Future Gazing: 2026 with Mike Sottak, Founder and Managing Director of Wired Island
COLLECTIVIST: Looking ahead to next year, what are the big tech brands going to be doing? Or the very best marketing managers, what are they going to do differently next year?
Mike Sottak, Wired Island: I think one of the trends we’re seeing, enabled by new and evolving technology, is that brands can be much more personalised and intentional about what they want to say and to whom. The best brands will be much more targeted.
I would use the word intentional in terms of knowing exactly what they want to say, how they want to say it, and to whom they want to say it. Technology continues to enable this. It has for several years now, but with the advent of AI and some of the new capabilities it brings, brands can take a much more direct approach to the consumer. And I use that term loosely because most of our customers are B2B, but they still direct their messages and campaigns to someone who buys their products.
COLLECTIVIST: So, is your big bold prediction-if you had to choose one thing-around personalisation?
Mike: I think personalisation has been happening for some time. Social media is obviously very personalised (and even becoming too personalised in some ways).
But my big, bold prediction is that we’re going to see a continued and possibly more accelerated shift in the media landscape. I think traditional media is under attack from regulatory and government pressure, as well as technological pressure and the way people behave. The advent of the self-publisher is here, and it’s becoming more pronounced. I think that will be, for better or worse, at the expense of traditional media.
Traditional media will continue to evolve. We’ve seen some of the big established media brands doing that. But this shift opens the door to more participants in the media landscape. The barrier to entry is much lower, both in terms of who you can reach and how you can reach them, and in terms of content generation – quickly, efficiently, and sometimes without many guardrails.
I’m not saying this is good or bad. The reality is that I see a continued and more pronounced shift in how media is produced, consumed, and distributed.
The silver lining is that many well-established journalists and influencers are going off on their own. We’re seeing the rise of the ‘Substack era’ – the self-published journalist who may no longer want or have the security of a big masthead behind them but now has the opportunity to be more personalised, direct, and specialised. As long as that’s not abused, I think that’s a great thing and a great opportunity for PR people to find those individuals and re-establish relationships with them in their new domain and operating paradigm.
These people are becoming very important and influential—sometimes as much as traditional media.
COLLECTIVIST: Tell me about AI. Is it going to have more influence over your campaigns? Are your clients going to be thinking more about AI next year?
Mike: AI is an unavoidable phenomenon, and we must embrace it. The smart companies, agencies, and PR practitioners will embrace it. When it initially came out there was a lot of fear and uncertainty around it. There are still reasons to be sceptical and wary, but I also think we should embrace the productivity, efficiency, creativity (all the things it does really well) always with a human eye on it as a guardrail.
We’ve gone all in on AI as a tool. And it is a tool. It’s not a replacement. We haven’t seen it negatively impact careers or jobs. In fact, it’s enhancing skills. We can do the same thing in an hour that used to take us three hours. That’s classic AI value.
From an agency standpoint, AI is something we’re embracing with caution. We’re not saying we’re going to replace everything or become a total AI agency. And as far as our clients and the media landscape, it’s similar: it’s not a complete replacement. We’re seeing it chip away at traditional jobs and functions, but the smart people are embracing automation that makes life better, more efficient, and safer.
AI is going to continue, and we can’t ignore it. The train has left the station—you’re either on it or you’re not.
COLLECTIVIST: Do you think there will be other thought-leadership topics next year besides AI? Most of our clients have probably talked about AI already. Are there other topics people will focus on?
Mike: Yes and no. In our space, everything somehow connects to AI. We work with technology companies that are deeply involved in the infrastructure of how AI is developed, used, and deployed.
Two big trends we see – one that evolves AI to a new level – is physical AI. How does AI interact with the real world? Not just prompting it for research, but real-world interactions that help us navigate physical environments more efficiently and safely.
I was at a conference this week called Supercomputing, and physical AI is all about AI interacting with the real world: spatial issues, timing, velocity, physical things machines need to understand to operate autonomously or more efficiently.
