The Tech-Driven Consumer: Navigating Reality, Authenticity, and Augmentation in 2026

Brunswick 7th annual trends report forecasts technology taking center stage in 2026, stealing the spotlight from the social and demographic trends that have dominated our annual reports in the post-COVID years (see ResearchWorld article for 2025 Trends here.). Employees & Agents (Trend 1), Fusing & Flying Cars (Trend 5), Quantum Arms Race (Trend 6), Blockchain Maturity (Trend 12), Engineered Substitutions - Dinner, Diamonds and Dates (Trend 15), Geoengineering (Trend 16), and Super-Human (Trend 18) are all examples of technology-driven trends in our new year. 2026 will be the year that long-awaited technologies like flying cars, fusion power, quantum computing, blockchain, and geoengineering make headlines.

To be sure, we still forecast the long-range effects of demography in Demographic Winter (Trend 3) and Deaths From Despair (Trend 7), and significant social trends (like Revolt Against Elites) will play their role in 2026.

While we think that all twenty trends are valuable for business leaders to understand, there are three that consumer insights professionals should most focus on: Blended Reality (Trend 13), Authenticity & Craft (Trend 14), and Super Human (Trend 18).

Blended Reality (Trend 13)

The technologies supporting Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will converge on consumer interfaces like their smart phones and smart glasses. Ultimately, some form of heads-up display (HUD) will emerge and achieve smart phone ubiquity. We will then learn to live with blended or enhanced reality.

The computer has consistently advanced along several dimensions, notable (1) compute speed, (2) size (miniaturization), and (3) proximity to the human body. It began life as a machine the size of a warehouse, became a desktop in a home office, a laptop in the living room, and then a phone in the pocket. This trend will continue, a trend that many have forecast and one I explored in my novels, Lincoln 2.0 and Big Alien Movie. Consumers will eventually use an AI-driven heads-up display to navigate their environment, communicate, work, shop, and transact. 2026 will be the year that this technological convergence comes into focus.

What early-adopter behaviors will give us clues about consumer behavior in blended or enhanced reality?

Authenticity & Craft (Trend 14)

With generative AI and LLMs mimicking human creativity at scale, we anticipate a social counter-trend demanding authenticity and valuing craft production. This counter-trend will translate as consumers rewarding brand and company authenticity of communication and consumer experience. It will translate as consumers seeking the human touch in both products and services. We have seen this before. Before industrialization wood floors were the norm and carpet was rare and prized. When factories made carpet inexpensive, purchases surged for a time, until wood floors became rare and prized. The market prices scarcity. Creators will wrap their products in authentic stories, build communities around their products, and add a human touch. Imperfection and quirkiness are likely to be more prized in the near future. How will companies and brands signal authenticity?

Super Human (Trend 18)

What happens when humans begin to claim powers once reserved for comic book superheroes? We are about to find out. Advances in biotech, neural interfaces, and performance-enhancing drugs are pushing the boundaries of our capacity and what it means to be human. At the same time, AI, smart glasses, and digital assistants are seamlessly integrating into our lives and increasing what we can know and achieve. Longevity startups, cognitive augmentation and everyday assistants are becoming the next frontier of innovation. Consider that The Enhanced Games are scheduled for May 2026, in which athletes can use all performance enhancing drugs and compete. Mechanical exoskeletons are becoming much more advanced. With each advance we become more than human. What is the market for human power enhancement? What products will super humans most want?

What do these three trends tell us when taken together?

They tell us that consumers are using technology to become ever more powerful, that they will begin to experience reality through an overlay that enriches that reality, and that in an age of generative AI they will crave authenticity, even if quirky and imperfect. These trends guarantee a new consumer and new consumer need states.

Welcome to 2026. Welcome to the future.