Why Storytelling Is Becoming a Real Job in 2026

Rhona Barnett-Pierce (00:00.15)
The most in demand scale of 2026 isn't going to be AI prompting or data analysis. It's going to be the oldest scale in human history storytelling. I'm Rhona Pierce and this is your Workfluencer Trend Report. A short episode where I break down how creator economy trends are reshaping the workplace. So I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal last week and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The headline? Companies are desperately seeking storytellers. And honestly, it's about time.

LinkedIn job postings that include the word storyteller doubled in the past year. We're talking over 50,000 listings in marketing alone. Google is hiring a customer storytelling manager. Microsoft is recruiting a senior director of narrative and storyteller. A company called Vanta is offering up to $274,000 for a head of storytelling. And then there's Notion. They didn't just hire a storyteller. They restructured their entire organization around it.

Their CEO recently announced they merged their internal communications, external communications, social media, and influencer functions into one team. They're calling it the storytelling team. 10 people all focused on telling Notion's story internally to employees, externally to customers, to future hires, to investors, everyone. That's not a job posting. That's a strategic bet on storytelling as a core function.

This isn't companies slapping a trendy title on old PR jobs. This is a real shift. And the companies making this move, they're the smart ones. Here's what's driving it. Traditional media is shrinking. There are 17,000 fewer journalists working today than there were in 2000. Print newspaper circulation has dropped 70 % since 2005. The old playbook was, get press coverage, let reporters tell your story. That avenue is disappearing. But brands now have their own channels.

social media, YouTube, podcasts, sub stacks. They don't need to wait for a reporter to cover them anymore. They can publish directly to their audiences. But the problem is having a channel isn't the same thing as having something worth saying. One CEO quoted in the article put it perfectly. He said, the AI slop of it all creates so much distrust. And that's at the core, right? Distrust. And that's exactly it.

Rhona Barnett-Pierce (02:20.8)
AI can generate a million articles on any topic in seconds. What it can't do is tell you which advice actually works when you're in the trenches. It can't capture the real, unpolished human experiences that make people actually trust a brand. So companies are finally figuring out what creators have known for years. Connection beats content every single time. And storytelling is what creates that connection.

Now here's what I think most people are missing about this trend. When we hear corporate storytelling, we assume it's about consumer branding, marketing, selling products. But this is impacting every side of branding, consumer and employer. Think about how candidates research companies now. They're scrolling LinkedIn, they're watching employee content, they're reading Glassdoor reviews. They're trying to figure out if the culture a company is selling is actually real.

And consumers are doing the same thing. They want to know who's behind the brand, what the people who work there actually believe, whether the company's values are real or just marketing copy. The smartest companies figured this out early. They invested in employee generated content, not just for recruiting, but for everything. Because EGC works for employer branding and consumer branding. It builds trust with candidates and customers. It's as powerful as influencer content.

user generated content or any other channel, maybe even more powerful if you ask me, because it comes from the inside. But here's the thing, EGC without strategy is just noise. UGC without strategy is noise. Any content without someone who can find the stories worth telling, shape them and make sure that they connect with the right people. It's just more stuff in the feed. That's the job these companies are hiring for and it spans

every type of branding. Now here's where I want to challenge how you might be thinking about this. When companies post these storytelling roles, they're picturing journalists. The article even says former journalists made up most of the applicants for one of these positions. And yes, journalists have incredible skills. They know how to find stories, verify information right under pressure. But they're not the only ones qualified for this work. If you're an employer branding, you've been doing this.

Rhona Barnett-Pierce (04:40.75)
finding employee stories, shaping narratives, connecting culture to content. If you're in HR or talent acquisition, you've been leading EGC campaigns, coaching employees to share their experiences. You understand what makes people want to join a company and stay there. If you're in internal comms, you've been translating corporate messages into human language, making executives sound like actual people. And if you're a creator who's been building an audience through authentic content,

You've been storytelling this whole time. Yes, you, the workfluencers of the world, you've been storytelling this entire time. The skills these companies need aren't locked inside journalism degrees. They're scattered across roles that have never had storyteller in the title. This is your moment because AI is going to keep getting better at producing content. The volume of AI generated posts and articles is only going up.

which means the bar for what actually cuts through is going up too. The thing that separated real connection from noise, it's not who can produce the most content. It's who can tell stories that make people feel something, stories that are specific, personal, human. That's not something AI can replicate. Not really, at least not yet. My clients come to me for exactly this, storytelling for brands.

And I'm now open to fractional head of storytelling roles for brands I believe in. Because the companies that invest in real storytelling now are the ones that will cut through when everyone else is just adding to the noise. So here's my question for you. Are you already doing storytelling work without the title? Or is this a direction you're thinking about moving towards? I'd love to hear from you. Head over to workfluencerpodcast.com and leave me a voicemail. Tell me what storytelling looks like

in your role or what's holding you back from leaning into it. And if you're watching on YouTube, let me know in the comments. Thanks for listening to this Workfluencer Trend Report. I'll be back soon with a full episode. Until next time.