The Shark 13: 10 Marketing Predictions for 2027… Plus One Extra

We’ll Come Back in December 2027 and See How Wrong I Was

Every year, marketing changes.

But every few years, it feels like something bigger is happening.

I think 2027 could be one of those years.

AI is changing how people search. Social media is changing how people discover businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious of overly polished content. Algorithms are getting better at understanding context. And AI agents may soon start making some buying decisions on our behalf.

Here in Phuket, there’s another interesting shift happening.

Thailand’s tourism strategy is increasingly moving towards value over volume — focusing more on experiences, wellness, meaningful travel, personalisation and higher-value visitors rather than simply trying to get as many people through the airport as possible.

Put all of that together and marketing in 2027 could look quite different from the marketing we've grown used to.

So, I thought I'd put my neck on the line.

These are my 10 marketing predictions for 2027 — plus one extra.

I'm writing them down now.

And in December 2027, we'll come back to this article and see what I got right, what I got spectacularly wrong and what happened that none of us saw coming.

Here we go.

1. SEO Becomes AEO/GEO — But Websites Become MORE Important, Not Less

We've been hearing about the death of websites for years.

Now AI has given people another reason to predict it.

Why visit a website when you can simply ask ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI platform a question and get the answer immediately?

I actually think the opposite happens.

Websites become even more important.

The difference is who — or what — is reading them.

Traditionally, we thought about a website journey like this:

Google → Website → Customer

Increasingly, I think it becomes:

Website → Google / AI / Social / Agents → Customer

Your website isn't simply somewhere a potential customer goes to read about your business.

It's becoming the source material that machines use to understand your business.

What do you do?

Where are you?

Who are you suitable for?

What makes you different?

What experiences do you offer?

What questions do customers regularly ask?

Why should someone choose you?

The question businesses start asking won't simply be:

"Does our website rank?"

It will be:

"Does AI actually understand what we do?"

I think that's going to become one of the biggest marketing questions of 2027.

2. Ranking #1 on Google Becomes Less Important

For about 20 years, one of the easiest things for a digital marketing agency to sell has been:

"We'll get you to number one on Google."

And don't misunderstand me.

Google isn't disappearing.

SEO isn't disappearing.

Ranking well will still matter.

But I think the obsession with being #1 on Google starts to lose some of its power.

Because increasingly the question becomes:

"Will AI recommend you?"

Imagine you're coming to Phuket with your family.

Instead of Googling:

Phuket private boat tours

you ask:

"I'm staying in Bang Tao with two children. What's the best private boat trip in Phuket if we don't like crowds?"

The AI can potentially research the options, understand reviews, compare businesses and give you a handful of recommendations.

You may never see a traditional search results page.

That's a fundamental change.

Businesses will therefore start thinking less about simply ranking for keywords and more about whether search engines, AI systems and recommendation platforms understand, trust and recommend their brand.

3. AI Creates an Authenticity Crisis

This is probably one of my strongest predictions.

AI content is getting incredibly good.

Images.

Video.

Voice.

Copywriting.

Editing.

Presenters.

Advertising.

By the end of 2027, there could be an unbelievable amount of perfect content online.

And that's exactly why I think imperfection becomes valuable.

People will increasingly want to see:

• Real staff

• Real owners

• Real customers

• Real locations

• Behind the scenes

• Mistakes

• Phone footage

• Unscripted conversations

• Real weather

• Real personalities

  
  

Strangely, AI could make being human a competitive advantage.

A beautifully generated advert telling you how wonderful today's weather is in Phuket might be technically perfect.

But someone standing outside with a coffee saying:

"Bit cloudy today. Sea's actually pretty good though."

might actually be more believable.

People know businesses aren't perfect.

People aren't perfect either.

And I think the brands brave enough to show some personality, mistakes, humour and reality are going to become more trusted.

The more artificial content becomes, the more valuable authenticity becomes.

4. Employees Become the New Influencers

When we hear "influencer", we tend to think about someone with hundreds of thousands of followers.

I think that's changing.

Your next influencer could already work for you.

The chef.

The diving instructor.

The receptionist.

The dog trainer.

The boat captain.

The bartender.

The hotel manager.

The guide.

People connect with people, not logos.

And we're going to see more businesses deliberately developing personalities within their teams.

Instead of every piece of communication coming from:

ABC RESORT PHUKET

we'll increasingly hear from:

Dave the Chef.

Lek from the Front Desk.

Somchai the Guide.

And people will begin following them because they're entertaining, knowledgeable, funny or genuinely useful.

That personality then becomes associated with the business.

The smartest companies won't be frightened of their staff becoming personalities.

They'll encourage it.

5. Social Media Becomes a Search Engine Before It Becomes a Social Network

This is already happening.

But I think 2027 is when many businesses finally understand it.

People aren't just Googling:

Best breakfast Phuket

They're searching TikTok.

Instagram.

YouTube.

Google Maps.

And increasingly, AI.

That means social media content needs to become more searchable.

Captions like:

"Another beautiful day ❤️🌴"

might look nice.

But they tell a search engine almost nothing.

Compare that with:

"Weekend breakfast at our countryside restaurant in Phuket, surrounded by nature..."

Suddenly there's context.

What is this?

Where is it?

Who might be interested?

What search could it answer?

Social SEO becomes normal SEO.

Businesses stop seeing SEO as something their "website guy" does and start understanding that almost everything they publish online contributes to how discoverable they are.

6. AI Agents Become Customers

This is the weird one.

And potentially the biggest.

