Five shifts every direct selling executive needs to understand right now.
Two years ago, the promise of AI for marketing was simple: do more, faster, cheaper, better. And on most counts, we delivered. More content? Absolutely. Faster turnaround? Without question. But better? That’s the one we need to talk about.
When every marketing team on earth gained access to the same tools at the same time, those tools became the baseline. So now the real question is whether the AI you’re using is effective.
I reviewed hundreds of pages of research across major marketing reports to identify the shifts that matter most for 2026, and five stood out. There are real threats to how direct selling companies have traditionally operated, but there are also major opportunities—and many play directly to the industry’s strengths.
Shift 1: The Anti-Slop Rebellion
I have to be upfront here. I am one of AI’s biggest advocates. I have pushed teams to adopt AI; trained them on how to use it; and genuinely believe it remains one of the most powerful tools available to marketers. But I also predicted that the moment Large Language Models (LLMs) went mainstream, a counterculture would emerge, and the data now confirms it.
The term “slop” refers to low-effort, AI-generated content, and mentions of it grew more than 200 percent in 2025. One in three B2C brands is at risk of eroding customer trust through poorly implemented AI. And 52 percent of marketers now say AI made content easier to create but less effective overall.
Here’s the good news for this industry. Direct selling is built on human relationships and authentic recommendations from real people. The rest of the marketing world is desperately trying to manufacture what direct selling has been doing for decades. The industry doesn’t have to invent authenticity. But it must protect it.
Shift 2: Is the Search Over for Search?
For 25 years, the goal in digital marketing was to rank number one so a user would click your link. The next generation of this, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), is built around a different goal entirely. Instead of convincing an algorithm your page is popular, you need to become trusted enough for an AI to cite you as a source of truth.
Capgemini found that 58 percent of consumers have replaced traditional search engines with GenAI tools for product recommendations. Yet Gartner’s most recent data shows only one-third of consumers believe GenAI rivals traditional search. So, is SEO dead? No, the reality is that both SEO and GEO matter. But brands that aren’t thinking about GEO yet are already falling behind.
Shift 3: The Creator Economy Continues
Influencer marketing investment grew 171 percent year-over-year in 2025, with enterprise brands now spending between $5.6M and $8.1M annually on creator programs.
But the more interesting shift is in how those creators are getting paid. Brands are moving away from flat-fee deals and toward affiliate and performance-based compensation tied directly to actual results. Real people selling through trust, earning based on what they produce. Sound familiar? The broader marketing world is arriving at something that looks a lot like the direct selling model.
Shift 4: The Feed Is the Storefront
Social commerce is projected to cross $100B in US sales this year, growing 18 percent year over year. It’s also predicted that in 2026, half of all social media shoppers will make a purchase through TikTok. The top-selling categories are health, wellness, beauty and household products. For many direct selling companies, that overlap is impossible to ignore.
This shift carries both enormous opportunity and real urgency. Today, a solo creator with a ring light and a TikTok account can sell wellness products to millions of people without a downline, a team or any of the infrastructure that direct selling companies have spent years building. They are doing what distributors do. The companies that figure out how to equip their people to show up where buying happens will be the ones that win.
Shift 5: The IRL Renaissance
Over the past decade, the direct-to-consumer world went all in on performance marketing. Every dollar was measured. Every campaign optimized for conversion. And brand building took a back seat. Then acquisition costs skyrocketed, targeting got harder and those brands found themselves with no loyalty and no story. Now McKinsey reports that 72 percent of CMOs are increasing brand-building budgets relative to performance spend.
Branded live events are surging, and 75 percent of attendees say immersive experiences help them disconnect from technology and engage more meaningfully.
But direct selling never fully stepped away from brand and community. National conventions, team retreats and product launches have always been central to how the industry operates. That is a real advantage right now. But the brands winning in this space are raising the bar by designing those experiences so that what happens in the room also becomes the digital story.
The Road Ahead
Direct selling has real advantages heading into this moment. But advantages don’t move the needle on their own.
AI-generated content is eroding trust across every industry, and the brands that lean too hard on it will lose what makes them credible. The way consumers discover and search for products is fundamentally changing, and if a brand isn’t showing up in AI-generated answers, a growing number of buyers won’t find it at all. Social commerce has moved the storefront into the feed, whether the industry is ready or not.
These shifts are already the environment direct selling is operating in today. The only question is whether leaders will be intentional enough to act on them.
KATHLEEN ROSS is a fractional CMO and AI educator with over 15 years of experience driving brand growth for startups and Fortune 5000 companies. She is known for spotting whitespace opportunities, executing large-scale campaigns and events and building high-performing teams.
From the May/June 2026 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
The post The State of Marketing in 2026 first appeared on Direct Selling News.
