Marketing pros are going all-in on short-form video and AI
Short-form video is dominating marketing budgets in 2026, with new data revealing that the format now delivers the highest ROI of any content type and it's only pulling further ahead.
According to HubSpot's State of Marketing Report 2026, which surveyed 1,505 marketing professionals worldwide, 82% of marketers plan to either increase or maintain their video budgets this year. Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts are restructuring how brands communicate entirely.
Why short-form video is winning
The numbers are hard to argue with. Short-form clips are now outperforming every other content format in terms of return on investment, and significantly more marketers flagged video as their most valuable channel compared to last year's survey.
People aren't merely scrolling TikTok and Instagram for entertainment anymore. They're using them as search engines. As video increasingly displaces text in search results, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are eating into Google's territory. Brands that aren't showing up in that space are effectively invisible to a growing slice of their audience.
The AI problem
AI is making marketing teams more efficient than ever. 80% are already using it for content creation, and 67% say they're saving more than ten hours per week thanks to automation. On paper, that sounds great.
But with AI-generated content flooding every channel, 53% of marketers say they're struggling to stand out. The very tools that are boosting productivity are also making the internet a noisier, blander place, what some in the industry are already calling "AI slop."
Jennifer Lapp, Head of Growth DACH & LATAM at HubSpot, put it bluntly: "AI isn't the decisive marketing skill. Positioning is. Storytelling, customer insights, and community are the heart of sustainable growth."
Brands are fighting back with authenticity
In response to the content flood, marketers are doubling down on what AI can't easily fake. 61% say a clear brand point-of-view is more important than ever, and 63% are pushing for more unique, human-centered content. Meanwhile, 85% of companies are regularly revising their brand identity, most of them quarterly or annually.
The more AI automates, the more valuable genuine human creativity becomes.
Performance marketing is shifting too
Traditional search isn't looking so healthy either. 49% of marketers are seeing declining search traffic, while 58% report that AI-generated traffic converts with higher purchase intent. It's a complicated picture. Less volume, but potentially better quality leads.
Marketers are also under pressure to move faster than ever. 73% say they adjust campaigns within days or even hours of launching them. The days of setting a campaign and walking away are long gone.
The playbook is becoming clearer: use AI to handle the grunt work, then use the time it frees up to do the creative and strategic stuff that actually builds brands. The marketers winning in 2026 aren't the ones producing the most content. They're the ones producing content that feels like it came from a human, or better yet, actually did.