2025: Instant Happiness! Not.

Last year AI was still shiny and full of promise. I’m already in the trough of disillusionment as a consumer. It ain’t Maggi. It doesn’t come with a simple set of instructions that you follow for 2 minutes three days in a row, and change your habits forever.

Shoppers Stop sent us flowers for a wedding anniversary twenty years ago. I still remember that fondly. Cut to December when we were shopping at their beauty outlet in Kolkata and there was an MRP mismatch between the packaging on the cosmetic boxes and the billing system. Instead of honouring the price on the box, it became a dispute with the sales staff refusing to sell the products. The brand was Benefit and my daughter is enamored so we had to figure out a way to get it.

 

I wrote to the CEO on LinkedIn, and we were sent the products at the MRP price.

 

Despite the easy access to tech that can know and predict your best customers or change pricing on the fly, the humans were not equipped or trained to prioritize the customer experience.

 

New startups are engineered using the latest tech and this gives them a natural advantage. Legacy firms must proactively match the potential of tech with their customer experience.

Maggi’s secret sauce – pun intended – is that instead of being categorized as a ready to eat food, it was positioned as something you could cook from scratch in 2 minutes. So you could still feel you’ve achieved a healthy meal. I love Blinkit for the same reason – I decide to bake a cake and can get all the ingredients in 5 minutes. Swiggy went one step further offering “kits” of strawberries and chocolate for the latest insta trend.

 

I find myself prioritizing availability over brands. I reduced order quantities – a big saving if you have a picky eater of specialty foods. Growing up pre-liberalization I am a child of scarcity and tend to hoard essentials. But the easy availability has made me break free from that conditioning. I can be more spontaneous in many areas of my life – from dressing to travel to food.

 

This is an area where I can see a lot of potential – using data to reduce friction to consumption.

This is an ongoing trend, and the “it” varies per person or business. Thanks to the increased data processing powers increasingly complex activities can be simplified and communicated to a range of people.

 

While teens are busy whipping up erstwhile gourmet desserts like chocolate covered strawberries in the microwave, smart consultants are able to access and apply the vast storehouse of frameworks from the likes of McKinsey.

 

Coupled with the ongoing “make it easy for me” trend, this will change the way we live and do business.

AI has consumed all available content and will now start consuming AI generated content. All available content was shady enough, but now it won’t know what is a hallucination and what’s real. Elon Musk says many things, but this one I’ll believe.

 

AI has made it possible to create fake content that is extremely plausible. And X and Meta are washing their hands off the responsibility to ensure accuracy of content on their platforms. The larger internet was never self-regulated anyways. Fake news can be a matter of life and death. To brands and individuals.

 

Authenticity will become a clear differentiator. This is also a business opportunity. I was surprised to come across a handwriting analyst who said that many tech companies use him to analyse the character of senior hires! (Sadly I had no way to authenticate his claim.)

 

Established, credible sources of information can reposition themselves and monetize their authenticity.

Los Angeles burning in the midst of winter is a stark image – most of us have idealistic images of Hollywood and do not associate it with this level of human tragedy. Donald Trump wants Greenland because melting ice caps have made it more accessible. And in India, climate change driven migration is a real phenomenon. People from the populous states cite drought, flooding and hailstorms as their reason for migration.

 

Migration is a social and business opportunity, as is mitigating the adverse impact of climate change.

The power of AI and internet will remove asymmetry of information in many more industries. For example, as more tourists can compare the full cost of travel and read about the experience of a destination in their own language they are likely to become more adventurous.

 

My parents did not own any shares and in my family share trading was considered very close to gambling. So when I had to compare an offer letter from Infosys which included ESOPs with one from another firm that did not, I was ill-equipped to assess the value. Luckily my father in law was a banker and politely suggested I join Infosys – this was in the days that it grew 70% even though I did not work 70 hours a week. I am very grateful that he had that knowledge. Today, ChatGPT would do an excellent analysis of the two offer letters in 20 seconds!

 

As information becomes more specific and freely available in multiple formats and languages, more and more people will become empowered to take risk.

Country of origin will matter more to trade as the world takes extreme positions on nationalism and countryhood. This has an impact on your brand – choose wisely how you will build your origin story. This is not just at the country level – states may have their own positions on this. For example, Karnataka wants to make “made in Karnataka” labelling mandatory. Would you buy, say, Punjabi pickle if it was labelled Made in Karnataka?

 

2025 promises to be an interesting year with much excitement in store!

 

I wish you all a year in which you get closer to your chosen destiny.

 

Best wishes for a happy new year.