The Future Laboratory's 2026 briefing names five consumer shifts, from cost-of-living pressure to how people lean on AI. Which of them is already changing your customers?
The Future Laboratory's 2026 trend briefing explores five consumer shifts: cost-of-living pressures driving community-focused value and alt-finance, mobility flexibility over ownership, identity battles around pleasure positivity and misogyny, tension between hyper-connected and restorative future spaces, and AI's dual role in empowering versus over-reliance.



