As the industry looks ahead to 2026, the conversation around AI, performance and the future of marketing is louder than ever. In a recent contribution to Performance Marketing World, Lewis Godliman, Senior Paid Social Manager at eight&four, shared why he believes the real disruption is happening beneath the waterline. His view is that we are only just beginning to understand the scale of change AI will bring, and that the coming year will challenge some of the most established assumptions in digital marketing.
According to Lewis, the traditional marketing funnel is one of the first models due for an overhaul. Customer journeys no longer move neatly from awareness to consideration to conversion, and treating them as linear stages is increasingly out of step with real behaviour. In 2026, he expects brands to adopt more fluid, behaviour-led frameworks that reflect how people actually interact with content, switch between platforms and make decisions.
AI, he argues, will be the catalyst for this shift. Rather than simply streamlining existing workflows, AI will reshape how teams plan, target and optimise. This will unlock stronger prediction, more meaningful personalisation and far greater automation of manual tasks. It will also free marketers to focus more on strategy and creativity while allowing campaigns to react dynamically to real-time signals.
For brands willing to rethink outdated structures and embrace what lies beneath the AI iceberg, the year ahead represents a major opportunity. Those that continue relying on legacy models may find themselves struggling to keep pace with an industry that is rapidly moving into a new era.
Read the full article on Performance Marketing World here.
