Global Scans · Lifestyles · Weekly Summary

WHAT'S NEXT?: Digital lifestyles are on the rise around the world and AR and VR will likely see us all using wearables, head-mounted displays and smartphones in almost everything we do. And, most of us will be living in cities too with full amenities close by.

• [New] Athleisure is the fastest-growing segment with a 7.01% CAGR projected from 2026-2031, fueled by the blend of luxury fashion and active lifestyles. GlobeNewswire
• [New] The brands that grow in 2026 will be the ones that make shopping feel simple, useful, transparent, and trustworthy - everywhere customers discover them. HostArmada Blog
• [New] At RSAC 2026, CrowdStrike announced new cloud security and data protection capabilities addressing how to prioritize cloud risks based on real attacker behaviour and how to protect sensitive data moving across endpoints, SaaS, cloud, and generative AI tools. AIMultiple
• [New] When shopping online, watch out for cloned sites by looking at their address - legitimate UK sites will often use. The Guardian
• [New] Commerce-tagged content can appear in dedicated shopping feeds and may receive additional distribution - with TikTok Shop sales forecast to reach $23.41 billion in 2026, product tagging is a relevant lever for brands with e-commerce goals. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard
• [New] TikTok Shop keeps growing, and livestream shopping, long dominant in China at roughly 1.2 trillion dollars a year, finally looks like it might have a real moment in the US. B2The7
• [New] Grocers and high street retailers like Boots will need to fulfill a shopping list of requests from media buyers if they are to capture a greater share of retail media revenue. Digiday
• [New] The platforms that win in Europe and in regulated sectors will be the ones that make safe behaviour the default behaviour. Mean CEO's BLOG
• [New] The Small and Medium Enterprises segment is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR from 2026 to 2034 due to the democratization of technology and the availability of affordable cloud-based Internet of Behaviour solutions tailored for smaller businesses. Market Data Forecast
• [New] Even in the most conservative scenario, a significant proportion of standard purchasing behaviour will shift to agent-driven channels over the next few years. valantic
• [New] Overconfident CEOs adopt ambivalent behaviour: they can initiate substantial CSR investments due to their visionary disposition, but their cognitive bias might also drive exaggerated or opportunistic CSR communications in accordance with self-enhancement dynamics. Nature
• [New] OpenAI researchers have proposed Deployment Simulation, a testing method that estimates how frequently an unreleased AI model will exhibit undesirable behaviour by evaluating it against anonymized real user conversations from earlier model deployments. MarketingProfs
• Checkout.com quantifies the trust gap in AI shopping: Checkout.com reported that one-third of surveyed consumers expect at least 10% of their purchases to be AI-driven within a year, while 27% said they trust no organization to operate an AI shopping agent. Agentic Commerce Frontier
• AI is transforming shopping: Nearly half of retailers anticipate AI will handle a third of transactions in the next five years. LinkedIn
• The National Weather Service issued widespread dangerous heat warnings, with heat index values forecast as high as 110 degrees in parts of Texas. AC Direct
• Consumer adoption of agentic shopping is expected to jump from 19% to 46% by the end of 2026. Braze
• Darktrace uses self-learning AI to understand normal behaviour across an organization's digital estate and detect activity that could cause disruption. GOV.UK
• If Google succeeds in building more seamless agentic shopping flows, the gap between product research and transaction could shrink even further. Neil Patel
• The US is increasingly seeing China as a threat to its hegemony and the preservation of the Western values-based order, and is responding through its Indo-Pacific strategy. orfonline.org
• The future of sustainable eating could depend on translating the principles of traditional Japanese diets - seasonality, fermentation, plant proteins, and resource efficiency - into formats that fit modern convenience-oriented lifestyles. FoodNavigator-Asia.com

Last updated: 16 July 2026