The internet has never been more powerful. So why does it feel worse?

Technology has never been more powerful. So why does the internet often feel worse?

The tools available to marketers today are extraordinary. AI can create content in seconds, platforms can identify audiences with remarkable accuracy, and analytics can show us how people behave across the customer journey in ways that were once difficult to see.

And yet, many digital experiences now feel more frustrating than helpful. Search results are filled with content that often looks and sounds the same. Social platforms seem  designed to keep people scrolling rather than help them connect. Ads follow people around the internet long after they have bought something or shown only a passing interest. Websites often ask visitors to accept cookies, sign up for emails, or dismiss pop-ups before they can even view the homepage.

We have better technology than ever, yet many people find the internet more intrusive and less useful. So we asked members of the Oban team what they see as the biggest challenges facing digital marketing today.

When optimisation becomes the goal

Technology is good at improving what can be measured. Marketing teams can track clicks, conversions, engagement, acquisition costs, and countless other signals to understand what’s working and where to invest.

But the things that matter most are often harder to measure. Trust, originality, curiosity, and emotional connection all influence how people respond to brands, but don’t always fit neatly into a dashboard.

In other words, technology has made it easier to optimise activity, but optimisation doesn’t always lead to better experiences. A website can increase conversions by adding more prompts, but eventually those prompts can become frustrating. An advertiser can improve targeting accuracy, but constant retargeting can make people feel as though they are being pursued around the internet. A content team can use AI to produce more articles, but if every brand is creating similar content, the result is more noise rather than more value.

Individually, these decisions may make sense. Cumulatively, they can create a digital experience that feels less human. This is linked to what the writer and activist Corey Doctorow has called “enshittification”: the gradual decline of digital platforms as their original purpose becomes secondary to extracting more value from users, advertisers, and commercial partners.

Social media is one of the clearest examples. Platforms that were originally built around connection are now largely shaped by algorithms designed to maximise engagement. The leads to content that provokes reaction rather than encourages understanding. X, formerly Twitter, is perhaps the most obvious example, with many users experiencing it as a platform now dominated by outrage, conflict, and algorithmically amplified noise.

The technology is doing what it was designed to do, but are we optimising for the things that matter most?

AI is accelerating a problem that already existed

Generative AI has brought this question into sharper focus. The excitement around AI is understandable, because of its enormous potential to improve productivity, reduce repetitive tasks, and help marketers work more effectively. But the conversation has tended to focus more on what AI can produce than on what it should produce.

As Content Strategist Laura McInley explains, “there’s still a lot of misunderstanding about what generative AI is and isn’t good at ”, which can create unrealistic expectations about its role in marketing. AI is a powerful tool, but it doesn’t replace judgement. Knowing when to use it, how to use it, and when not to use it remains critical.

AI makes it easier to produce more of what already exists. But if thousands of businesses use the same tools, trained on similar sources, with similar prompts and similar objectives, the internet becomes increasingly filled with content that’s indistinguishable (the proverbial ‘AI slop’).

Paid Media Manager Yoanna Koleva captures this concern. She says that while she was initially excited about experimenting with AI, she now encounters more content that “sounds the same and says the same things”.

That challenge extends beyond content. AI-powered automation can make outreach faster, but speed doesn’t automatically create relevance. Chloë McKenna, Director of New Business, highlights the frustration of receiving AI-generated emails where the tone is completely wrong, either overly familiar or lacking any real understanding of the person receiving them.

The decline of creativity in an age of performance

The same tension exists in advertising. Digital marketing has given brands more channels, formats, and opportunities to reach audiences, but so much of what appears online feels predictable.

A significant reason is that marketing has become more operational. Teams are under pressure to produce more assets, adapt to more platforms and continuously optimise performance. The discipline can become focused on managing systems rather than creating ideas.

Measurement has brought accountability but can also encourage caution. When every decision is judged against immediate performance metrics, organisations naturally gravitate towards what is already proven. Over time, this can narrow creativity rather than improve it.

Senior Account Manager Liam Madurai believes this has contributed to a loss of authentic brand personality. He feels that genuinely useful and distinctive content is becoming harder to find as brands focus increasingly on what they believe will perform.

Paid Media Manager Avielle Breen has noticed a similar pattern, saying that she rarely sees brands “take creative risks or be bold enough to truly stand out”.

Creativity needs room for uncertainty. Some of the campaigns people remember most were ideas that could easily have been rejected in a performance meeting. The more tightly marketing is optimised around what has worked before, the harder it becomes to make those leaps.

More technology, more complexity

Technology has always promised to make work simpler and in many ways, it has. Automation has reduced repetitive tasks, data has improved decision-making, and AI is  changing how teams create, analyse, and use information.

But technology has also introduced new layers of complexity. There are now more platforms, more formats, more customer journeys, and more decisions to make. Marketers are expected to understand search, social media, paid advertising, analytics, AI platforms and emerging discovery tools, while also proving the value of each activity. As Managing Director Suzie Oakford puts it, the industry can feel like it is “perpetually chasing its tail”.

The rise of AI-powered search is changing how people find information, but measurement has struggled to keep up. Traditional signals such as rankings and clicks are becoming less reliable as platforms increasingly provide answers directly rather than sending people to websites. That can be better for users because they obtain an answer more quickly. For brands, though, it creates a challenge: how do you know you’re being seen when people don’t need to visit your website?

Being visible online now means building enough trust and authority to be recognised across a much wider range of systems. Strategy Director and Paid Media Lead Jules Bodouolé-Sosso describes this shift as “the age of disappearance”. His argument is that brands are entering a world where visibility can no longer be taken for granted. As people increasingly discover brands through personalised platforms, credibility will play an even bigger role in whether businesses are found.

The fundamentals still matter

Digital marketing has a habit of making every new development feel like a turning point. New platforms, acronyms, and techniques appear constantly, each bringing fresh ideas about how brands should reach their customers. Yet much of what makes marketing effective has stayed remarkably consistent.

Client Services Director Susie Cox points out the misconception that optimising for AI Search or Generative Engines is something entirely separate from organic search. In reality, many of the principles remain familiar: expertise, experience, authority, and trust.

Client Services Director Charlotte Deacon highlights a similar issue across the wider industry: brands can become too focused on individual tactics rather than the wider customer experience. But customers don’t think about brands through marketing channels. They don’t separate search from social, paid media from organic, or AI platforms from websites. They simply want useful information, relevant answers, and experiences that respect their time.

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The perspectives in this article come from Viewpoints 3, Oban’s forthcoming booklet exploring what has gone wrong with today’s internet, how technology is changing digital experiences, and what organisations can do to create a better online future. If your business is facing these challenges and wants to improve its digital experience, get in touch to continue the conversation.