Reading Between the Lines at CES 2026
CES 2026 reminded us that as the tools keep changing, the human part still decides what works, and how.
CES has a reputation for spectacle. Big screens. Bigger claims. The future arriving every January in Las Vegas.
What struck us at CES 2026, though, was something finer: a set of recurring ideas and a pattern that cut through that helped clarify where marketing is really heading.
Attention has become conditional
One of the most persistent myths in marketing is that attention spans are collapsing. The reality is more subtle and more demanding.
Sessions focused on Gen Z made this clear: people will engage for longer than we expect, even inside short-form environments, if the content earns it. It also pre-empts a comeback of longer form content that captures viewers’ attention and intrigue from the outset. Gen Z watching long-form storytelling on TikTok is proof that relevance means more than format.
The implication for brands may be as uncomfortable as it is useful. The problem isn’t length. It’s value. Content that feels “engineered” to the user (and therefore feels hollow or irrelevant) gets skipped; content that teaches, entertains or surprises gets time and traction.
Storytelling, it turns out, is still doing the heavy lifting.
Creators are a medium
Another recurring theme was the shift from brand-owned media to creator-led storytelling. Creators succeed because they understand their audience’s culture, but simultaneously struggle with brand messaging that doesn’t feel authentic or in line with what their audience usually expects.
So, how have brands used creators most effectively? By providing the why and letting the creators own the how. Control (by the brand in the creators’ messaging), ironically, was framed as the thing that breaks authenticity fastest.
That doesn’t mean you have to suddenly start “doing TikTok”. Rather, it’s a reminder that credibility increasingly comes from proximity to human voices as opposed to polished brand output.
AI raises the bar for meaning
AI was everywhere at CES, but credible voices were the cautious ones.
Across sessions, AI was positioned as a powerful tactical tool for refining briefs, pressure-testing thinking, accelerating iteration and removing friction. Well-written copy, acceptable visuals, passable ideas – AI generates them all on demand. In other words: AI can make competent execution cheaper and easier. What’s more interesting is that the fear has changed. What was once perceived as a creativity crisis has instead become a crisis of meaning.
Trust came up repeatedly. AI systems are inconsistent and answers vary. Hallucinations happen, too. These reasons, among others, are why governance, human review and ethical guardrails are needed not only to ensure accuracy, but also to elevate the meaning behind its use in the first place. Studies and data offer insights into scaling output without protecting credibility, showing brands will end up paying for it later, one way or another.
In essence, the phrase we’ve all heard before (or along similar lines) rings true: used well, AI can help to sharpen thinking; used lazily, it not only erodes trust and credibility, which is bad enough as it is, but additionally creates more confusion and less meaning. The growing volume of “AI slop” perfectly captures the point. When everything is easy to make, real creativity and meaning is what stands apart.
Experience and incrementality take the reins
One of the clearest shifts was the move away from linear funnels toward experience-first thinking. Buyers no longer progress neatly from awareness to conversion as we once learned in our lessons on the conversion funnel. They now move in moments, driven by intent, emotion and context. And that’s where we find our attribution troubles worsen.
This has two consequences:
● Discovery now happens across a wider ecosystem and surface area (including AI interfaces and creator content)
● Measurement and attribution get even messier (as if not already challenging enough)
Even global brands admitted attribution is still hard. The word of the day, ‘incrementality’ (understanding what marketing genuinely adds beyond what would’ve happened anyway), has become more favoured and more useful than last-click certainty.
Trust is still as important as ever
Trust has always had intrinsic value, but it isn't one-dimensional. At CES, brands consistently framed trust as less of a rusted on “brand metric”, but as an active growth driver in the market.
Gen Z (and increasingly everyone else, naturally) is sceptical by default, so trust must be earned through usefulness, consistency and participation. Community, co-creation and transparency directly influence engagement, conversation, data sharing and conversion.
While AI mediates discovery, trust is the filter through which brands are chosen.
What this all really means (for you)
CES 2026 didn't reveal a single breakthrough, rather it reinforced the mindset shift we’ve been gradually experiencing over time.
Our advice:
● Focus less on funnels and more on designing experiences
● Invest in creative differentiation
● Measure incrementality
● Forget vanity metrics
● Treat trust as a commercial asset
● Don’t outsource creativity and meaning to AI
We are seeing a clearer picture of the future, and that means focusing on helping clients to build connected, experience-first systems that work smarter across brand, creative and digital.
If you design for how people really behave, the technology finally starts working (smarter) for you.