Tech convenience and a human touch. Price consciousness and selective splurging. Openness to AI and wariness of it. Shoppers are rife with contradictions, according to Capgemini’s report “What Matters to Today’s Consumers 2026.”
For instance, 62% of the consumers worldwide surveyed in October 2025 said they were spending more time searching online for deals and discounts than they used to. The same percentage said they were cutting back on nonessentials such as dining out and electronics. Yet only 44% were buying cheaper private-label or low-cost brands this year, compared with 65% of consumers surveyed the previous year.
And though 49% of the 12,000 consumers surveyed said they were buying smaller quantities in response to price increases, 66% said they’d prefer a small price increase to being charged the same amount for an unannounced reduction in size, referred to as “shrinkflation.”
“Consumers are basically saying they don’t want to be hoodwinked,” says Mark Ruston, Global Retail Lead at Capgemini. “Consumers are more informed than they’ve ever been, and they want to be informed. So shrinkflation is seen as an untoward practice.” He adds that “the definition of a small price increase is important here” — brands might view “small” as a 10% hike while consumers might be willing to pay only 2% more. To avoid alienating consumers while being up front, companies could try to position a size reduction as a benefit: Ruston cites one company that addressed the smaller size of its candy bars by saying it was trying to reduce calorie count in the interests of customers’ health.
Then again, if the candy brand decided to increase the price rather than shrink the product, it might have been able to position the candy bar as an indulgent treat. This could have appealed to the 71% of consumers who said small indulgences helped them cope with financial stress and purchased them as a reward for saving elsewhere.
AI Welcome — With Caveats
When it comes to technology, 65% agreed that it has made shopping less stressful. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of survey respondents have used chatbots for customer queries at least once, though only 57% of those who did were satisfied with the experience, down from 65% the previous year.
And consumers seem open to having technology play even more of a role in their shopping experiences — sort of. Sixty-three percent wanted generative AI to provide hyper-personalized content and recommendations based on their preferences. At the same time, 69% said hyper-personalized content has them worried about their privacy and the possible misuse of their financial and personal data.
What’s more, consumers don’t want tech to replace people completely. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents said human interaction from customer support increases their brand loyalty, up 20 percentage points from the previous year; 66% said human interaction during the purchasing stage increases their loyalty, up from 44% the previous year.
For that reason, “you should always give people an off-ramp” during tech-driven interactions, Ruston says, such as enable shoppers to engage with humans at any time during a chatbot conversation. “Invisible AI is expected. Consumers understand AI and want AI, but they don’t want to feel like they’re using AI.”
From Personalization to Contextualization
Ruston also suggests leveraging AI to contextualize as well as personalize promotions. A health tracking app could push a sports drinks ad to an individual after their workout, and in-store digital displays could change their messaging in response to the weather or at different times of day.
This sort of contextualization can also help companies address “a big trend that I think is a problem, which we call moments over merchandise,” Ruston says. Since Covid, many people have prioritized spending on travel, concerts and other experiences over buying products. Contextualization can help businesses tie their products to consumers’ experiential purchases. An apparel brand could partner with an airline, for instance, and use data about individuals’ ticket purchases to suggest clothing for upcoming trips.
Even AI can’t always account for shoppers’ sometimes-perplexing lack of logic, however. “Consumers will continue to show a certain level of irrationality,” Ruston notes, “so all the best-laid plans can still go awry.”
