The Future of Content Marketing: Your 2026 Guide

Is your content marketing strategy ready for 2026? The rise of AI is reshaping how content is created and distributed. At the same time, buyers are becoming increasingly skeptical, which is raising the bar for content relevance and authenticity. To stay visible, insurers will need to evolve quickly and intentionally. Here’s a look at five content marketing trends that will define the year ahead.

1. AI Will Continue to Impact Search

Whether consumers are still using Google or they’ve switched to ChatGPT, AI now plays a major role in what they see. For businesses that rely on search for discoverability, this has been a gamechanger.

In 2026, we can expect this trend to continue. As of October 2025, approximately 50% of Google searches had AI summaries, according to McKinsey & Company, and this figure is expected to hit 75% by 2028.

How can businesses adapt? The shift to AI search can be scary for businesses, especially when they see their traffic plummet as a result. However, it’s not time to throw in the towel. Marketers now need to figure out how to get chatbot mentions, a tactic dubbed Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

2. Human-Centric Content Will Remain Critical

According to Search Engine Journal, Google’s Danny Sullivan says Google’s rankings are designed to prioritize human-optimized content.

As marketers adapt to AI-powered search, they may be tempted to lean on AI to power content development. However, it’s important to remember the human element. Yes, content that is crafted with AI in mind can help with discoverability in the age of AI search, but the goal is still to attract human audiences, so your content still needs to appeal to them.

To see why this is important think about keyword stuffing. In the early days of SEO, some marketers tried to manipulate search rankings by overloading their pages with keywords, some of which weren’t even relevant. Readers saw through it quickly, and search engines developed ways to penalize the tactic. Marketers had to find the right balance then, just as they will today.

How can businesses adapt? People still want what they’ve always wanted – information that helps them solve their problems, in a format that’s easy to understand. Focusing on these fundamentals will help you creating a winning, long-term strategy.

3. Sellers Will Need to Take a Backseat

The marketing funnel is changing. According to 6sense, 69% of the purchasing process now takes place before B2B buyers even engage with sellers, and 81% of buyers have already chosen their preferred vendor before they speak with the sales department.

Buyers are in the driver’s seat, and in 2026, sellers need to learn to hand over the keys.

How can businesses adapt? B2C and B2B buyers don’t want to be sold. They want to conduct their own research and make their own choices. Businesses can support this by providing high-quality content that supports buying decisions and nudges buyers in a smart direction – think in-depth white papers and decision trees.

4. Prospects Will Get Sick of Slop

With so much AI-created content, it’s hard to know what’s real anymore. In fact, there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to trying to figure out whether or not something is AI.

When people suspect that content is AI-generated, they’re not always pleased. Sentiment toward AI is very mixed right now, but in general, people are growing more wary. According to Pew Research Center, 50% of U.S. adults are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021, and only 10% are more excited than concerned, down from 18% in 2021.

As the novelty of AI wears off, people are growing tired of low-effort AI content. It’s quite telling that Merriam-Webster chose “slop” – defined as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence” – as its 2025 Word of the Year. 

How can businesses adapt?. According to Forbes, Coca-Cola received criticism and calls for boycotts after releasing AI-generated Christmas ads. Other businesses that rely on AI to generate content also risk alienating a large segment of their target audience. Although marketers will no doubt continue to use AI in 2026, they’ll need to do so in a way that doesn’t come off as low effort, which may involve more use of behind-the-scenes applications to improve strategy or quality and less use of purely AI-generated content.

5. Businesses Will Need to Diversify Their Marketing Strategies

Which of the following is true?

• New spam filters mean that email marketing is dead, and businesses need to focus more effort on social media.
• Evolving algorithms mean that social media marketing is dead, and businesses need to focus more effort on optimizing their own websites.
• Reduced website search traffic means that SEO is dead, and businesses need to focus on email.

You’ve probably heard all of these claims at some point, but if they’re all true, what’s left for marketers?

While all three claims contain a small kernel of truth, none of them are entirely accurate. The truth lies somewhere in between: Nothing is dead, but everything is evolving.

If you rely on a single channel to drive your marketing, any changes to that channel can be hugely disruptive to your business. Businesses can reduce the impact of inevitable changes by diversifying their strategy.

How can businesses adapt? It’s not a question of whether you should use email, social media, direct mail or SEO – it’s a question of how you can use multiple channels, and complementary strategies to create a resilient marketing plan.

Is your business positioned to succeed in 2026? Inbound Insurance Marketing is your source for high-quality, human-centric insurance and insurtech content.