trends

2026 PMM Predictions: What's Coming This Year

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

New year, new predictions. Here’s what we think happens in product marketing this year.

1. “AI-Powered” Becomes Meaningless

By Q3, every product will claim AI features. The phrase “AI-powered” will have zero differentiation value. Smart PMMs will stop leading with it and start leading with outcomes.

Watch for: Messaging that focuses on what the AI does, not that it exists.

2. PMM Headcount Flat, Output Up

Companies won’t mass-fire PMMs, but they won’t backfill departures either. Remaining PMMs will cover more ground with AI assistance. Expect 1.5x output from the same team size.

Watch for: “Do more with less” becoming normalized.

3. The Rise of the PMM-Engineer

A new archetype emerges: the PMM who can build their own AI workflows. Not writing code, but chaining tools, building prompts, automating pipelines. They’ll be disproportionately valuable.

Watch for: Job posts asking for “AI fluency” or “automation experience.”

4. Customer Research Renaissance

With content creation accelerated, the bottleneck moves to insights. PMMs who can generate original customer understanding will be worth more than PMMs who can just package it.

Watch for: More PMM time in Gong, more customer interviews, more field time.

5. One Major AI Messaging Disaster

Some company will let AI generate customer-facing content without review. It’ll go wrong — factually, tonally, or legally. The backlash will reinforce human-in-the-loop workflows.

Watch for: The inevitable “AI gone wrong” news cycle.

Our Bet

The PMMs who win 2026 will be ambidextrous: fluent in AI tools and deeply connected to customers. The ones who lean too far either direction will struggle.

Let’s check back in December.

Gartner’s Marketing Predictions — Analyst perspective
[a]16z AI Trends](https://a16z.com/ai/) — VC perspective on AI market
Chief Martec — Marketing technology trends

What’s your prediction? Reply and we might feature it.