9 Major Shifts That Will Impact Life, Work, and Culture (Brand, Creativity, and Media)

This event is over.

If the last 24 months are any indication, the next 12 months will be far stranger than is possible for even the savviest among us to predict. Consumers and marketers who have already been buffeted by two years of rapid, total, and disorienting change are set to see more of the same, with brands and organizations racing to keep up. At the start of 2022, we find ourselves at an inflection point, forcing companies and marketers to be both more cautious in navigating the dangers of an unfamiliar world, and bolder in seeking out its opportunities.

The pandemic has already accelerated changes in the ways we communicate, shop, work, and learn, and 2022 will see those trends extend even more. 5G, autonomous vehicles, the expansion of the metaverse, and the explosion of decentralized technology are set to reshape our daily lives, as well as our sense of what’s possible in the future.

To make sense of it all, we set out to identify nine of the most important trends impacting our lives and our world, spanning media, entertainment, commerce, communication, and health. Some are completely new to the circumstances of 2022, and some are intensifications of what we’ve already seen in the recent past. All of them are impossible to ignore.