Ant Kenny, Head of Digital at Boutique, explores how AI is shaping marketing.

This edition of Big Furniture Group’s Marketing Spotlight is brought to you by Boutique. We are an independent marketing agency that has spent over a decade helping Home & Garden brands grow through insight-led strategy and joined-up Media, PR, Digital and Social. Our close relationship with the sector gives us a clear view of how consumers behave, what drives choice and the levers brands can pull to build long-term value.

Marketing in 2026 is being defined by a simple tension in that brands are being asked to do more, with less.

This isn’t new to this year as it has been the reality many brands have faced for a couple years now, but ultimately budgets are tighter, audiences are broader, and the volume of content required to stay competitive has grown dramatically.

For brands operating in the home and garden space, where inspiration, trust and visual quality play such a central role, that pressure is particularly strong.

AI is not a silver bullet, but it is fast becoming an essential part of how marketing teams respond to this reality.

The UK economic backdrop marketers can’t ignore

The economic context in the UK continues to dictate marketing decisions. While data shows that inflation has eased vs. recent years, consumer confidence remains shaky and households are still cautious with spend and big-ticket purchases. For the home and garden sector this means that purchases such as furniture, kitchens and outdoor products are taking longer to convert.

And for ecommerce brands, this has changed the nature of demand. We see it time and time again, but research cycles are longer, price sensitivity is higher, and customers expect greater reassurance before committing. Brands still need to maintain visibility and protect market share, but they are doing so in a climate where efficiency matters more than ever.

All the above is reflected in marketing budgets where spend once sat closer to 12.5 percent of revenue but is now nearer 7.5 percent. This comes at an interesting time as the demands on marketing teams have increased due to the number of channels, formats, and creative variations required to compete.

Add in the pressure generated by seasonality and product depth and you have a very real and very difficult challenge on your hands. For example, a single sofa range or garden set may require dozens of creative executions to remain relevant across audiences, platforms and buying moments. The challenge is no longer just reaching customers but doing so efficiently and consistently.

Doing more with what you already have

Possibly the most practical way AI is reshaping marketing is by helping brands get more from existing assets, so rather than producing new content from scratch each time, AI allows teams to reuse, adapt and scale what they already own.

Product imagery is another great example of how AI-powered tools can help creative scale by making it possible to place products into multiple environments without reshooting. For example, a dining table can be shown in different room styles, outdoor furniture can be visualised across seasons, and furniture can generally be shown in your audience’s style of home giving it a new layer of personalisation when it comes to ad creative.

This is a vital development because visual context drives confidence and in a cautious market that has progressively moved online since COVID, customers want to see how products fit into real life before they buy. AI enables brands to meet this need without the significant investment of time and money that comes with large-scale photography.

The same applies to content where buying guides, FAQs and long-form articles/blogs can be easily and quickly repurposed into paid ads, social posts, and email campaigns. This helps make messaging consistent which can often be a challenge when it comes to integrated marketing campaigns that spans multiple teams.

Responding to changing consumer behaviour

AI is also changing how consumers discover and evaluate products and solutions. More and more people are using tools like ChatGPT to research products, compare options, and ask practical questions before buying.

For home and garden purchases these questions are often contextual i.e. will this sofa fit my space? Is this material easy to maintain? Is matt paint better than gloss for living rooms? Brands that answer these questions clearly and consistently across all owned media are more likely to be surfaced.

This changes the way content is approached by placing more importance on clarity and providing genuinely helpful solution-focused information. As a good example, on product pages rather than describing what the product is, talk about what problems it helps to solve, the situations it best suits, and the questions customers would likely have before they buy.

Efficiency without losing brand quality

One of the biggest concerns around AI is the risk of losing brand personality. This is a valid concern, particularly in home and garden, where tone, style and trust play a huge role in differentiation and where differentiation has never mattered more.

Currently, the brands that are winning are using AI to support their teams rather than replace them. AI can speed up first drafts, generate variations and surface insights, however human judgement still defines quality and so should always be part of the process.

When used well, AI frees up time meaning less effort is spent on repetitive production tasks, and more time is available for strategy, testing and optimisation.

Pitfalls to be aware of

At the time of writing this, AI is not perfect and there are risks to navigate, for example over-automation often leads to generic outputs if tools are relied on without checking. There are also considerations around data quality, image rights and transparency that brands need to manage carefully.

Setting realistic goals in a pressured landscape

In a continually challenging economic environment, progress comes from focus so rather than trying to adopt every new tool at once, a better way to make a start if not already is to identify where AI can remove friction or unlock value.

That might mean improving conversion through better onsite imagery or scaling your paid social creatives to engage with different audiences. Thinking about these things will help lead to smaller, measurable gains that will add up over time.

Looking ahead, AI will continue to reshape marketing and for home and garden brands willing to apply it thoughtfully it offers a way to do better, not just more, with what they already have.

SAVE THE DATE – HOME & GARDEN CONFERENCE
BOUTIQUEs annual Home & Garden conference will be returning to Leeds on 18th June 2026. Join peers from the sector for a jam-packed day with speakers, panellists and fire-side chats all focused around the Home & Garden sector. This event has sold out for the past 3 years – get your FREE early bird tickets now!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-home-garden-conference-tickets-1656695493819?aff=oddtdtcreator