Alternative options to Ai and Automation with the ABRF

The marketing landscape moving from 2025 into 2026 will increasingly focus on AI, automation, influencers, and higher spending across a select number of platforms to enhance responses and foster trust. In recent years, marketing operations have become overly exposed to the prevailing geopolitics. In fact, marketing is the business function most vulnerable to geopolitical fluctuations, resulting in volatility and uncertainty. Marketing however, continues to be regarded primarily as a performance channel rather than a strategic risk area significantly influenced by global power conflicts, dependencies, and the political narratives of national and regional blocs.

Prominent digital platforms like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, X, and YouTube are trusted and expected to deliver results. However, these platforms, while potentially effective, may also lead to lost opportunities due to their operations under stringent regulatory oversight, national scrutiny, supply chain limitations, and, in some instances, outright distrust. This scenario is particularly true within the current geopolitical climate, where nations are aligning within a new bipolar world order, embroiled in conflicts involving Ukraine, NATO, Venezuela, and Israel.

The trends in 2026 will heavily rely on AI-driven automated platforms, which minimize corporate personnel involvement but make brands reliant on untested systems designed for maximum performance, potentially jeopardizing risk management and long-term brand health. Geopolitics is no longer a minor issue; it is now a major factor in how the great powers and their corporate citizens, the USA, China and Russia, relate to and work with each other. This partisanship diminishes leverage and the effectiveness of campaigns.

Maximum reach and responses do not necessarily generate trust or loyalty. Influencers and visible marketing often yield weak or no responses because decision-makers are few, and audiences are increasingly poorer or strained by excessive business costs. Consequently, sustaining corporate authenticity at scale becomes more challenging, and trust remains elusive.

Other Solutions

It is essential to investigate pertinent questions about alternative solutions in terms of reaching targets and content impact. Each potential marketing opportunity should be evaluated to determine if it can effectively bridge the gap from ‘A’ to ‘B.’ What are the associated costs versus the risks? Do these options align with internal goals, business plans, and objectives? Can they support a sustainable campaign? What are the anticipated benefits and value? Additionally, do they fit into the company’s broader strategic plan for corporate and shareholder interests? Finally, is the approach driven by AI and automation, or is it led by professional expertise?

AI lacks awareness of your company and the continually evolving geopolitical landscape. As a result, bold marketing strategies are necessary in this unstable environment. Traditional platforms and media, where they still exist, might serve as excellent options and value-adding alternatives, especially if there is a history of performance and success and if free trials are available for potential customers to evaluate effectiveness. Brand popularity should not dictate the consideration of alternative solutions. Decisions regarding alternatives should not be influenced by brand reputation, as some of the smallest and most obscure marketing platforms have achieved significant performances and success, reinforcing the idea that “good things come in small parcels.”

Nothing builds trust more effectively than direct relationships. Personal connectivity empowers individuals to assess and judge volatility and stability within the marketing ecosystem, allowing for greater impact and empowerment. It provides complete control over the narrative and marketing tools, enabling the management of prospects on the other side of the reaction chain. This approach allows for the determination of outcomes and strategies.

Personal connectivity marketing can also be measured more effectively over time. This process has the potential to generate business-changing opportunities in the short, medium, and long term.

Although marketing in 2026 is expected to be increasingly automated and driven by artificial intelligence, there will still be significant value in navigating political and geopolitical constraints through traditional trade journals and media platform marketing. Companies that successfully leverage these alternatives will be those that communicate clearly, think strategically, and build sustainable connections that hold meaning. To compete effectively against larger and rich corporations, it will be essential to utilize alternative media and focus on human-driven efforts rather than relying solely on AI and automation. Such media and personal relationships enable active participation within the ecosystem, allowing for the influence of progress and collaboration with promotion teams to move prospects closer to becoming satisfied, loyal customers for life.

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