Why your 2026 consumer will date AI, cuddle plush toys and quit the algorithm

New Delhi: Advertising is rushing deeper into the age of generative AI, but consumers are just as urgently looking for comfort in soft toys, forests, chess clubs and 1990s nostalgia. 

That tension sits at the heart of Dentsu Creative’s new global trends report, Generative Realities: Dentsu Creative Trends 2026, which identifies five macro shifts shaping how people live, consume culture and relate to brands in the coming year.

Introducing the study, Dentsu’s global creative leadership said AI is evolving faster than any previous technology, yet “human creativity remains the constant”. The most successful brands, they argue, will be those that balance acceleration with deceleration, pairing efficiency with empathy and innovation with imagination. Consumers “crave both the hyper-real and the handmade, the digital and the deeply human”, creating friction but also opportunity for marketers.

The report tracked how trends now “rise and fall at the pace of a prompt”, but insists that beneath fast-moving memes lie slower, structural forces: cost-of-living pressure pushing adult milestones out of reach, a decades-long erosion of social connectedness, and climate and tech anxiety driving people back towards nature, ritual and tactility.

Five macro themes for 2026

Dentsu Creative groups its 2026 signalled under five interlinked themes: Escape Velocity, Electric Dreams, Trad Lives, Alone Together and Analogue Futures. Each combined what is “trending” in feeds with what the agency sees as “timely” and “timeless” human needs.

Across its proprietary survey of 4,500 consumers in seven markets, including India, three-quarters of respondents say they are drawn to spending more time in nature, while 63% feel pulled towards music and TV from earlier generations. At the same time, 53% already use AI chat platforms in their personal lives, and 32% globally say they sometimes feel their AI chatbot understands them better than friends or family.

Escape velocity: adult collectibles, romantasy and the “cult of cute”

The first theme, Escape Velocity, argued that in a world of conflict, geopolitical instability and rising prices, consumers are coping by escaping “adulting” through fantasies, fandoms and fluffy toys.

Dentsu highlighted the boom in adult collectibles and “dystopian cuteness”, from deranged-cute characters like Labubu and the wider blind-box craze, to high-end beauty and fashion brands producing charms, plush toys and collaborations with toy makers. Sales of toys to adults in the US have risen 18% year-on-year, while Jellycat has reported a 66% revenue jump and expanded into pop-ups with partners such as Harrods and QSR tie-ups in Asia.

This collecting behaviour, the report says, acts as modern talismans, giving anxious adults a sense of order and identity, but also at times tipping into addiction as some spend heavily chasing elusive blind-box variants.

Alongside toys, Dentsu noted the rise of “romantasy”, a BookTok-fuelled publishing wave that merges romance, spice and fantasy settings often born on fanfiction platforms. Tags such as #steamybooktok have billions of views, while global streaming data shows more than half of Netflix’s subscribers now watching anime.

The third strand is the “cult of cute”. Across food, beauty and tech, brands are using cuteification as a strategy: pastel coffee drinks, Starbucks “Bearista” cups that resell for hundreds of dollars, Thai mini-desserts, kawaii-styled packaging, charm-like gadgets and even “cute debt” as a way of describing buy-now-pay-later culture. For 63% of global respondents, and 77% of Gen Z, cute products and packaging deliver “much-needed joy”.

For marketers, Dentsu said this adds up to a clear brief: build brand IP through characters and collectibles, treat fandoms as long-term equity plays, and use craft and playful detail at every touchpoint rather than relying on lowest-effort memes.

Electric dreams: AI situationships, “slop” fatigue and synthetic influencers

Electric Dreams looked at the emotional side of AI adoption. Dentsu’s research finds more than half of consumers now use AI chat platforms privately, with usage highest among Gen Z in markets such as China, Brazil and India. Over half of respondents say they now ask AI questions they would previously have put to a parent, teacher, or friend, and a third feel their chatbot understands them better than people around them.

The report calls these intense pseudo-relationships “AI situationships” and flags concerns about vulnerable users and children forming deep attachments to AI-powered toys and companions. It cites wearables like Friend.ai, cute character devices such as Poketomo and TCL’s AiMe, and AI-enabled stuffed animals, which have already sparked parental anxiety.

At the same time, platforms are battling an explosion of AI-generated “slop”, low-quality, mass-produced content created purely to game algorithms. Dentsu pointed out that nearly one in ten of the fastest-growing YouTube channels are now fully AI-generated, forcing YouTube and Spotify to curb monetisation of such content. Some studies show readers trust articles less when they “feel” AI-written, and even workplace “workslop” is emerging as a problem when lazy prompts produce more confusion than clarity.

Against this, the report tracks a counter-movement towards slow, crafted content: newsletters on platforms like Substack, athlete-led storytelling initiatives, slow-TV style “long shot” travel films and quarterly magazine formats that favour depth over churn.

Electric Dreams also examined the new wave of AI-native musicians and influencers: virtual singer Xania Monet signing a multi-million-dollar record deal, AI bands that rack up streams before revealing their synthetic nature, AI “artists” topping charts and ultra-realistic AI actors appearing at film festivals. Some brands, by contrast, are now explicitly promising “no AI-generated people or bodies” in their advertising.

Dentsu’s advice to marketers: be clear about where AI adds genuine efficiency or effectiveness, set boundaries to avoid “workslop”, and design AI-enabled content for difference, not sameness, so that creativity and brand distinctiveness are not flattened by the algorithm.

