2026: The Year AI Separates the Winners…and the Losers

🎧 In this episode of the Trivera Deep Dive, Chip and Nova dig into why 2026 is the year AI stops being optional and becomes the dividing line between brands that move ahead and those that fade away. Pulling from Tom Snyder’s blog, they break down the three forces shaping the new marketing landscape, the behaviors separating leaders from laggards, and what teams need to do now to stay relevant.

You'll learn:
 ✅ Why generative engines are the new “front door” for customer discovery
 ✅ How GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) determines who shows up and who disappears
 ✅ Why avoiders, dabblers, and drivers won’t even be in the same race by mid-2026
 ✅ What AI fluency really means and why it's the new job security
 ✅ How teams can rethink workflows to win in an AI-driven economy

👉 Read the blog that inspired this episode:
 2026: The Year AI Separates the Winners and the Losers

Transcript

[Chip]
As we head into 2026, everybody knows AI is changing the game. But most folks still aren't sure what that actually means for their job or their business. 

[Nova]
And that uncertainty is exactly where many marketers and business leaders are about to be left behind. 

[Chip]
So stick with us, because today, we're digging deep into the forces where AI is about to separate the winners from the losers, and what you need to do to make sure you're on the right side. [upbeat music] 

[Speaker 2]
Welcome to Trivera's AI Deep Dive Podcast, hosted by Chip and Nova, our AI co-hosts. Together, they transform top marketing insights from our blogs, articles, and events into actionable strategies you can use. Ready to dive in? Let's get started. 

[Chip]
Welcome to a special edition of the Trivera Deep Dive Podcast. I am Chip, and I'm, uh, really fired up today, Nova, because our topic just nails exactly where we all really ought to be focusing right now. 

[Nova]
[laughs] I'm with you, Chip. I'm Nova, and, uh, today we are expanding on a blog written by our founder, Trivera's own president and CEO, Tom Snyder, titled 2026: The Year AI Separates the Winners and the Losers. 

[Chip]
And as part of Team Trivera, we see this happening in real time. This isn't theoretical. 

[Nova]
Not at all. And Tom's analysis is basically the roadmap for getting to the right side of that divide. So our mission today is simple. We're gonna pull out the key actionable things for you, our listener, so you can see the path forward. Because 2026, it's not just another year, is it? 

[Chip]
No, it's the moment of truth. It's where AI truly separates the leaders from everyone else. 

[Nova]
Tom really sets the scene well by talking about all the confusion out there. 

[Chip]
Oh, yeah, you've got business owners, marketers. 

[Nova]
Yeah. 

[Chip]
Everyone's all over the place. Some are terrified, some are avoiding it. 

[Nova]
And some are diving in headfirst. It's moving so fast. People are just frozen, you know, wondering if they should just wait and see. 

[Chip]
Which is the worst thing you can do. 

[Nova]
Mm-hmm. 

[Chip]
And that leads to Tom's core idea, this sort of good news, bad news paradox. 

[Nova]
Okay, let's hear it. 

[Chip]
The good news is you probably won't lose your job to an AI model itself. 

[Nova]
Okay, that's a relief. 

[Chip]
But the bad news, you absolutely will lose your job or your company will lose its market share to someone who knows how to use AI better than you do. 

[Nova]
That's the real threat. 

[Chip]
That is the critical distinction. 

[Nova]
Yeah. 

[Chip]
Tom's basically saying AI isn't optional anymore. It's the new layer for how work gets done, and more importantly, how your customers find you and decide if they trust you. 

[Nova]
Okay, so let's get into the first of those three big forces, Chip. This one is huge. 

[Chip]
Let's do it. 

[Nova]
Force number one, AI is now the front door for how customers find you. 

[Chip]
Mm-hmm. 

[Nova]
I mean, for years, Nova, we all poured everything into SEO, keywords, backlinks, all that stuff. 

[Chip]
The old world. Tom makes it clear that's not the only door anymore. 

[Nova]
And maybe not even the main one. 

