Brands must adapt to capture attention in an AI-driven and culturally shaped future: dentsu Report

Dentsu has announced the release of its landmark global study Consumer Vision 2035: The Era of the Insight-to-Foresight Pivot, which charts the long-term consumer trends that will shape the next decade. The research shows a growing comfort level among consumers for an increasing number of administrative and shopping activities being managed by AI on their behalf.

While technology will cocoon consumers’ lives in years to come, nature will constrain them as societal conventions around growth and prosperity will be further unseated. This will create a landscape where assumptions that previously perpetuated culture and business are re-examined.

In response to these tensions, consumers will lean further into their emotions and passions when actively engaging with brands. 7 in 10 consumers say that already today a significant share of their shopping decision is influenced by the mood they’re in at the time of purchase. The study also shows that most consumers wish they were more impulsive and actively seek experiences that elicit visceral emotions.

Each of the forces outlined in the research carries implications for brands, but across the entire study the ability to pivot from insight to foresight emerged as the critical quality needed to anticipate and deliver on predicted emotional states, a new requirement to thrive as a business by 2035.

On the launch of the report, Jeff Greenspoon, Global Practice President, Integrated Solutions, dentsu said, “What is very clear from the findings of the Consumer Vision 2035 study is that we are only now just entering the next era of transformation across technology, culture, and consumer expectations. An AI-filtered world might seem far into the future, but it is already becoming a reality today and consumers’ interactions with brands will fundamentally shift within the next 10 years. Business leaders and brand builders must start preparing for this new landscape today with both technology and creativity. These provocative insights are the starting point to guide people-centred transformation efforts that create long-term brand opportunities, because those that push the boundaries to innovate now will undoubtedly see the biggest impact through the next decade.”

Key insights from the study:

• The new report, surveying 30,000 people across 26 countries, examines the long-term trends shaping the future of technology, culture, consumers, and brands on the pathway to 2035.
• Half of global consumers say that by 2035 they’d like to have an AI clone of themselves to take care of shopping, admin, and communications tasks on their behalf.
• The coming decade will see the proliferation of ‘AI Gatekeepers’ that consumers will look to take charge of recurring purchases, vetting ads and promotions sent by businesses, and take part in focus groups on their behalf, so they can more easily make their preferences known to brands.
• 4 in 5 global consumers expect that by 2035 they will need to shift some of their daily activities due to how the climate will change.
• Brands will need to become more perceptive in order to garner consumer attention in the AI-filtered and culturally reshaped reality on the horizon.

The dentsu study Consumer Vision 2035 is available here.