We’re also seeing the rise of world models – a new buzzword. They’re the next level beyond language models. World models can understand the physical world. Think about a self-driving car or a home robot. It needs not just intelligence from prompts but the ability to navigate rooms, understand different objects, and adjust its behaviour, for example, applying different pressure when holding an orange versus a marble.
The data required to train machines to understand the physical world is vastly larger than what’s needed for language models.
The second big topic is sustainability. All this AI consumes huge amounts of power and water. It’s an environmental drain. On the macro level, there’s global warming and increased energy demand. On the personal level, your electricity bill might double because a new data center opened nearby. Water rates rise. On a global scale, we must ask: who truly benefits from AI, and what impact is it having on communities and the planet?
We can do great things with AI, but if underprivileged neighbourhoods or rural areas suffer from higher energy costs or resource depletion, we have to ask: what’s the trade-off?
COLLECTIVIST: At Supercomputing this week, was sustainability a big topic?
Mike: Mainly from an operational standpoint. There’s simply not enough power being generated to run all the planned data-center investments. Where will that energy come from? How will we produce it sustainably and cost-effectively without long-term environmental consequences?
People know they need more AI and more computing performance, but the question is: how are we going to run these machines? It’s like doubling or tripling the number of cars or airplanes and then trying to figure out where the fuel will come from.
COLLECTIVIST: Since you mentioned Supercomputing (and knowing you’ve been to many conferences) where will you be next year? Back to Mobile World Congress or CES?
Mike: I think those events are necessary evils. I love them and hate them at the same time. CES and Mobile World Congress are becoming so big and unwieldy, but you kind of must be there.
The smaller, more specialised shows are more interesting and more effective for us as PR people. This aligns with the personalisation and specialisation trend. I’d rather go to a show laser-focused on energy consumption in the data center – something that will be talked about at CES or MWC, but alongside a hundred other things.
At CES, from a PR standpoint, you’re fighting for oxygen – thousands of companies making thousands of announcements to the same thousand media people.
Our clients are more niche-oriented and specialised. Specialised shows align better with our communications strategies.
My advice is: dig into where the “water coolers” are in your specific niche. CES, Mobile World Congress, Web Summit – they get all the headlines, and everyone flocks to them, but the real action happens at the specialised shows where you can stand out.
COLLECTIVIST: What will an ideal client look like next year? It sounds like a sustainability-related client could be a good fit, but I know you love deep tech.
Mike: Deep tech has a big role in sustainability. We were just on a call with a company working on a new type of cooling technology for data centers and Bitcoin mining, which also face energy-consumption issues. These machines run so hot because they use so much power.
The founders come from the nuclear-power industry – they know how to cool nuclear generators, which are now being considered as potential power sources for data centers. Microsoft just announced they’re buying Three Mile Island and they’re going to resurrect it.
We’re always attracted to disruptive, innovative startups (the David-versus-Goliath stories). But they need to substantiate their value proposition and impact. “It’s a great idea, but so what?” That’s the question we want clients to answer.
All this AI stuff is great, but what does it mean for the average person or business? Define the impact in tangible terms. Don’t just dazzle with technology – explain why it’s important and why it’s necessary for customers.
My ideal client is one who can do that and who has a customer ready to say, “Yes, we used this, and here’s what we achieved.”
COLLECTIVIST: Last question. When we get to this time next year, looking back, what will be the most successful thing to have happened to the agency? What would you celebrate?
Mike: I could take the easy route and say doubling clients and revenue, which we are interested in. But I’d say: what did we accomplish for our clients? Did we make a meaningful impact? Do we feel satisfied with the work we’ve done? Are they pleased with how we’ve moved the needle, whether through launching a company, changing perception, driving revenue growth, or increasing website traffic?
If we can say, “Yes, we made a difference,” I’d like to see that continue and strengthen.
In 2026, we want to continue embracing AI and new technology in how we run our business, but more importantly, how that applies to what we do for clients and how it makes them more successful.
