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What the Future

What the Future is an award-winning strategic foresight magazine. Each month, WTF takes a deep dive into a topic with exclusive data and expert interviews to highlight the trends and players of today that will shape tomorrow.

The news landscape is at a crossroads. Here’s what that means for the general public and the private sector

The future of news matters for brands, the general public, and … democracy itself. Here are the forces that could shape the headlines, businesses’ bottom lines and everything in between.

Leisure

In What the Future: Leisure, experts explain how Americans spend their time off the clock — and where leisure will go in the years to come.

Creativity

Business relies on creativity and innovation to serve customers and compete. Here’s how artificial intelligence is changing both ends of that equation.

Shopping

What the Future: Shopping explores the forces that are changing how Americans spend and save, and how that will reverberate across industries.

Risk

In an age of compounding and interconnected crises, the only certainty is more uncertainty. Here’s what brands and policymakers need to know about the risk of business and business of risk.

Wellness

Emerging technologies and changing perspectives could help Americans live longer and healthier lives. Here’s what that could look like — and what it’ll mean for brands and businesses.

Parenting

It’s said that parents have the hardest job in the world — and that job comes with plenty of hopes, fears, and unmet needs that brands can help solve.

Manufacturing

From heavy industry to homegrown businesses, manufacturing is part and parcel with modern living. But new innovations and logistical challenges could transform the field — with significant consequences for brands, businesses, institutions, and consumers.

Teen

What it means to be a teen is changing. So is the world youth live in. This issue explores how the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of adolescents are evolving in an age of social media, climate change, and economic instability, and what these transformations mean for brands, media and institutions.

Conflict

Defense is about managing risk in an uncertain world. This issue deals with topics about the future of conflict — geopolitics, cyberattacks, disinformation, climate change, polarization, staffing and training and supply chain continuity — that are on the minds of the situation room and the board room.

Cities

Between remote work, a cost-of-living crisis and climate change, cities are facing new challenges — and new opportunities. The shifting role of cities won’t just affect how people live and work but will shape the future of industries ranging from manufacturing to restaurants.

Intelligence

Whether you’re ready or not, the AI era has arrived. Here’s what brands, businesses and policymakers need to know about the potential risks and rewards of this technology, and how to navigate the tension between the wonder of AI and the worries about its potential.

Gender

The future of gender is in a state of flux. Here’s how views and norms are changing, and what they could mean for businesses and policymakers.

Farming

Here’s how brands and businesses can use innovation, technology and ingenuity to meet the growing global demand for healthy and sustainable nutrition in a changing world.

Purpose

With interconnected crises and political polarization on the horizon, the future of purpose is at a crossroads. Here’s how brands can make a difference and a profit in a world of competing issues and conflicting motivations.

Love

The future of how and who people love, how they express it and how they navigate the functional constructs of love is shifting and will impact everything from housing and financial services to jewelry and retail and more.

Play

Play isn’t just fun and games — it’s a serious business, and its future will impact sectors spanning food, spirits, sports, streaming, toys, retail and more. What will that mean for the ways we watch, shop, and have fun?

Work

Companies have two big questions about the future of work: What will the implications be for their workforce and what will those effects mean for their customers? For the workforce, will new models — accelerated by the pandemic — emerge? Or will they revert to the old ways? Either way, the changes to how we live, shop, dine, and play could be profound.

Spending

The future of spending will be driven by how resilient people are to forces largely beyond their control. In this What the Future: Spending issue, we explore how will people respond to these forces with their values and their wallets, and how companies can support a resilient economy.

Reality

How we define and experience reality is constantly evolving as technologies to shape and use it become more powerful. This What the Future: Reality issue explores what will that mean for society, brands and business in the coming decades.

Music

Technology will influence music's future, but the old and new will mix. In What the Future: Music, we explore how brands and fans connect through music as AI, streaming, virtual avatars and the metaverse take hold in a new music culture.

Food

Climate change, population and workplace shifts, and continued inequality are stressing our food systems and our ability to afford the food we need. This issue of What the Future: Food explores how robot food farming to food scientists are working to solve those challenges.

Earth

The future of Earth’s climate is worsening and is the dark cloud that hangs over all other futures. But brands have a critical role in collaborating with governments and people to blunt climate change and create a more resilient tomorrow. This issue of What the Future: Earth shows how.

Identity

As life becomes more complex, people are looking for more control in how they define, express and reflect their identity. In this What the Future: Identity issue, we reveal which forces influence who we are and what brands to media should know about representing and reflecting us in the future.