Trad lives: soil, second cities and spiritual quests

The Trad Lives theme explores a growing urge to reconnect with land, locality and tradition. Three-quarters of consumers globally say they are drawn to spending more time in nature, with India (88%), China (87%), Brazil (82%) and Spain (80%) especially strong on this measure.

Dentsu tracked surges in farmstays, hiking, foraging, gardening and interest in fungi and fermentation, from best-selling books on microbes to designers using mushrooms as inspiration. In China, younger audiences are escaping intense work cultures through outdoor hobbies, while in India, young entrepreneurs are returning to farming with technology and AI-enabled agriculture. Membership of the UK’s National Trust has risen sharply among 18-25-year-olds, underlining nature’s appeal as “instant therapy” at low cost.

Another shift is geographic: national pride and economic pressure are pushing people to explore their own countries rather than aspire only to overseas travel. Second cities are gaining status across Asia-Pacific; governments such as South Korea’s are incentivising young people to start businesses in the countryside; and tourism boards are using mystery road trips to spread visitors beyond overburdened hotspots.

Hyperlocal culture is also rising in media and retail, from AI-powered visual localisation for India’s many languages to campaigns celebrating where domestic content is produced, and supermarket tie-ups with urban farms that deliver produce picked within an hour. Overall, 58% of consumers say they are exploring unknown parts of their own country rather than holidaying abroad.

Trad Lives also includes a clear “spiritual quests” strand. Just over half of respondents globally say they are exploring their spirituality more as life feels uncertain, with higher figures in Brazil, China and India. The report notes a documented rise in church attendance among 16–24-year-olds in the UK and a similar trend among young men in the US, alongside new formats that reimagine religious spaces and rituals for younger audiences and digital culture.

For brands, Dentsu says this creates demand for hyperlocal ingredients and stories, new rural or second-tier city markets, and products that act as small rituals offering calm and meaning in anxious times.

Alone together: villages, “soft clubbing” and creator glue

Picking up from last year’s “togetherness deficit”, Alone Together focuses on loneliness and the search for new “villages”. Dentsu’s research finds 63% of people feel they spend a lot of time on their own, and 38% say they are often lonely. Half say they do not really know their neighbours, with Gen Z particularly disconnected at 56%.

As traditional pubs and high-alcohol nightlife lose their central place, new social formats are emerging: silent book clubs, knit-while-you-watch cinema screenings, listening clubs, Mahjong nights, pottery cafés and supper clubs. Brands are partnering with community groups, from confectionery players supporting LGBTQ+ directories of meet-ups to personal-care brands backing “log off” social clubs.

Attitudes to alcohol are shifting in parallel. Only 54% of US adults now identify as drinkers, and globally, half of Gen Z respondents say they avoid alcohol and struggle to socialise in traditional bars. Interest in alternatives such as low/no alcohol drinks with natural stimulants rises to 49% among Gen Z.

This is fuelling “natural highs”, adaptogen-infused beverages, daytime coffee raves, mushroom chocolate events and a return to at-home entertaining in markets such as Malaysia. Dentsu expects adaptogens to expand across food and supplement categories as people seek mood-changing rituals without alcohol.

Within an atomised content landscape, the report also stresses the role of creators and streamers as “islands in the stream” that connect fragmented audiences. From platforms that let viewers clip and share any moment of a show to individual streamers winning rights to major sports events or curating their own retail storefronts, influence and commerce are being redistributed from institutions to individuals.

Two-thirds of consumers say they are more likely to respond to content personalised to their interests, and over half say they appreciate brands that engage meaningfully with the communities they care about.

Analog futures: neo-Luddites, anti-algorithm fashion and 90s nostalgia

Finally, Analog Futures examines how younger generations are pushing back against an always-on, algorithmically optimised world. Dentsu found 40% of respondents feel online life is so stressful they try to switch off as much as possible, 50% ration their own screen time, and almost a third are interested in trying “dumb” devices such as brick phones or MP3 players, rising to 45% among Gen Z.

Start-ups selling distraction-blocking gadgets, kids’ voice-only communicators and retro-style music players are tapping this mood, while towns experiment with voluntary limits on smartphone use. Pen pals, handwriting, craft subscriptions and nostalgic retail concepts are all part of the same desire for tactile, lower-pressure connection.

There is also an explicit “anti-algorithm” current, from people rejecting dating apps in favour of more serendipitous methods, to fashion houses and magazines championing anti-trend dressing and celebrating subcultural style. Campaigns that foreground hand-drawn craft, analog photography or the human touch are positioned as counters to AI-generated sameness.

Overlaying all of this is a powerful wave of 90s and 2000s nostalgia: playlists, films, brand campaigns and even menus that revive the era’s prices and products. Dentsu notes that 66 per cent of consumers believe people “had a lot more fun” in those decades and 68 per cent agree life is too short not to indulge – but the agency also warns that some retro trends, from tanning culture to narrow beauty ideals, are distinctly unhealthy.

‘Solve for the trend behind the trend’

Summing up Generative Realities, Dentsu Creative said the job for marketers is not to chase every fad, but to understand the human drivers behind them, the need for escape, connection, belonging, meaning and control, and then decide where their brand can credibly play.

By “solving for the trend behind the trend”, the report argues, brands can learn how to win with the algorithm without being ruled by it, and design campaigns that honour both the generative, AI-driven realities of 2026 and the enduring human realities underneath.