Sam Cousins.
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We’re in our prompt era, and while AI prompts force a new way of asking questions, with AI in their hands strategists will remain the guardians of storytelling, says Sam Cousins, Chief Strategy Officer of Wavemaker, a WPP Media Brand.
Language has always shaped how we think and it has continually evolved and adapted since the very beginning. As I reflect on 2025, this year, it’s clear that we’re in our prompt era, and AI has universally influenced our language and how we use it. That’s unsurprising considering AI now has mass global adoption of 378 million users[i] around the world. But it’s not just at the coal face of AI and how it’s used in media and in advertising, it’s at the root of new words brought into favour by the young and used across generations at home, in healthcare, education, parenting, work and the playground.
AI has moved from experimental to essential.
As we edge towards 2026 and beyond, I wonder if we all going to start sounding like prompts and stop sounding like people soon? Does learning to speak to machines mean we start to speak like a machine?
Well, maybe. AI has enabled us to ask bigger questions, in different ways, and eventually it will affect how we answer. Strategists hone their craft and uncover insights by asking questions, and prompting requires new and creative ways of asking for things. This year I’ve found creating prompts is a strategy of its own. In the same way that we solve client challenges, we’ve had to solve the challenge of how to get what we want, when we want it.
As I navigate my own language barriers at home with Gen Alpha kids who keep telling me ‘it’s not that deep’ - I ask; is it really a bad thing? Afterall, linguistic trends come and go, and apparently, I am totally cringe when I try to use six-seven, and it’s in the wrong context.
It’s a natural part of our lifecycle to evolve how we talk and it bleeds into how we create work for our clients and present ourselves as agencies.
A quick AI enabled search at language evolution over the past 20 years shows the key drivers: 2010's meme culture brought expressive, slang-heavy, playful, ironic language like 'YOLO' and 'Bae'. By 2015, self-curation led to nuanced, coded phrases like 'on fleek', and 'squad goals'. 2020's COVID era made language utilitarian: crisis and safety driving functional outputs like 'flattening the curve' and 'on mute'.
Today, in our AI-integrated digital prompt era, language is directive, formal, and efficient. The way younger generations use them, words are compressed, action-driven, and interchangeable. 'Slay' can be encouragement, a rating, or a command. I hear it a lot at home.
We know that AI is now embedded, so into 2026, what does it mean for the input and the output of strategic thinking?
Will our words become flat, toneless, inoffensive but also ineffective?
Will writing become retrieval and conversations become transactional?
Probably not if strategists have anything to do with it. Strategists are at the forefront of conserving storytelling and creating pathways through muddy waters. In 2026 strategists will still be guardians of language and shapers of communication but we will also become master prompters, our ability to ask insightful questions will be amplified.
Briefing AI requires the understanding of human intent paired with machine logic to make sure the emotional depth is still felt in the work. Human imperfections and imagination will still be the key to finding a way to connect all the dots for our clients.
AI might shape how we speak but strategists will still define what we say, and with AI in our hands, the possibilities of what we can build and create become limitless.
[i] According to netguru.com
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