We are living through the collapse of the old world, and the quiet construction of a new one. From artificial intelligence and clean energy to bioengineering and digital governance, the core systems that defined the last century are rapidly being dismantled and replaced. But this isn’t just about technology. According to futurist Peter Leyden, we’re at a historic turning point: One of the rare moments in American and global history when everything gets reimagined at once.
Posts tagged trends
The Curious Brain | Trend 1 (2026): The End of Coincidence
In 2026, the world feels increasingly pre-scripted. You open Netflix, and three-quarters of what you watch is recommended by an algorithm. Spotify predicts the exact song for your Sunday mood. Amazon quietly shapes a third of your purchases through its suggestions. The randomness of daily life the happy accident of discovery is being optimized out of existence.
This isn’t speculative. Forecasts suggest that by 2026, 85% of customer interactions will happen without a human agent. Instead, predictive systems and conversational AI will anticipate needs, guide choices, and close the loop before you even notice the decision point. Personalization, once a marketing tactic, has become infrastructure.
The upside is undeniable: smoother experiences, higher satisfaction, faster decisions. McKinsey notes that personalization already drives a 20% boost in sales conversions. For companies, the math is irresistible. For consumers, it feels convenient—until it doesn’t.
Because with personalization comes a paradox. The more precisely the world knows you, the less space it leaves for surprise. Convenience edges out curiosity. Relevance slides into manipulation. Shared cultural touchstones fracture as each of us receives a customized reality.
This is the tension of 2026: efficiency versus wonder. A generation raised on algorithmic guidance may gain comfort, but lose resilience. A society that no longer tolerates randomness risks becoming brittle, unprepared for true shocks.
For businesses, the challenge isn’t whether to personalize..it’s how. The brands that will win are those that protect space for serendipity. A travel company that builds unpredictability into its itineraries. A retailer that surprises customers with unpredicted finds. An educator who leaves room for the book you never thought to ask for.
The end of coincidence is not inevitable. It’s a design choice. And the most valuable experiences of 2026 may be the ones that feel least engineered.
The Cult of the Brand is Dead
For a century, marketers preached the gospel of brand loyalty. People bought Coca-Cola for the dream. Marlboro for the cowboy. Mercedes for the badge.
That religion is over.
Euromonitor’s Trending Topics 2026 makes it plain: despite household incomes crawling upward at just 0.4% a year since 2021, consumers don’t judge by price alone. They demand health, convenience, sustainability, digital ease. If you can’t deliver, you’re irrelevant.
71% of consumers worry about the rising cost of everyday items. But they aren’t clinging to legacy labels. They are defecting to private label. Cooking ingredients, staple foods, dairy—once the strongholds of heritage brands—are now being stripped bare by discounters and warehouse clubs.
And then come the insurgents: Temu. TikTok. SHEIN. They don’t sell myths. They sell speed, affordability, and relevance. And they are winning.
The report names the shift: brand loyalty is weakening. Loyalty isn’t earned. It’s rented, renewed only as long as the offer makes sense.
Winners already know this. InterContinental Hotels sells NOMO solo-stay packages with wellness perks. SAIC’s MG4 EV became a European bestseller by combining affordability with advanced features. They didn’t trade on heritage. They traded on delivery.
So stop polishing your history. Nobody cares.
In this economy of squeezed incomes and rising costs, the only question is: Do you deliver today?
The cult of the brand is dead.
The cult of delivery has begun.
The Death of Surprise: What WARC’s 2025 Report Won’t Say Out Loud
WARC’s The Future of Programmatic 2025 is a meticulously composed document. The charts are polished. The language is neutral. The predictions are framed as progress.
But read it closely and a deeper truth emerges:
It’s not a report. It’s an autopsy.
What’s dying is unpredictability. Creativity. Humanity.
And we’re all expected to applaud as the corpse is carried off, sanitized and smiling.
We Are Optimizing Ourselves Into Irrelevance
Every year, programmatic becomes more “efficient.” More “targeted.” More “brand safe.”
And with each incremental improvement, something irreplaceable is lost.
We’ve mistaken precision for persuasion.
We’ve traded emotional impact for mechanical relevance.
We’ve built a system that serves the spreadsheet, not the soul.
