This week, we’re live-reacting to battles across culture. It’s DeepSeek vs. OpenAI, Millennials vs. Gen X, and Starbucks vs. Sharpies (Sharpies won). PLUS: The Flappy Bird effect drives an aftermarket of devices with TikTok access, yuppie culture booms, and Waymo strikes again. 

The Other Side of Headless Commerce

Key takeaways:

• DeepSeek’s Disruption – A powerful, cheap, open-source AI from China that is sending shockwaves through the industry, challenging Nvidia’s dominance and raising economic concerns.
• The Death of Loss Leaders? – AI optimization could make it easier for consumers to game retail pricing, forcing businesses to rethink discounts and marketing tactics.
• Tech Arms Race – The U.S.-China AI competition is accelerating, with implications for policy, economy, and innovation.
• The Generational Cycle – Are Millennials the new Boomers? