The Community Comeback: Why Digital Communities Matter in 2026

And Why Meta Risks Losing It To AI Slop

By 2026, the internet’s core problem won’t be a lack of information. It will be an overabundance of it. Generated, duplicated or overly optimised. The result is a credibility crisis: people are surrounded by information, but increasingly unsure what (or who) to trust.

I’m predicting that communities, with real people, will thrive in 2026. I saw it myself when I founded a community this year that gathered 850 people in about 8 months. We shared human-made content, online training videos without an AI avatar involved and live sessions and masterclasses. It clicked. And it thrived: people clearly appreciated it and came back for more.

Communities are becoming the last “clean room” on the internet: a place where expertise is visible, and trust is key.

Meta’s playbook is no longer working

Meanwhile, Big Tech’s default playbook (maximize engagement, simplify and automate creation, flood the feed, monetize attention) runs straight into the wall of AI slop: low-quality AI-generated content produced in overwhelming volume. The term has become mainstream for a reason: Merriam-Webster crowned “slop” its 2025 Word of the Year, defining it as low-quality digital content produced in quantity by AI.

AI slop is content that looks plausible but carries little original insight, little accountability, and often no lived experience.

What I’m expecting is that platforms that win won’t be the ones with the most content. They’ll be the ones with the most trust.

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Why Communities Will Win

Communities outperform feeds in the AI era because they solve the problem AI created: verification and meaning.

A healthy community has qualities that generic platforms lack:

• You know the people that are in it. And get to know them on a deeper level that major platforms cannot offer.

• Context: Questions don’t start from zero. You are gathering around specific subjects. Not just anything in general, like Meta promotes.

• Moderation and norms: Communities can enforce quality standards, where Big Tech is trending towards loosening these norms to optimise for reach and engagement.

This is why I’m seeing a drift toward private or semi-private spaces (Slack groups, Discord servers, Forums, Substack chats): people are looking for higher-trust environments.

Brands: Don’t Be Generic

When public platforms degrade, brands can’t rely on “reach” alone. They need direct relationships: newsletters, member spaces, customer communities, and expert-led networks. Communities become not just a marketing channel, but an operating system for trust.

That also means brands must sound like themselves, consistently and credibly, especially when AI can generate infinite “generic brand content.” An AI-enabled Brand Voice System can be of great help to achieve that. Read my article about that here:

An AI-driven Brand Voice System: Why Every Brand Needs One

What To Do Now (If You’re Building for 2026)

If you lead marketing, media, product, or community:

1. Build a real community

   • Don’t treat it as a “channel.” Treat it as a trust asset.

   • Consider starting one on Substack, Discord or build it yourself

2. Invest in human expertise

   • Trusted experts make the difference. Show up in communities, representing your brand and sharing your knowledge.

3. Codify your brand voice

   • Be recognisable and consistent in your brand’s message.

Don’t be fake in 2026.

As a marketer, did you already launch a community or considering starting one in 2026?