Marc Fennell to unpack the human cost of AI
at State of Social ’26  

The award-winning journalist takes the stage in Perth with The Australian’s Jenna Clarke for a Riverside Chat, in the first public conversation about his Audible Original Podcast, Unreal: When AI Becomes Us

State of Social ’26 welcomes journalist, broadcaster and author Marc Fennell to deliver a Riverside Chat at this year’s conference, in conversation with The Australian’s Jenna Clarke.

The marketing industry has spent two years building its AI case on efficiency: faster output, lower cost, less friction. Fennell spent the past year reporting the other side of the story. Unreal: When AI Becomes Us sets the technology aside almost entirely and asks what it is doing to the people using it, following stories where AI collides with grief, love, belief and accountability.

“Every AI session at any event this year has been about what the technology saves you. Marc has spent a year on what it costs, and not in dollars. I have dreamt of having him on the State of Social stage for years, and we couldn’t have picked a better time for it,” says Meg Coffey, State of Social founder.

State of Social ’26 will be the first public conversation about Fennell’s Audible Original Podcast, Unreal: When AI Becomes Us and a rare appearance for Fennell in Perth, where he has not spoken publicly in more than five years.

Clarke will interview him on what he found making the series, what it means for the brands and marketers building AI into their work, and how he approaches storytelling on subjects most people would rather not sit with. The international gathering of marketers is in for a treat as one of Australia’s most recognisable documentary storytellers shares his own story.

“Everyone seems to have an opinion about AI. We’ve become very good at talking about what AI can do. I’m much more interested in what it does to us as humans. Over the past year I met people using it to deal with death, to fall in love, to create their own religions and even keep someone in jail. Those stories have changed the way I think about our future,” says Fennell.

Catch Marc on stage at State of Social on Tuesday 25 August.