74% of European impressions now come through curated deals.
Which sounds like order. Until you realize it means the wildness is gone.
No chaos. No accidents. No friction. No magic.
We didn’t refine advertising. We tamed it. And in doing so, we made it forgettable.
Curation Is Not a Strategy. It’s a Symptom.
Let’s stop pretending curation is innovation. It’s not.
It’s fear management. It’s an escape hatch from a system that got too messy.
We created an open marketplace—then panicked when it did what open things do: surprise us.
So we closed it.
We built private marketplaces, multi-publisher deals, curated “quality” impressions.
And we congratulated ourselves for regaining control.
But in truth, we just shrank the canvas. The reach is cleaner, sure. But the resonance is gone.
Personalization Has Become a Prison
We’re shown what the machine thinks we want—again and again—until novelty disappears.
We call it relevance, but what it really is… is confinement.
When every ad is customized to our past behavior, we stop growing. We stop discovering.
We become static reflections of data points.
We aren’t advertising to humans anymore. We’re advertising to ghosts of their former selves.
AI Isn’t Making Ads Safer. It’s Making Them Invisible.
The report praises AI for enhancing brand safety.
But here’s the problem no one wants to name: AI doesn’t understand context.
It understands keywords, sentiment scores, and statistical tone.
So entire stories, entire voices, entire truths are algorithmically scrubbed out—because the machine can’t read between the lines.
It’s not safety. It’s sanitization.
It’s censorship with a dashboard.
We’re not avoiding risk. We’re avoiding reality.
Out-of-Home Might Be Our Last Chance
Digital out-of-home is the only space left that still feels human.
It’s dynamic, unpredictable, environmental. It responds to mood, weather, location.
It doesn’t follow you. It meets you.
It’s flawed. It’s physical. It’s not entirely measurable.
And because of that—it still has soul.
It reminds us that real advertising doesn’t beg for clicks.
It stops you mid-step.
It lingers in your head hours later, uninvited.
The Real Threat Isn’t Bad Ads. It’s Forgettable Ones.
We keep polishing the system, but forget why the system existed in the first place.
Advertising isn’t a math problem.
It’s a cultural force. A punchline. A provocation. A seduction. A story.
And we’ve allowed it to become… efficient.
That should terrify us.
Because efficient ads don’t change minds.
Efficient ads don’t start movements.
Efficient ads don’t get remembered.
Only real ones do.
Messy. Emotional. Imperfect.
Human.
In Case You Skimmed, Read This:
- Curation isn’t strategy. It’s shrinkage.
- AI brand safety is quiet censorship.
- Personalization killed surprise.
- The future of programmatic isn’t what’s next—it’s what’s left.
We didn’t lose the plot. We wrote it out of the story. Stay Curious
Soft Monsters for a Hard World: Why Adults Are Worshipping Labubu
There’s a plush goblin haunting luxury boutiques and TikTok feeds.
Its ears are sharp. Its grin is chaotic. Its name is Labubu—and it’s being cradled like a rosary by grown adults who should know better.
But this isn’t a story about a toy.
It’s a story about us.
About late-stage capitalism, spiritual starvation, and the strange things we choose to love when reality no longer loves us back.
A Totem of Belonging
In the post-everything world—post-truth, post-community, post-authenticity—belonging has been outsourced to brands.
Enter Labubu.
Created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung and mass-produced by Chinese collectibles giant Pop Mart, Labubu isn’t just cute—it’s coded.
It’s an aesthetic cipher. A subcultural handshake. A passport into a secret society of hyper-curated taste.
Owning Labubu says:
“I’m not mainstream. I’m initiated. I collect emotions, not just objects.”
Like any good totem, it offers safety. Like any good flex, it offers status.
And in a culture where identity is pieced together through possessions, Labubu becomes a holy relic in the temple of self-curation.
Childhood in Crisis
Labubu isn’t about play.
It’s about escape.
Adults today are drowning in dread—economic, ecological, existential.
We’ve been asked to function in a world on fire. So we cling to anything that reminds us of a time before collapse.
Labubu is innocence, shrink-wrapped.
It’s climate-proof nostalgia.
It doesn’t age, complain, or ask anything of you. It just smiles—eerily, endlessly.
