Marketing Buzzwords & Phrases to Avoid: 2026 Edition
Marketing that Matters 034: Year-End Reflections
Hey there,
Every year, marketing finds a new way to sound busy without actually saying much. This problem has now been supercharged, thanks almost entirely to ChatGPT and its friends.
To be fair, the models are getting better. The output is cleaner, faster, and more coherent than it was even a year ago. But the tells are still there. If you know where to look, you can spot AI-written marketing copy almost immediately. It explains instead of asserts, restates instead of decides, and adds words where they are not needed.
The result isn’t bad writing. It’s unnecessary writing. And marketing already has plenty of that. Brands, this is your opportunity to stand out. The cat is out of the bag, we’re all using AI to some degree, but it shouldn’t replace your ability to communicate clearly, consistently, and concisely.
Welcome to Marketing Buzzwords & Phrases to Avoid: 2026 Edition, a light housekeeping exercise for anyone who still believes words are supposed to do work.
If you missed last year’s list, you can find the 2025 offenders here. They have not aged well.
A Quick State of the Union on AI Writing
AI got a lot better again this year. That part is undeniable. It’s faster, cleaner, and somehow even more confident (which is scary). The biggest tell is no longer just grammar, but confident vagueness.
The writing sounds assured. The meaning… not so much.
This has clarified something important. Clear thinking is now the scarce resource, not competent prose. C+ content marketing was table stakes last year with AI’s help. Now I’d call it a solid B. How are you going to stand out?
You can start by avoiding the words and terms below.
The Headliner for 2026:
“It’s Not an X. It’s a Y.”
If 2024 was the Year of the Em Dash, 2025 was the year every deck, blog post, and founder LinkedIn essay confidently informed us:
“This isn’t an X. It’s a Y.”
It showed up everywhere.
“This isn’t a tool. It’s a platform.”
“This isn’t a feature. It’s a movement.”
“This isn’t software. It’s a mindset.”
Here’s the problem: Most of the time, it very much is still an X.
Calling something a Y doesn’t change how people buy it, who pays for it, how risky it feels, or how hard it is to roll out.
If your customer still evaluates, buys, and uses it like an X, then congratulations… you have an X.
The above phrasing construction doesn’t clarify. It’s brought disconnected weight to products, services and technologies where it doesn’t actually help cut through.
It dodges specificity while pretending to elevate the conversation.
If you need to explain what it isn’t before explaining what it does, that’s usually a sign the positioning isn’t good.
Please, No More “Paradigm Shifts”
This one should have died years ago, but it keeps reappearing (and often in conjunction with the format above). Unfortunately, your HR software technology is most likely not a paradigm shift.
Most good companies are shipping sensible, incremental improvements. That’s fine. That’s how progress actually works.
Calling it a paradigm shift doesn’t make it ambitious. It makes it sound unserious.
If something truly changes the rules:
Customers will say it for you
competitors will complain
Incumbents will resist
Until then, describe the change. You don’t mythologize it.
The Hopeful Goodbye to “Real-Time Insights”
Individually, these words are mostly harmless. Together, they have become meaningless.
Real-time now means:
Same day
Recently
Some time in the past year
Insights can mean:
Charts
Observations
Opinions
Vibes, thoughts, what AI told us
Put them together and you get a phrase that sounds important while committing to nothing.
If it’s actually real-time, say how fast. If it’s actually an insight, say what changed as a result.
Otherwise, you’re just narrating the existence of data. Like every other company. And yes, we have been very guilty of this one in the (not-so-distant) past.
Still Retired (Do Not Resuscitate)
These remain firmly on the no-fly list:
Reimagine
Reinvent
Redefine
“The new standard in [X]”
Foster
Delve (thankfully this seems to have remained with ChatGPT a few models ago)
Realm
What to Say Instead
This hasn’t changed, and it’s worth repeating. When you sit down to write something, or prompt your favorite AI assistant, have a think first.
What changed?
For whom?
Compared to what?
Why does it matter now?
What’s harder, faster, cheaper, or less risky as a result?
Answer those plainly and you won’t need any of the words above.
One Final Note
AI didn’t ruin marketing language. It just exposed how much of it was already on autopilot.
The upside? Clear, grounded, specific writing now stands out more than ever.
That’s good news for anyone willing to think before they type.
See you in 2026.
Yours in marketing,
Jeff