MAM
Reality bites: why consumers are fleeing into fantasy
MUMBAI: The age of generative everything has left consumers feeling decidedly unregenerated. While 53 per cent of people now use AI in their daily lives—rising to 70 per cent among Gen Z—a curious counter-revolution is brewing. People are rationing their screen time, ditching algorithmic recommendations, and investing heavily in stuffed toys. Welcome to 2026.
dentsu Creative’s newly released trends report, Generative Realities, paints a portrait of humanity caught between digital acceleration and analog yearning. The research, which surveyed 4,500 consumers across seven markets including the US, UK, India, Spain, Brazil, China and Japan, suggests we’re simultaneously sprinting toward the future and scrambling back to the past.
The numbers tell a schizophrenic story. Some 32 per cent of respondents admit AI sometimes understands them better than friends and family. Yet 55 per cent are sick of algorithms serving up the same tedious content, and 40 per cent find the online world so stressful they’re actively switching off.
“We see a new balance emerging between acceleration and deceleration,” says dentsu clobal chief creative officer Yasu Sasaki. “People crave both the hyper-real and the handmade, the digital and the deeply human.”
Indian consumers are leading the charge on fandom, with 65 per cent identifying themselves through the communities they follow—the strongest such identity globally. Meanwhile, 70 per cent of consumers worldwide say modern life feels so stressful they need to escape, fuelling what the report calls Escape Velocity—a flight into fantasy, collectibles and the all-conquering power of cute.
The traditional is having its moment too. Three-quarters of consumers feel drawn to spending more time in nature, while 64 per cent are attracted to traditional values and ways of living. Fungi, fermentation and pickles are having their day, alongside silent book clubs, sober raves and “dumb” devices that don’t connect to anything.
“AI is evolving faster than any technology before it, but human creativity remains the constant,” notes dentsu Creative global president Abbey Klaassen. “The most successful brands in 2026 will be those that blend technological intelligence with emotional intelligence.”
For India specifically, dentsu Creative & Media Brands, chief executive officer for south Asia Amit Wadhwa sees opportunity in the collision. “The opportunity for brands in 2026 is to bring these two forces together—to use technology to scale what is deeply human, and to let India’s cultural diversity shape the next wave of creativity.”
dentsu Creative global chief strategy officer Pats McDonald who led the report’s development and served as Cannes Lions Creative Strategy jury president this year, insists there’s method in the apparent madness. “Some of those trends may seem frivolous or faddy at first glance—adult collectibles or daytime coffee raves—but speak to a profound human need for connection, comfort and community.”
The report identifies five macro themes: Escape Velocity (fantasy and fandom), Electric Dreams (AI intimacy), Trad Lives (nature and tradition), Alone Together (new forms of socialising), and Analog Futures (the rejection of digital sameness).
The message for brands? Stop assuming people want more of what algorithms think they want. In a world where 51 per cent now turn to AI for questions they’d previously ask friends and family, and 63 per cent spend vast amounts of time alone, the real innovation might just be helping people reconnect with texture, friction and each other.
After all, when the machines get too smart, humans get nostalgic. And right now, nostalgia is selling like handcrafted, fermented, hyperlocal hotcakes.
Digital
Eight-year-old coder steals the show at India AI Impact Summit 2026
Ranvir Sachdeva meets Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman, links ancient philosophy to modern AI
DELHI: Amid a sea of global tech chiefs and policy heavyweights, the loudest buzz at Bharat Mandapam this week came from a boy barely tall enough to see over the lectern.
Ranvir Sachdeva, eight, became the youngest keynote speaker at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, elbowing his way into a line-up dominated by chief executives, founders and ministers. Calm, bespectacled and fiercely articulate, he declared himself a technologist — and spoke like one.
“I’m here as the youngest keynote speaker at the India AI Impact Summit. I’m talking about how I’m linking ancient Indian philosophies to modern-day technologies. I’m also covering the different approaches which the rest of the nations are building AI,” he told news agency ANI.
He added: “I’m talking about how India is building AI with. I’m sharing my own use case of an Indian AI model just released and how I’m contributing to India’s GDP and driving AI literacy with it.”
The summit, held from February 16 to 21 in New Delhi, has drawn global names. Ranvir met Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on the sidelines, sharing photographs of the encounters. He has previously met Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and Doreen Bogdan-Martin, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva.
In 2024, he met António Guterres, United Nations secretary-general.
His most high-profile brush with corporate royalty came earlier. In 2023, during the opening of Apple’s Delhi store, Ranvir demonstrated his Swift coding skills to Apple chief executive Tim Cook in a one-on-one session. Cook later posted: “What an incredible reception, Delhi, thank you! We’re delighted to welcome our customers to our newest store—Apple Saket!”
What an incredible reception, Delhi, thank you! We’re delighted to welcome our customers to our newest store—Apple Saket! pic.twitter.com/5Jmi79ixzl— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 20, 2023
Ranvir replied publicly: “Thank you so much, @tim_cook! It was great meeting you today and showcasing my Apple Swift coding skills! You are an inspiration and I so want to meet you at #WWDC2023!”
Thank you so much, Tim! You are an inspiration and I so want to meet you at #WWDC2023 ! 🙂 https://t.co/BVthznLjD8— Ranvir Singh Sachdeva (@ranvirsachdeva) April 20, 2023
The invitation followed. Cook extended a personal call for Ranvir to attend the Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 at Apple Park in Cupertino.
This is not Ranvir’s first turn on the global stage. In 2025, aged seven, he addressed the United Nations’ AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva as its youngest keynote speaker. He spoke for 20 minutes on “Agents of Change: A 7-Year-Old’s Lens on Generation AI for Good”, in front of more than 10,000 attendees from over 180 countries and 53 UN partner organisations.
He shared the broader stage with Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel laureate and Turing Award winner, alongside senior figures from Amazon, Meta and Salesforce. According to a LinkedIn post by the Ardee School, Ranvir argued that “Generation AI are the true changemakers”, highlighting healthcare breakthroughs from bionic solutions and exoskeletons to assistive devices for ALS patients. He called for the democratisation of such tools to bridge the digital divide.
The precocity runs deep. At six, he became the world’s youngest TEDx speaker, speaking on technology and innovation. At five, he won a gold medal as a “Super Presenter” in the 2022 Global Reading Challenge. Media reports say that in 2021 he built a prototype rocket aimed at supporting NASA’s Mars exploration, earning recognition from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In 2023, he became the youngest recipient of a robotics and AI certification from IIT Delhi after a summer workshop at the I-HUB Foundation for Robotics.
He began coding at three.
At an event otherwise obsessed with trillion-dollar valuations, sovereign AI stacks and regulatory guardrails, it was a small voice that cut through. Linking Sanskrit thought to silicon chips, GDP to generative models, Ranvir Sachdeva did more than make history. He made the grown-ups listen.
#WATCH | Delhi: At #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026, Ranvir Sachdeva, Child Prodigy, Technologist, Global Author says, "I'm here as the youngest keynote speaker at the India AI Impact Summit. I'm talking about how I'm linking ancient Indian philosophies to modern-day technologies. I'm… pic.twitter.com/e3OGgtxyDK— ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2026