In a society addicted to productivity, Labubu is a plush permission slip to regress, to soften, to feel.
This isn’t childish. It’s survival.
Blind Box = Dopamine Factory
Pop Mart didn’t just sell toys.
They sold gamified longing.
Here’s how it works: you buy a box without knowing what’s inside. Maybe it’s common. Maybe it’s rare. Maybe it’s worth hundreds. Maybe it completes your set. Maybe it doesn’t.
The mechanism is simple:
Hope → Anticipation → Reveal → Repeat.
Every box is a lottery ticket for the emotionally overdrawn.
Every unboxing is a micro-hit of meaning in a culture that offers less of it each day.
This isn’t collecting. It’s ritualized uncertainty, engineered scarcity, weaponized whimsy.
Post-Product Capitalism
Once upon a time, objects had use.
Now, they have aura.
Labubu doesn’t clean your house, store data, or solve problems.
It just means something.
In the new economy of symbols:
– Labubu is a TikTok backdrop
– A status charm on a Balenciaga bag
– A speculative asset flipping for $1,000 on resale sites
Function is obsolete.
Semiotics is everything.
Labubu is pure vibe—cute chaos for an unlivable world.
It’s the ideal product for a system that no longer produces value, only vibes.
Fashion’s Weaponization of Whimsy
If fashion is the oracle of capitalism, then Labubu is its plush prophecy.
High-end style has abandoned heritage for absurdity.
“Kidcore,” “weird-cute,” “lowbrow luxe”—all symbols of rebellion against old money elegance.
And Labubu, with its glitchy grin and deviant innocence, fits right in.
Rihanna, Dua Lipa, and Lisa from BLACKPINK have all flaunted Labubu accessories. Not because it’s luxurious—but because it’s knowing.
Ironic. Post-ironic. Meta-ironic.
In a world allergic to sincerity, cuteness becomes camouflage for power.
So, Are People Crazy?
No.
They are spiritually bankrupt, algorithmically seduced, and starved for something—anything—that feels warm and loyal.
Labubu is the emotional pet of a society that can’t afford real connection anymore.
It doesn’t ghost you. It doesn’t betray you. It doesn’t log off.
It just sits. Soft. Smiling. Waiting to be wanted.
We Are the Monsters
Labubu isn’t a glitch. It’s a signal.
A warning wrapped in faux fur.
It tells us what we’ve become:
Collectors of comfort. Gamblers of meaning. Children playing dress-up in adult collapse.
We thought we were buying toys.
But we were buying therapy.
We were buying tribe.
We were buying time.
And in doing so, we told the truth we didn’t want to speak out loud:
We are the monsters now. And Labubu is the only one brave enough to love us anyway.
Podcast: Rapid Response
5 bold AI predictions for 2025
Entering 2025, AI is poised to continue disrupting, redefining and supercharging the business world. AI expert and Pioneers of AI host, Rana El Kaliouby, joins Rapid Response to share five bold AI predictions for the year ahead – from technological advancements to societal impact to investing. Whether you’re looking for AI to further enhance your work, portfolio, or personal productivity, Rana’s insights are the ideal primer for harnessing all the opportunity and potential at your disposal this year.
Check the podcast here
It’s 2035. The world is different now—by necessity, not by chance.
The reckless consumerism of the 2020s has given way to something new. Every product on the shelf is regenerative, designed to heal the planet and rebuild communities. Every ad you see isn’t just a promise—it’s a commitment.
But this transformation didn’t come easily. It demanded innovation, courage, and a reckoning with the role advertising plays in shaping society.
Because when every product is sustainable, when every company claims to do good, how do brands stand out? How does advertising remain relevant, or even ethical?
The answer lies at the intersection of technology, transparency, and purpose. This is a future where advertising doesn’t just sell—it inspires. Where AI isn’t just a tool—it’s a force for accountability. And where the stories we tell don’t just move markets—they move humanity forward.
The Shift From Consumption to Connection
In 2035, advertising is no longer about selling products—it’s about building connections:
- Connection to the Planet: Ads don’t just highlight features; they showcase how each purchase contributes to restoring ecosystems, from planting forests to cleaning oceans.
- Connection to People: Brands celebrate equitable supply chains and fair labor practices, proving that every purchase supports communities.