[Chip]
Exactly. The whole way people discover things has changed. It's not just typing red shoes into Google. 

[Nova]
Right. 

[Chip]
People are asking full conversational questions to these generative engines, and those engines act as the new gatekeeper. They decide which brand gets to be the answer. 

[Nova]
So this whole idea of generative engine optimization, GEO, what does that actually require? Is it a totally new skillset? 

[Chip]
It is. I mean, it's a different way of thinking. GEO is all about how clear your information is, not just your technical signals. AI rewards four things- 

[Nova]
Yeah 

[Chip]
...above all else, clarity, structure, context, and trust. 

[Nova]
Clarity and context I get, but how do you build trust in a way an AI can understand? 

[Chip]
It's not just about who links to you anymore. It's about being seen as a factual authority. If your content is just a big wall of text or it's vague- 

[Nova]
Yeah 

[Chip]
...the AI can't interpret it. 

[Nova]
It can't process it confidently. 

[Chip]
Right. And if it can't trust your information, it won't ever show it to a user. So Tom's point is, if the AI can't understand you, your customers will never find you, period. 

[Nova]
Wow, and the example he uses with the two manufacturers just makes it so real. 

[Chip]
It really does. 

[Nova]
Yeah. 

[Chip]
So you have manufacturer A still doing things the old way, 2014 style. 

[Nova]
Keyword stuffing, vague headlines, writing for eyeballs, not for, uh, machine comprehension. 

[Chip]
Exactly. And then you have manufacturer B, they get GEO. 

[Nova]
So their site is structured with clear topics, direct answers. It's clean for a human, but it's perfect for an AI to read. 

[Chip]
Perfect. So now a buyer asks their AI assistant, "Who makes reliable custom metal parts in Wisconsin?" 

[Nova]
And only manufacturer B shows up. The other one might as well not exist. 

[Chip]
That's the divide. It's immediate and it is absolute. The winner is the brand the AI can understand and trust. The loser just vanishes. 

[Nova]
That is a staggering difference, Chip. So, okay, that's visibility, but what about what happens inside the company? That brings us to Tom's second point, right? The three groups. 

[Chip]
Yes. This is where the gap gets even wider. It moves from just being found online to, you know, how you actually operate. 

[Nova]
Tom calls them the avoiders, the dabblers, and the drivers. 

[Chip]
And it's not about how smart they are, it's about their methodology. 

[Nova]
Let's start at the bottom with the avoiders. 

[Chip]
The avoiders are just hoping this is all a fad that'll blow over. They run the exact same playbook they did five years ago. 

[Nova]
Their strategy is denial. 

[Chip]
Pretty much. And they're just hoping their competitors are as slow as they are. They are frankly gonna disappear from relevance first. 

[Nova]
Okay, then you have the middle group, the dabblers. Chip, don't you feel like a lot of companies are here right now? 

[Chip]
They are, and it's maybe the most dangerous spot to be in. Dabblers are curious, but they're not committed. 

[Nova]
They use it for a funny email draft or something. 

[Chip]
Right. Or they throw one AI headline in the campaign, but they never build a real process around it. They're using it like a toy, not a foundational tool. 

[Nova]
So they just drift. They never get a real advantage from it. 

[Chip]
Zero advantage, 'cause they're not being strategic. And then, Nova, you have the drivers. 

[Nova]
The ones who really get it. They don't see it as just another tool. 

[Chip]
They see it as a force multiplier. They're building it into everything, research, planning, writing, analysis.... you name it. 

[Nova]
They're building advantages their competition won't even see coming. 

[Chip]
Not until it's way too late. And Tom's prediction is stark. He says by mid-2026, these three groups won't even be in the same race anymore. 

[Nova]
Let's make that concrete. The example of the three marketing teams launching a campaign. 

[Chip]
Yeah. Okay. Team A, the avoiders. 

[Nova]
Mm. 

[Chip]
They do everything by hand. Weeks of writing from scratch, guessing on messaging. Everything is slow. 