Imagine telling your AI assistant:

"Find me a five-star hotel in Phuket under 12,000 baht per night, near a quiet beach, with excellent reviews and suitable for two children."

Your AI researches it.

Compares hotels.

Checks reviews.

Looks at location.

Checks availability.

Shortlists three.

And eventually it might simply ask:

"Would you like me to book it?"

Marketing suddenly isn't just:

Human → Brand

It becomes:

Human → AI → Brand

That means businesses aren't only marketing themselves to people.

They're increasingly providing information that allows machines to evaluate whether that business is suitable for a person.

That's a completely different world.

Your next customer might effectively be a robot.

7. Followers Become One of Marketing's Most Overrated Numbers

This one might upset a few people.

But follower numbers are becoming increasingly meaningless without context.

Would you rather have:

100,000 followers who never buy anything?

Or:

2,700 people who live locally, regularly interact with your business, recommend you to friends and actually spend money?

I'll take the 2,700.

For years we've celebrated:

Followers.

Likes.

Views.

Impressions.

Reach.

And yes, they all have value.

But ultimately businesses need customers.

I think we'll increasingly move from:

Followers → Likes → Impressions

towards:

Attention → Action → Revenue

The question won't be:

"How many people saw it?"

It will increasingly become:

"What did they do next?"

8. Micro-Communities Beat Mass Audiences

This is especially interesting here in Phuket.

Traditionally, a tourism business might target something ridiculously broad like:

"People interested in Thailand."

That's millions of people.

Instead, marketing is going to get much smaller.

And much more relevant.

Think about:

Phuket mums.

Bangkok families.

Russian-speaking Phuket residents.

Yacht owners.

Phuket dog owners.

Triathletes.

Digital nomads.

Golfers.

Wellness travellers.

Expats living in Cherngtalay.

Families staying around Laguna.

These audiences are tiny compared with "people interested in Thailand."

But the message can be massively more relevant.

Instead of trying to shout louder at millions of people, smart brands will build relationships with smaller communities where their product actually matters.

Mass reach sounds impressive.

Relevance makes money.

9. Marketing Shifts From Selling Products to Selling Identity

People don't always buy what we think they're buying.

Someone isn't necessarily buying:

a hotel room.

They're buying:

"I'm the sort of person who disappears into the jungle for three days."

They're not necessarily buying:

a private boat tour.

They're buying:

"This is what our family did when we went to Thailand."

They're not necessarily buying:

a restaurant meal.

They're buying:

"Look where we're eating tonight."

This is where behavioural science becomes incredibly interesting.

People use purchases to tell stories.

To themselves.

To their friends.

To their families.

And, of course, to social media.

Thailand is already moving towards more meaningful, experience-led tourism rather than simply transactional tourism.

I think the businesses that understand this will stop simply marketing what customers get and start marketing how customers feel about themselves when they experience it.

10. "Real Life" Becomes a Marketing Channel

This sounds completely backwards when we're talking about the future of AI.

That's exactly why I think it happens.

The more time people spend online, the more valuable genuinely interesting offline experiences become.

Events.

Pop-ups.

Tastings.

Community nights.

Running clubs.

Dog events.

Chef's tables.

Boat gatherings.

Workshops.

People want reasons to get together.

But here's the clever bit.

Those offline experiences then create online content.

Someone attends a wine tasting.

They post it.

Someone sees the post.

They follow the venue.

They attend the next event.

They post about it.

Someone else discovers it.

So we get this fascinating marketing loop:

Offline Experience → Online Content → Online Community → Offline Experience

In an increasingly digital world, I think real life becomes a marketing channel again.

And One Extra Prediction...

11. The Word "AI" Becomes Bad Marketing

Right now, putting:

AI POWERED!!!

on something gets attention.

AI-powered software.

AI-powered marketing.

AI-powered hotels.

AI-powered customer service.

AI-powered everything.

By late 2027?

I think most consumers couldn't care less.

AI becomes infrastructure.

We don't advertise:

"EMAIL-POWERED BUSINESS!"

We don't proudly announce:

"CLOUD STORAGE-ENABLED HOTEL!"

They're simply tools businesses use.

I think AI eventually becomes the same.

Customers won't care that you used AI.

They'll care whether the experience was good.

Was the answer useful?

Was the service fast?

Was the recommendation relevant?

Was the product good?

Did someone solve my problem?

And strangely, while businesses stop shouting about how much AI they're using, they might start shouting much louder about something else:

the humans behind the business.

Which brings us right back to prediction number three.

Maybe one of the biggest marketing questions of 2027 won't be:

"How are you using AI?"

It will be:

"What did the human do?"

See You in December 2027

So there we have it.

10 marketing predictions for 2027, plus one extra.

Some of these already have momentum behind them.

Some I'm pretty confident about.

Some might turn out to be complete rubbish.

That's the fun of making predictions.

I'm not going to quietly delete this article if I'm wrong.

We'll come back in December 2027, go through all 11 predictions and score them.

Right.

Wrong.

Sort of right.

Or:

Jay, what the hell were you thinking?

Because marketing doesn't move in a straight line.

Technology changes.

People change.

Platforms change.

Algorithms change.

But one thing rarely changes.

Marketing is ultimately about understanding people.

AI might decide what people see.

Algorithms might decide what gets recommended.

Agents might even start making purchases for us.

But somewhere in that process there's still a human being who wants something.

An experience.

A solution.

A feeling.

A story.

A connection.

And the businesses that understand that will probably be the businesses that win in 2027.

Let's see how I did.

Jay Leshark

Shark 13 Productions

Written in August 2026. See you in December 2027.

Marketing Predictions for 2027