Will Novosedlik’s article was previously featured in the Summer 2026 issue of Strategy Magazine.
If there’s one thing that’s shaping consumer behaviour in 2026, it’s uncertainty. We are threatened by the concurrence of several distinct crises: consider economic instability, rapidly changing technology and geopolitical conflict as only the leaders in a very long list. As these pressures collide, what behaviours have consumers adopted that brands should be watching most closely?
Sabaa Quao
Bridging the trust deficit
Sabaa Quao, president of PlusCo Venture Studio, puts a lot of emphasis on the word “trust.” Says Quao, “There’s concern about data manipulation. There are concerns about AI misrepresentation and distortion. There’s concern about fraud, misinformation and misdirection. Then there’s concern about the authenticity of creators and influencers. All of these lead to a crisis of trust. How many of us in the last month have seen something and said: ‘Is that real?’ How many of us have received a fraud alert that itself turned out to be fraudulent?” An increasing share of consumer decision-making is now shaped not just by what brands sell, but by whether people believe the systems, platforms and information surrounding them can still be trusted.
Value vs. values
As a result of growing distrust in large corporations, Canadians are looking for brands closer to home, according to Susan Seto, SVP market strategy at Environics. They’re more likely to want to support local brands, which they see as being more authentic. They want to invest in brands that align with their values. But there is a tension between affordability and authenticity. Consumers are becoming more intentional and selective in their purchases, spending more time weighing the trade-offs between quality and price.
Susan Seto
Hyper-individualized self-expression
As evidence of the old saw that you are what you buy, consumers are embracing bold self-expression and personalization. Says Seto, “Personal display and expression are more about finding a way for consumers to express themselves individually, choosing brands that are smaller, closer to home, aligned with their own personal values, how they want to be seen and what brands they want to be associated with.” According to research firm Escalent, self-expression and personalization are now table stakes, with consumers expecting brands to reflect individual identity, preferences and values at every touchpoint. Hyper-segmentation and personalization strategies powered by data, AI and behavioural insights are no longer optional; they’re essential.
Luc Dumont
An AI-filtered marketplace
According to Luc Dumont, SVP insights at Leger Marketing, “We’re telling consumer packaged goods companies and retailers that they need to be mindful of the fact that, while consumers used to outsource their searches to Google, AI is now enabling them to outsource their purchase decisions as well. That means no more sifting through dozens of brands to see which one is closest to fulfilling your purchase criteria. AI reduces a lot of that friction by doing it for you. So, consumers are consulting fewer sources, considering fewer brands and trying to make their decisions faster. For brands, the risk is no longer lack of visibility. It’s exclusion from the mid-funnel consideration set.” As AI intermediates consumer decision-making, brands will have fewer opportunities to win people over through discovery alone and will instead need to earn a place in consideration before the process even begins.
More reasons to believe
Global uncertainty and daily stress are making consumers of every age more skeptical, less trusting, more selective and more community-oriented than they were five years ago. Despite these shifts, there is reason to believe humans will figure it out. Says Quao, “Remember how we used to all get overloaded with spam? And we said, ’Doesn’t my telco or internet service provider have an obligation to solve spam?’ And so, they solved it. Now we rarely get spam like we used to. There’s no reason to believe we can’t solve for the issues we face today. The brands that win will do it by being verifiably trustworthy and genuinely useful in people’s actual lives.”
