How can Brands Rewire to Meet Evolving Customer Needs

In an increasingly tech-dominated world, consumers are rebalancing key behaviors and shifting their priorities. As emerging technologies—especially AI and generative AI—reshape consumers’ digital experiences, people are becoming more discerning about the digital content they consume. This is prompting businesses to rethink on how to pivot to meet evolving customer needs.

Accenture 18th annual marquee bellwether report, Life Trends 2025, identifies such global macro trends and provides key consumer insights and guidance for businesses. The trends show the changing dynamics between technology and users and highlight key challenges and opportunities for brands.

This year’s Life Trends report sources insights from responses recorded from across the globe and predicts new dynamics of trust that will reshape relationships between people and businesses. In India, more than 50% of people surveyed are questioning the content they’re served online more than before. This makes trust take center stage. For example, for 71% of people in India, trust becomes critical while engaging with a brand.

Let’s look at the five critical 2025 trends in the report and examine key India insights in each of these. Watch Video | Discuss | Read Media Coverage: ET BrandEquity | Storyboard18 | Campaign India

Trend 1: Cost of Hesitations

With scams in the digital space on the rise, the digital experience is degrading, and hesitation is becoming a reflex for users as trust takes a big hit. In fact, generative AI is amplifying this confusion, with people misusing the technology to commit crimes online more easily.

According to the report, over half of people in India now question online content’s authenticity. The erosion of trust is impacting online shopping and brand interactions, with 34% of people in India reporting deep-fake attacks or scams in the past year and almost half the respondents having seen fraudulent product reviews online. Brands must reassure customers by creating trust in communications, commerce, and product. Discuss

Trend 2: The Parent Trap

Today's parents are facing a tough challenge: helping young people shape a safe, healthy relationship with digital technology—potentially against their will. Unrestricted access to the internet and social media is influencing extreme behaviors and exposing young people to bullying, abuse, unrealistic beauty standards, deep-fakes, sextortion and age-inappropriate content that once seen, cannot be unseen. Parents are realizing the urgency of the situation and establishing guardrails as governments work on top-down policy.

More than two-thirds of Gen Z and Millennials in India agree that they’re spending more time online than they would like to (67% and 74% in India respectively). Almost 70% people in India think parents should limit the time their children spend on social media. Healthy debate and a rethinking of brand strategies can help find the right balance.

Trend 3: Impatience Economy

People are realizing the power of crowdsourcing. This is satisfying their impatience for alternate ways to achieve health, wealth and happiness.

Today, 44% of consumers in India say they wish companies would respond faster to their changing needs. As the ‘impatience economy’ grows, nearly 70% in India are shifting from brand-led to crowd-sourced information for faster results, even taking riskier paths for health and financial goals. Moreover, 74% of people in India are getting inspiration from social media on how to do things smarter. This is a wake-up call for businesses — they need to enhance their services to build stronger connections with their customers.

Trend 4: The Dignity of Work

With the changing dynamics of businesses, technology and people’s behaviors, the dignity of work is being shaken. As generative AI makes an impact at the workplace, leaders need to wake up to the new reality of how people's agency and dignity needs to be restored and refreshed in the face of a challenged work culture.

The response to generative AI at the workplace is mixed. While 88% in India find generative AI helpful at work, a quarter feel it could impact job security. It’s time for leaders to re-energize the workforce through improved motivation and agency—to retain the best talent.

Trend 5: Social Rewilding

People are finding happiness more and more outside of the digital world. They are going back to real-life experiences with real people to find a balance between technology and moments of joy and well-being.

India survey from the report indicates that 27% of people in India attributed their most enjoyable experience in the past week to something they did in real life, while only one in four noted a digital experience.

Brands must rewire themselves and seek out ways to authentically connect with customers. Discuss.

As people go after a healthier, more balanced relationship with technology, brands can rewire themselves by radically rethinking their digital strategies, refreshing data and AI-led offerings and processes and creating more meaningful engagement with customers—thereby creating evergreen relevance and growth.

Download the India infographic of the Life Trends 2025 report.

Accenture is ready to help as you begin to re-imagine your business. If you’d like to know more about how we can partner with you in your Reinvention journey, please feel free to contact us.

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