- Connection to Values: Consumers don’t align with brands for their logos anymore—they align for their leadership in solving humanity’s greatest challenges.
Advertising has always been about more than what we buy. It’s about who we are, what we stand for, and the world we want to leave behind. In this new era, every message must reflect that truth. Because in 2035, what we sell isn’t just a product—it’s a promise to each other and to the future.
The Role of AI in Advertising’s Evolution
AI has transformed advertising into something more precise, more accountable, and more inspiring than ever before. It’s no longer just about reaching audiences and being only cost-efficient —it’s about understanding them in ways that drive meaningful action.
Here’s how AI shapes the advertising industry in 2035:
- Hyper-Personalized Storytelling
AI doesn’t just create ads—it creates experiences. Every consumer sees a message tailored to their values, their behaviors, and even their emotional state. A single product ad might tell thousands of stories, each uniquely crafted to resonate deeply. - Dynamic Transparency
AI-powered ads provide real-time updates on sustainability metrics. Tap on a clothing ad, and you’ll see its entire lifecycle: where the cotton was grown, how the factory was powered, and how the garment will be recycled when you’re done with it. - Immersive Campaigns
With AI and augmented reality, brands create ads that immerse consumers in their impact. Imagine trying on a pair of shoes virtually and watching as forests are replanted in your name.
Radical Transparency: The New Standard
In 2035, trust is everything. Advertising isn’t just about what a product can do—it’s about what it means. Transparency is no longer optional; it’s mandated. Every ad must disclose:
- The Product’s Lifecycle: From raw materials to end-of-life disposal.
- Social Impact: How workers were treated and how communities benefit.
- Regenerative Metrics: The exact carbon offset, water saved, or biodiversity restored by a purchase.
Imagine an ad for a smartphone:
- Tap the screen, and you’ll see how its recycled components were sourced, the renewable energy powering its production, and the programs it funds to bridge the digital divide in underserved areas.
This isn’t just marketing—it’s accountability and it’s demanded by law from all the governments in our planet
The Consequences of Complacency
But not every brand has leaped. Those who cling to outdated strategies have faded into irrelevance. Greenwashing in 2035 isn’t just unethical—it’s illegal. Brands that fail to deliver on their promises don’t just lose trust—they disappear.
The companies that thrive in this new world are the ones willing to lead—to take risks, to innovate, and to stand for something greater than profit. Because in 2035, doing the right thing isn’t just good business—it’s the only business that matters.
The Role of Advertising in 2035
Advertising in 2035 isn’t about selling dreams—it’s about building futures. It’s about creating movements that inspire people to act, to invest in a better world, and to demand more from the companies they support.
This isn’t just a shift in marketing—it’s a shift in culture.
Picture this:
- A furniture company’s ad invites you to a virtual experience where you can explore the forests they’ve rewilded through your purchases.
- A clothing brand runs a campaign offering a subscription for jeans that are repaired, recycled, and replaced—ensuring nothing ends up in a landfill.
These aren’t just ads—they’re promises of a world where business and sustainability work hand in hand.
The stakes have never been higher.
The Advertising Crossroads: Adapt or Become Obsolete
For advertisers, the choice is stark: evolve or vanish. The landscape of advertising has transformed fundamentally by 2035—it’s no longer about mere persuasion, but about creating meaningful platforms for progress.
Each campaign now represents more than a marketing effort; it’s a catalyst for change. Advertisers have the power to educate, inspire, and empower consumers, guiding them towards choices that resonate with their deepest values. But this transformation hinges on a critical element: trust.
The fundamental challenge isn’t about technological innovation or narrative craft. It’s about rebuilding genuine connection in an age of unprecedented transparency and AI-driven precision. Can brands reimagine their role from sellers to partners in collective progress?
The pathway forward demands extraordinary courage. Ethical action is no longer a optional strategy—it’s the fundamental currency of relevance. Brands must recognize that their impact extends far beyond product sales; they are architects of societal transformation.
In 2035, every product is more than a commodity. It’s a promise—to consumers, to communities, to our shared planet. The brands that don’t just make this promise, but fully embody it, will do more than survive. They will be the architects of our collective future.
The choice is clear: Evolve with purpose, or be left behind.