Aging

We all age, but in the future, we may age more slowly and for longer. This issue of What the Future: Aging will explore the decisions it will take on everything from personal finance, housing and zoning, public policy, healthcare, science and technology to realize living better, longer.

Wellness

Six macrotrends will shape the future of wellness. One key trend: an aging population that will impact the growing caregiving crisis and how we innovate products and services to meet their needs. We will discuss this and more in the Wellness issue of Ipsos’ award-winning foresight magazine, What the Future.

Eating

The future of food and eating is being changed by factors like food delivery, fake meat and ghost kitchens. Here are the trends and people that will shape how food growers to retailers market and sell their products in the coming years.

Wealth

America’s aging population, growing diversity among the rich and the digital era are changing wealth and luxury in America. Ipsos imagines how these shifts will impact wealth transfer, fiscal policy, retail and luxury through crypto and the metaverse.

Sports

NFTs, digital media and gambling are increasingly influencing sports and how we will consume them in the future. We explore what this will mean for fans, brands and media.

Education

America’s education system faces multiple changes that will impact how it prepares the workforce of tomorrow. The skills that workers need are rapidly evolving. The technology to teach those skills is advancing exponentially. Ipsos asks how do we ensure that we’re aligning education for the future workforce?

Commuting

How workers commute in the future depends on how and when American workplaces reopen. Ipsos research points to two patterns likely to emerge: more traffic and an upheaval in our routines. What will hybrid work mean for our future commuting life?

Entertainment

Entertainment in the future is likely to be digital and increasingly virtual as multiple screens mediate nearly all aspects of our lives. Ipsos envisions what this new reality will mean for creators, platforms, companies, brands and even our cars to engage audiences where they’re headed next.

Vacation

What happens to the future of vacations if business travel shrinks for the long term? We play out how the changing dynamics of business travel, hotel stays, the points economy, and virtual technologies will shape our future getaways.

Buying

The future of buying will be more digital, including in social platforms and the metaverse, even as people look forward to returning to stores. Here’s what they’ll expect from retailers to make shopping and paying more enjoyable, efficient and easy.

Housing

While the patterns of how and where we live have barely changed, Americans have new expectations for home. Read whether and how these shifts will stick, with Ipsos research to guide brands and retailers to help people get more out their homes.

Democracy

This issue is about one main division: party identification, that is, whether we lean red or blue. We navigate this complex political atmosphere, share insights on the future of democracy and what citizens and companies can do to keep it together.

Waste

Each American produces nearly a ton of waste per year. Ipsos research finds that consumers want to waste less and want brands to help them. Read how consumers want brands to innovate and lead to a more sustainable tomorrow.

Truth

There’s a prevalent narrative that trust and truth are dead. In this issue of What the Future, Ipsos research finds truth and trust to be alive, important, and more valued than ever. Using exclusive new Ipsos data and research, coupled with expert interviews, we set the scene with the state of truth and how that plays out in the news media and for brands.

Money

Would you ever use a virtual currency? A few months ago, you might have said no or thought that was far into the future. But in this issue of What the Future, one clear arc emerges. Currencies might not always be controlled by central, national banks. People who have historically been disenfranchised by traditional financial services can use new digital experiences. And finally...

Gender

For brands and media, the discussion about gender is evolving from representation to a more inclusive definition of expression. In Ipsos’ latest What the Future report, industry executives and thought leaders weigh in about how these changes will shape business in the coming years. For this edition, Ipsos surveyed more than 19,000 people around the world – and included a booste...

Vice

What even is a vice anymore? This issue of WTF, backed by a global survey, explores the changing morality of “vices.” Will consumer interest be enough to fuel the projected growth in industries like cannabis?

Beauty

Our What the Future Beauty issue explores several market forces creating seismic shifts in the cosmetics and personal care industries.

Food

We have conversations with the difference-makers in the food sector about how our food gets to us, where that food comes from today and will come from tomorrow. The answers to these seemingly straightforward questions are in a surprising amount of flux.

Health

As our nation ages and a caregiver shortage looms, will technology be able to bridge the gap? We ask experts from IBM/Watson, MIT, and the Milken Institute to explore “big questions” that companies should be asking about the future of their industries.

Mobility

Are people ready for the autonomous-vehicle future? We imagine the lifestyle changes that could emerge from AVs and the coming car-culture clash as noticeable divides about acceptance of autonomous vehicles break along political lines.

Housing 2017

Where and how will we live in the future? If Millennials continue to struggle to afford a home, the impact will be felt from finance to consumer packaged goods to home furnishings. We explore how brands can respond and cities can create impactful real estate and housing policies.