemented the keynote and press release with short video walkthroughs from senior product leads, 30-60s “feature explainer” reels, and conversational interviews across mainstream media. The multimodal mix helped demystify what could otherwise have been an opaque technical launch, and made the company and its C-suite team feel more approachable – iterating on a technique which Steve Jobs famously pioneered.
What to do now
Create low-friction setups for leaders – simple workflows, clear prompts, and formats that feel natural. This can be achieved through the simple, practical use of AI agents within the major providers, while ensuring an approval process with an extra pair of eyes before anything goes live.
5. Community Becomes a Strategic Asset, Not a Side Quest
Communities are increasingly where trust lives.
In 2025, brands that didn’t engage them honestly felt the consequences.
Communities aren’t audiences – they’re networks with their own norms, influencers, moderators, and internal logic. They require careful stewardship rather than broadcast tactics, especially since they can live within a complex network of differing platforms, ranging from familiar social platforms and Reddit through to private customised community platforms and WhatsApp channels.
2025 example
In 2025, local newsletters with subscriber models increasingly became the primary place residents go for timely, verified updates. Civic organisations and even local authorities began sharing information through newsletter writers because audiences trusted them more than official accounts or social platforms.
Here in the UK, you can see the same shift in action with the excellent Edinburgh Minute, whose founder I interviewed last year (and to which I’m a paid member myself, due to its concisely informative format). Its rapid growth and unusually high levels of trust show how community-led publishing increasingly shapes information flows – and why communicators need to treat newsletter creators and community stewards as core stakeholders, not optional extras.
What to do now
Treat community spaces the way you treat stakeholder groups: thoughtfully resourced, clearly governed, and genuinely engaged.
6. Human Insight Becomes the Differentiator Again
Here’s the thread running beneath every trend:
AI can generate content, but it cannot judge what matters:
- It can’t weigh political nuance…
- It can’t sense reputational risk…
- It can’t decide what to say at a tense town-hall meeting…
- It can’t feel the emotional temperature of a community...
- It can’t choose the one sentence that shifts a room…
…well, not most of the time, anyway, and certainly not reliably.
2026 is the year when communicators should loudly and proudly articulate that their value isn’t in producing content – it’s in making sense of the world.
2025 example
In 2025, for the first time, social media overtook TV as Americans’ top news source – a trend reflected across the world. Multiple studies show that audiences now rely more on human-led explainers than on institutional channels, for everything from product recommendations to understanding complex issues. People increasingly favour creators whose personality, consistency, and judgment they recognise – because they feel they have a relationship with them. It’s a powerful reminder that clarity, trust, and human voice are still what cut through the noise, and that organisations can replicate them by putting real people – and real judgment – at the heart of their communication.
What to do now
Invest in taste, narrative skill, stakeholder sense, and the human skills that AI can’t replicate. That’s your moat, both in the immediate and longer term.
Final Thoughts: 2026 Rewards the Thoughtful
These trends aren’t about chasing shiny tools and attention-grabbing gimmicks: they’re about building systems, workflows, and habits that deliver clarity, trust, and credibility:
- AI is now foundational.
- Owned channels are essential.
- Personally delivered communication is expected.
- Communities hold power.
- Human judgment binds it all together.
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