Why Being More Human Could Be Your Biggest Marketing Advantage From June 2026 Onwards

If you've spent any time researching marketing recently, you've probably noticed that almost every conversation eventually leads back to AI. AI-generated captions, AI-generated images, AI-generated emails etc.

At this point, it can feel like businesses are being told that the secret to better marketing is simply creating more content, more quickly, using more technology.

And whilst there's no doubt that AI can be an incredibly useful tool, some of the latest updates and conversations coming out of the social media world are pointing towards something quite interesting.

Originality is becoming valuable again.

Throughout 2026, Instagram has continued to place increasing emphasis on original content, meaningful engagement and understanding how audiences genuinely interact with posts. At the same time, we're seeing wider industry conversations around authenticity, storytelling and creator-led content becoming increasingly important as audiences become more aware of just how much automated content they're seeing online.

The funny thing is that none of this should really come as a surprise.

People have always connected with people.

They've always connected with stories.

They've always connected with personality.

The difference is that we're now reaching a point where consumers are being exposed to so much polished, automated and often generic content that genuine expertise and real experiences are starting to stand out again.

I see this all the time when working with businesses. The posts owners are often most hesitant to share are frequently the posts that perform best.

A quick video explaining a common customer question.

A behind-the-scenes photo.

A personal story about why the business started.

A lesson learned from a challenging project.

A genuine opinion on something happening within the industry.

Meanwhile, the perfectly polished graphic that took hours to create sometimes disappears into the background without much impact at all.

That's because people aren't scrolling social media looking for businesses.

They're scrolling social media looking for things that interest them.

Sometimes that's entertainment.

Sometimes it's education.

Sometimes it's simply content that feels relatable.

What it rarely is, however, is another generic sales message.

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is assuming that professionalism and personality can't exist together. They worry that showing the human side of the business will somehow make them appear less credible when, in reality, the opposite is often true.

Customers like knowing who they're buying from.

They like understanding the people behind the business.

They like seeing expertise demonstrated rather than simply claimed.

And perhaps most importantly, they like feeling that there's a real person on the other side of the screen.

This is particularly important for small businesses because you're often competing against larger companies with bigger budgets, larger teams and more resources. What those businesses can't easily replicate is your experience, your perspective and your story.

Nobody can tell your story better than you.

Nobody has worked with your customers in exactly the same way.

Nobody has learned the same lessons, solved the same problems or built relationships with clients in quite the same way.

Those experiences are valuable because they're unique and uniqueness is becoming increasingly difficult to manufacture.

That doesn't mean every post needs to be deeply personal or that businesses should abandon strategy altogether. Good marketing still requires planning, consistency and clear objectives. What it does mean is that businesses should stop hiding behind overly polished content and start recognising that their knowledge, experiences and personality are often some of their strongest marketing assets.

In many ways, I think the businesses that will perform best over the next few years won't necessarily be the ones producing the most content.

They'll be the businesses producing the most valuable content.

The businesses willing to answer questions.

The businesses willing to share insights.

The businesses willing to show the people behind the logo.

Because whilst technology continues to change at an incredible pace, human behaviour hasn't changed nearly as much.

People still buy from businesses they trust.

People still connect with stories and people still want to know that there's a real person behind the brands they choose to support.

Ironically, in a world becoming increasingly driven by artificial intelligence, being human may turn out to be one of the most powerful marketing advantages a business can have.