AI vs. reality
AI is not going anywhere, but we’re in a transition period for social media.
Feeds are being flooded with AI content, and though some AI content shows clever, creative use of the tools, currently a lot more is low quality, misleading or raises concerns on IP infringement, fuelling backlash from consumers.
In 2026, though ignoring AI entirely risks getting left behind, brands still need to tread carefully in how they use it to avoid sparking consumer backlash. Consumers are less likely to find fault with brands using AI for purposes that are seen as creative or innocuous e.g. inviting consumers to engage with AI to put their own spin on a product, personalising text in a way that is useful without being intrusive, or speeding up simple design tasks like reimagining backgrounds behind a real product image. However, they still value authenticity highly, so any cases that feel deliberately designed to trick users into believing something that’s not real, or cases that swap real human contact for something digital will be met with more negativity, and quality control will always need to be applied rigorously.
This is the picture for 2026, but as AI content gets more accurate and convincing, to a point where consumers are unable to tell the difference, brands may find it hard to ignore the cost savings of AI content generation.
At this point, the question will be what approach governments and social networks have taken to regulate the use of AI content, and whether they’ve been able to get there fast enough. Most social networks are opting for labels to flag AI content, and The Trade Descriptions Act already holds businesses accountable for whether AI depictions accurately represent a product, so it’s likely we’ll see more high-profile legal cases against companies that overzealously use AI and do not rigorously check the accuracy of their content.
Reels-first Instagram
Instagram has recently started testing a change in layout that opens the app directly to the reels feed for a subset of users. This decision makes sense for Instagram, since the algorithm has already been adapted to prioritise reels over still posts, given the rapid growth of the format since launching in 2020, and reels deliver 22.5% higher engagement than still image posts on average, according to Sprout Social's 2025 Content Benchmarks Report.
If the initial test leads to higher engagement and usage time, this layout may be rolled out more widely to all users and become the default approach. This would give brands a strong incentive to only post reels, or at least heavily upweight reels in their strategy, since users are less likely to manually switch back to a post tab. This may not have much impact on the strategies of larger brands, who are already primarily posting reels to capitalise on the engagement benefits, but for brands where production budget is limited, this poses a bigger challenge since video is more costly and time-intensive to produce than still imagery. This could mean we see more smaller brands turning to AI or micro-influencer partnerships to fulfil their video content needs on a limited budget.
Threads overtakes X
At the start of 2025, the debate was whether Threads or BlueSky was set to become ‘the new Twitter’, with Threads showing the largest audience numbers by a comfortable margin but BlueSky gaining more hype from high-profile users like journalists and celebrities.
Threads has seen strong growth over 2025 however, and now looks set to overtake X’s user numbers, with the most recent estimates suggesting Threads attracts up to 150 million daily active users. This is compared to user numbers of around 40 million for BlueSky, with growth rates having slowed in recent months compared to their peak at the end of 2024.
Meta has found differences in how users engage with Threads compared to Instagram, so is likely to dial back initial efforts to use Instagram data to recommend accounts to follow on Threads, and focus more on pushing features more akin to the way people previously used Twitter. This includes highlighting trending topics related to your interests, to become the go-to platform for real-time discussions and live news.
Meta has also heavily invested in releasing new features and functionality for Threads in 2025, including topic-based communities, disappearing Ghost posts, group chats and podcast promotion tools. We expect this focus on new features to continue, in order to boost usage rates for both consumers and marketers, and for the app to take a reactive approach to quickly removing features that don’t take off as it determines what the app’s core role within the social media landscape will be.
TikTok US & Mini Programs
The US TikTok sell-off saga has raged on throughout 2025, with many deadline extensions while the US government negotiates a deal with the app’s Chinese parent company, but at the end of October the US Treasury Secretary announced a ‘final deal’ had been agreed. This will mean TikTok’s 170 million US users will be moved to a separate version of the app, with an algorithm that has been retrained on US data.
This raises a few questions on the implications from a UK perspective. Firstly, for brands with a global presence, having one global channel for US & non-US viewers may not be possible, so brands will need to decide if their TikTok strategy merits running multiple channels for different territories.
Secondly, what impact will the US separation have on the trends viewed by UK users? TikTok’s algorithm is highly tailored to show users content relevant to their interests, so UK users are already likely to see more UK-focused content, but many viral trends currently originate from the US, given that it represents the app’s largest English-speaking userbase and dominates celebrity culture. With TikTok US set to be entirely separate, UK trends could become more localised or more influenced by countries beyond the US.
Another potential development for TikTok in 2026 could be a move towards ‘Mini Programs’ - integrations that allow users to carry out more of their day-to-day tasks without leaving the app, like ordering a takeaway or an Uber. This functionality is already commonplace in China through rival app WeChat, but adoption has been slower in Europe where users are less confident purchasing directly within a social media app. Now though, 44% of UK users have made a purchase directly through TikTok shop, so TikTok may be keen to become the UK’s ‘everything app’ by offering this type of convenient in-app service.
Social Search and the role of AI
Where once marketers could view search and social media as two distinct digital marketing channels, the lines have become increasingly blurred.
For one thing, many younger users are turning to social media or AI before Google, with 46% of Gen Z users and 35% of millennials saying they prefer to use social media for search over traditional search engines, particularly for categories such as fashion, beauty and lifestyle, recipes and entertainment.
TikTok in particular offers a strong opportunity for marketers, since 61% of TikTok search users say the search results they view on this platform are more likely to prompt them to take action compared to other platforms. Likewise, a study by WARC marketing effectiveness found advertisers that included TIkTok search ads in their campaigns experienced 2.2x uplift in purchases, thanks to the higher purchase intent behind search-based advertising.
Beyond direct social media searches, social media content now also has a more prominent role to play within the results returned by Google and various AI tools. In fact, a study by brand visibility platform Yext on the sources of AI recommendations found that 86% of AI citations from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity came from sources owned or managed by brands, including websites, listings and social media channels.
To ensure strong visibility, brands need to review which trends, topics and keywords are driving the highest search volumes for their industry, or where there is untapped potential from a keyword niche that competitors have not incorporated into their strategy. To maximise visibility, brands should use this research to inform their content planning strategy from the start, as well as optimising captions, titles and start-frames to tap into keyword trends.
YouTube TV
YouTube users now watch more content on their TV screen than on their mobile, and YouTube has a bigger share of usage than Netflix and Prime video.
To capitalise on this, YouTube is investing in features designed for viewers watching on the big screen, including larger thumbnails, immersive channel previews on the homescreen, contextual search for content discovery, and QR codes on shopping videos so viewers can easily buy what they see on screen via their mobile.
YouTube is also pursuing approaches to increase the variety and quality of long-form content on the platform, ideal for maximising TV viewership. This includes partnerships with ITV and Channel 4 to make full-length programming available via YouTube, and an enhanced focus on Podcasts, with YouTube now the UK’s most popular online audio service according to Ofcom.
However it’s worth noting that YouTube has seen the strongest growth in TV-based viewership from over 35s, so mobile screens remain a key viewing platform for younger users, and brands will need to balance their long-form and short-form strategy on the platform depending on the demographics of their target audience.
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