[Nova]
Okay. Team B, the dabblers. They try to speed it up a little. They feed some text into a generic AI and ask it to make this better. 

[Chip]
And they might get a few decent lines, but they skip the most important part. 

[Nova]
Mm-hmm. 

[Chip]
They didn't use AI for the deep strategic work like mining customer language or testing different angles. 

[Nova]
Right. But Team C, the driver team. 

[Chip]
They bake AI into the whole process from the very beginning. They use it to analyze thousands of customer reviews to find the exact language buyers use. 

[Nova]
They test campaign angles with AI before a human writes a single word. 

[Chip]
So they launch faster, their message is way more accurate, and they learn and adapt quicker. 

[Nova]
The winner builds AI into the entire process. The losers are stuck guessing. 

[Chip]
And that idea of strategic depth leads perfectly into the third force, which is all about the people. 

[Nova]
AI skills becoming the new job security. 

[Chip]
Exactly. Tom says we have to stop thinking AI replaces people. That's the wrong frame. 

[Nova]
It replaces slow work. It replaces outdated habits. 

[Chip]
That's the mindset shift. All the value is shifting to teams that have what he calls AI fluency. It's not just about writing a prompt. 

[Nova]
It's about how to think with AI, how to challenge it, combine your own judgment with its speed. 

[Chip]
Yes. And companies full of those people just move faster. They communicate better. They make smarter decisions. AI fluency becomes the new baseline for being competitive. 

[Nova]
The example of the two marketing managers is so good here. They're both asked for a customer insight report from the same big pile of data. 

[Chip]
Right. Manager A is drowning, days in spreadsheets pulling charts, just guessing at the story because there's too much information. 

[Nova]
But Manager B is AI fluent. 

[Chip]
Manager B uses AI to find the big trends in minutes to summarize all the qualitative feedback. Then they apply their human expertise to craft the story. 

[Nova]
So they deliver a sharper report in a fraction of the time. 

[Chip]
But it's not just about speed, Nova. It's about quality. When their boss asks tough questions, Manager B has better answers because they've already pressure tested the data with AI. 

[Nova]
That person is just delivering more strategic value constantly. 

[Chip]
And the person who can't do that starts to look slow. They look out of touch. 

[Nova]
The winner uses AI to raise the level of their thinking. 

[Chip]
Yeah. 

[Nova]
That's a huge personal advantage. 

[Chip]
It is. Okay. So Nova, we've got three forces. GEO is the new front door. You have the three groups separating, and fluency is the new job security. 

[Nova]
Yep. All great analysis. We've laid out the whole landscape. But how can marketers and business leaders take advantage of that and actually start winning? 

[Chip]
By staying tuned, because after the break, we switch from analysis to action. [instrumental music] Hard to believe, Nova, 2025 is almost over. Marketers and business owners need a solid digital marketing plan in place now for 2026. 

[Nova]
Absolutely, Chip. The digital landscape is moving fast. Websites, SEO, GEO targeting, content, analytics, AI. 

[Chip]
Since 1996, smart marketers have partnered with Traveria for high performance websites and ROI-driven digital strategy using the latest proven tools, and now 30 years of expertise. 

[Webster]
And I should know. I'm Webster, Traveria's AI assistant and agent, just one of the AI tools that power our work. AI-assisted content, fully trained AI agents, predictive analytics, and 24/7 optimization, and one of the tools we use to drive client performance. 

[Nova]
And it all starts with smart strategy and rock solid website development built for results, not noise. 

[Chip]
For a smarter digital ecosystem, stronger engagement, and measurable ROI, visit traveria.com. 

[Webster]
Achieve your potential in 2026 with digital marketing that converts. 

[Speaker 2]
Welcome back to Traveria's AI Deep Dive. Now, back to our conversation with Chip and Nova. 

[Nova]
Okay. So how do we shift from analyzing the, the AI forces that will define winning in 2026 to actually making meaningful progress toward posting that win? What does Tom say leaders need to do, like right now, to make sure they're on the winning side of all this? 

