WARC's 2026 Consumer Trends: One in Ten People Are in a Relationship with an AI
The industry has spent two years debating AI as a production tool. The bigger story is what consumers are doing with it.
One number from WARC’s 2026 Consumer Trends report deserves attention before any other.
One in ten consumers globally now report having been in a relationship with an AI chatbot. Of those, 62% say they would turn to that AI rather than a human friend for personal advice.
The figure comes from GWI survey data, global in scope, published this week in WARC’s 2026 Consumer Trends report. At world population scale, one in ten represents hundreds of millions of people managing a meaningful part of their emotional lives through a piece of software.
The marketing industry has spent the past two years debating AI as a production tool: faster copy, cheaper creative, automated personalisation. WARC’s data suggests the more consequential AI story is happening on the consumer side, and it is moving faster than most brand strategists have noticed.
“Consumer sentiment in 2026 remains fragile, shaped by financial pressures, geopolitical turbulence, and a growing need for escape, with spend shifting to small comforts that bring joy. Brands that forge emotional connections will thrive, but must navigate rising scrutiny on technology, authenticity, and trust to make a meaningful impact.”
“Our annual Consumer Trends report provides a broader view of the major issues confronting our industry from the perspective of consumers, with suggestions to help businesses create the most impact in the year ahead.”
Stephanie Siew, Senior Research Executive, WARC
What AI companionship actually means for brands
The dynamic WARC identifies is straightforward: AI companions reduce loneliness while removing the friction of human interaction. No judgement, no reciprocal obligation, available at any hour. For isolated consumers, and there are more of them than most public discourse acknowledges, this is a genuinely useful proposition.
The commercial implications run in two directions. In categories where AI-mediated interaction can demonstrably improve outcomes (elderly care, mental health support, companionship devices), there is real product opportunity. Manufacturers are already moving: Companion devices aimed at older consumers are a growth category precisely because the emotional and safety need is real.
The risk is more structural. Consumers in AI relationships are becoming more trusting of AI generally. That sounds like an opportunity until you consider what happens when commercial intent is layered on top of emotional dependency. WARC is explicit: the combination is not stable, particularly with younger demographics. An AI companion that is also a sales mechanism is a trust problem waiting to surface, and the regulatory environment around AI and minors is tightening in most major markets.
The broader question, which WARC raises but does not fully answer, is what it means for brand relationships when a significant portion of the population has already transferred its primary emotional engagement to a non-human interlocutor. Loyalty, advocacy, emotional connection: these have always been the premium end of the brand/consumer relationship. If AI is now competing for that territory directly, the calculus changes.
The other four signals
The AI companionship finding sits alongside four other trends in the WARC report.
Comfort consumption. Consumer sentiment is fragile but not broken. Nearly half of employed consumers, 45%, report job security concerns. A third are saving more or cutting back. The response is selective rather than paralysed: spending redirected toward small, reliable sources of joy. Wellness spending, hobbies, and accessible pleasures. For brands, the opportunity is in credibly occupying that territory, which requires positioning precision rather than a discount strategy.
Youth social media restrictions. 64% of consumers believe social media is harmful to children. Half would support age verification. Legislation is moving in the same direction across multiple markets. The commercial consequence is a disrupted acquisition funnel for Gen Alpha (children born from roughly 2010 onward), a cohort that has done much of its product discovery on social platforms. Brands without owned channels and direct relationships are more exposed than they may realise.
China’s brand shift. 36% of consumers now describe Chinese apps and tech as innovative. One in four globally prefer to buy personal electronics from Chinese brands, behind only the US and Japan. The “Made in China” association has moved from commodity to credibility across a substantial portion of the global consumer base. Western brands competing in consumer electronics and lifestyle tech are facing a different competitive landscape than they were five years ago.
The AI content backlash. 85% of consumers say knowing something was made by a human makes it more meaningful. Seventy-eight percent demand clear labelling of AI-generated content, which has crossed from niche preference into baseline expectation. For publishers and media brands, editorial credibility built on human judgement is more commercially valuable than it has been in years. The industry’s appetite for AI as a cost-reduction tool is running directly against its audience’s rising demand for the thing AI cannot reliably produce.
Trust connects all five trends: who holds it, and who is losing it. Brands that understand what consumers are actually anxious about, and use technology with those anxieties rather than against them, are better positioned than the headline AI adoption numbers suggest.
Part of WARC’s Evolution of Marketing programme, WARC subscribers can read the 2026 Consumer Trends report in full here.
