Tokenmaxxing, AI dividends, and Beta mums
May 15, 2026
Welcome to this 177th issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”.
Each week, I personally sift through hundreds of sources of inspiration to track where we’re heading. If you are a new subscriber to this newsletter, take the time to send me a note and introduce yourself, I love to understand who is reading.
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I have prepared this newsletter as I find myself in Montreal, Canada. This is what I noticed these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
Data and the atlas of development. Trillions of miles of data: Your car is spying on you, and it’s only just the beginning. The AI coding tools letting anyone "build" software without engineering skills are also letting medical records, financial data and Fortune 500 internal docs leak onto the open web. Surveillance pricing is everybody’s problem.
Strategic blindspots and business models
Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots. This section also is about the risks we miss.
The Real WPP Story Is in the Margin, Not the Revenue. Is surveillance pricing coming to a grocery store near you? Martha Stewart is joining the AI-driven economy with a new startup called Hint, which autonomously manages home maintenance and paperwork. Japanese snack packaging is turning grayscale amid ink shortages. Dawn of the Electric World Order. Food is becoming a staple at luxury fashion stores, with Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Louis Vuitton all getting in on the action. Introducing TikTokGo.
And this essay: On Seeing Through and Unseeing: The Hacker Mindset and this quote:
“for the hacker, all complexity is essential, and they are instead trying to unsee the simple abstract system down to the more-complex less-abstract (but also more true) version”
Our future
“The Extrapolated Futures Archive is a reverse-lookup for speculative fiction. A New Blueprint for Big Food. People actually can’t afford to date anymore. The Era of the Tiger Mom Is Over. Enter the Beta Mom. Enter the Killer Robots: The Ukrainian Forging the Future of Warfare. Higher Education Global Trends Report.
Book a speaking engagement about weak signals and emerging trends.
Weak signals
Weak signals are indicators of a change, a trend or an emerging risk that might become significant for the future. They allow us to run hypothesis, expand our thinking, and challenge assumptions. How will you interpret those in your industry or field of expertise?
US SEC proposes allowing public companies to opt out of quarterly earnings reports. The Ordinary sells $176 bananas to make a point about beauty markups. Projecting movies at x1.5. Apple has announced a shortage of Mac minis as people use them to run local AI models. Late last year, a Klimt sold for the highest price ever paid for a modern artwork at auction.
Contact me to get the list of 250 weak signals spotted in 2025.
Down the rabbit hole
This section highlights a subject that led me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors: “A rabbit hole is not a distraction. A rabbit hole is your brain trying to tell you to pay attention to something you’re curious about. Ignore algorithmic rabbit holes” ( by are.na):
This week, I explored the Future Timeline.
On my radar
I have already shared here in the past my work in identifying new strategic opportunities linked to the rise of the “silver generation”, and aging population creating new age segments for products and services (Growing Old, the Imagination gap). here are some signals this week on that theme as I prepare a keynote on the future of travel: LEGO raises age limit for playing sets to honor David Attenborough’s 100th birthday. Rapper Bad Bunny who aged himself 53 years to show up as an 85-year-old man. Governing Aging Economies: South Korea and the Politics of Care, Safety, and Work. aging population is reshaping healthcare – unlocking a trillion-dollar opportunities.
Need to provide a workshop for your teams to investigate new strategic opportunities provided by an aging population?
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths.
Boring conversations. You have no choice in reading this article. The Tower Ravens. One Calf Shows Why Record Beef Prices Still Aren’t Coming Down. Visualizing history within a grid. Clipping, the practice of paying an army of random accounts to create and post short-form clips from longer videos has taken over the algorithm. When the eternity glaciers disappear. Once a sacred duty, hospitality was also a test of how societies welcomed strangers..
Unpacking AI
I choose here a few articles that demystify how AI will be pragmatically embedded in our world
AI Surveillance in Universities. Researchers at GovAI and Brookings estimated vulnerability to job displacement due to AI. Meta reportedly had an unofficial leaderboard tracking who used the most tokens. South Korea is considering an “AI dividend” for citizens. Prompting is already dead.
Numbers
16%- Coveo’s 2026 Commerce Relevance Report found that only 16% of consumers would let an AI agent shop for them
10,000$- There’s a new $10,000 EV in China
Feeling good
Betting on trains. A map of us. Through a rainy window. A collection of 183 works of play in unlikely places..
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