[Chip]
The urgency is the key message. Tom is basically shouting that waiting is no longer safe. It is the single riskiest thing you can do. 

[Nova]
Okay. So what does the winning strategy look like? What do they need to rethink? 

[Chip]
Four main things. First, they have to rethink how they work from top to bottom, building AI into the daily rhythm. 

[Nova]
Second would be the content strategy, right? The GEO piece. 

[Chip]
Exactly. Rebuilding it so AI can actually understand it. Third is designing workflows where humans and AI actually help each other. 

[Nova]
Not replace each other. 

[Chip]
Right. And fourth, you have to invest in clarity and structure so you show up where your customers are actually looking now. 

[Nova]
And the losing companies, the avoiders and dabblers, they're just doing the opposite. 

[Chip]
They're sticking to the old manual ways, guessing at what customers want and just moving so slowly. 

[Nova]
They're just repeating old habits and what? Hoping their competitors aren't moving any faster. 

[Chip]
It's a strategy of hope, and that is a terrible strategy right now. Winning companies know they can't guess their way through this. 

[Nova]
So they're looking for partners, for expertise to help them make that jump. 

[Chip]
Absolutely. 

[Nova]
Yeah. 

[Chip]
You have to. Winning companies find partners who just get this new world. 

[Nova]
People who know how AI reads content, how it decides what to show someone. 

[Chip]
And critically, Nova, how to integrate these tools into real workflows to actually improve speed and quality.They're buying fluency and strategy, not just another piece of software. 

[Nova]
In every one of these points, Chip, Tom shows a clear winner and a clear loser. This isn't some far-off future, it's happening now. 

[Chip]
It is. And that's exactly where we, Team Trivera, are focused. 

[Nova]
We're already in that winning lane. 

[Chip]
We are. We're not waiting for 2026. We are building the systems to win there right now, for ourselves and for our clients. We are rebuilding content so generative engines can cite it. 

[Nova]
We're structuring everything for GEO, so that visibility is a given in this new world. 

[Chip]
And we used AI to make every strategic step stronger, from research and messaging to planning and production. 

[Nova]
It's about making sure speed and quality go up at the same time. 

[Chip]
Our whole mission is to align marketing teams with how search and discovery really work today. You need to make sure you don't look slow or invisible next year, you just ... You can't do it alone. 

[Nova]
The final warning from our founder, Tom's blog, and it's so simple, Chip, but it's really profound. Falling behind isn't about AI replacing you. 

[Chip]
No. 

[Nova]
It's about you choosing to ignore the massive changes happening right in front of your face. 

[Chip]
That choice to ignore it, that's the real danger. 

[Nova]
So remember this, AI isn't the job killer, ignoring AI is the job killer. 

[Chip]
Wow. Powerful and so true, Nova. And if this Deep Dive has resonated with you and you're feeling that, uh, sense of urgency to look at your own team's strategy, you are definitely not alone. Trivera's clients have been busy working with our team to get ahead of these shifts and build AI into their marketing for 2026. It's not too late for you to do the same, but now is the time to start. [clears throat] Go to our website, trivera.com, have a chat with Webster, our AI agent, to see what we can do for you. When you're ready, have him connect you with Jamie Rinehart and take that important next step to getting clarity, direction, and a real plan for the new year ahead. 

[Nova]
Make sure you download, subscribe, and please share this Deep Dive with anyone else on your team who needs to understand the AI divide. Until next time, keep diving deep. 

[Chip]
We'll see you next time. 

[Speaker 2]
Thanks for joining us on Trivera's AI Deep Dive with Chip and Nova. If you enjoyed this episode, you can find more and stay up-to-date with new episodes wherever you listen to podcasts, or find them on our website and our social media channels. And don't forget to visit us at trivera.com to learn how we can help take your marketing to the next level. Ready to talk? Reach out, we'd love to hear from you. See you next time. [upbeat music]