Executive Summary:
Human Influence in the AI Era

40.9% of technology discussion among Tech 500 influencers focused on AI last year, according to the 2026 Tyto Relevance Index.

What hasn’t changed is what it means to have influence. At a fundamental level, it is simply sharing information in ways that affect attitudes, and that is something that human voices have always done. But digital channels keep changing how influence is built and exercised, while generative AI can now perform many of the same functions as modern influencers.

It can find out which ideas are relevant, distil complex concepts into simple terms, and adopt a more humorous, serious, casual or authoritative tone to match an audience’s needs. It can also do this at a scale, speed and level of personalisation that human voices cannot match.

And it can work across the same mix of channels that human influencers have spent the last decade learning to navigate – from social media, podcasts and newsletters to books, events and earned media.

But if polished content is becoming easier to produce, what makes someone genuinely worth listening to?

The tenth edition of the Tech 500 gives us little reason to believe that human voices are becoming any less important. On the contrary, this year’s ranking is as lively as ever. While there are fewer new entrants in 2026, influential voices are showing far greater staying power, with 235 new names still joining the ranking alongside significant shifts in who makes the rankings for each country.

Human influence isn’t becoming less important. But when polished, relevant content is easier to produce, the qualities that are harder to automate become more valuable. 

This builds on a pattern we have seen developing over the last few years. In 2024, we identified 82 ‘Super Influencers’ who had maintained a place in the Tech 500 every year since 2021. Last year, we saw the rise of the ‘multi-hyphenate influencer’: people whose influence stretches across roles, channels and formats. 

This year, the question is how those portfolios of content continue to cut through when there is more competition for attention than ever. 

Moving away from a general informing role that audiences can increasingly self-serve through generative AI, influential voices can increasingly win attention through idiosyncratic, provocative, and emotive content. They can be more human and more flawed, less disciplined and less polished, demonstrating their distinction from the AI-generated content now flooding the information environment. 

And – vitally for businesses and brands – their spokespeople and the influential people they partner with must be able to do this across different channels and formats, from the written word to conferences and podcasts, where their personality can really come through. 

Up Next: Taste Becomes a Superpower

When content is everywhere, knowing what deserves attention becomes more valuable.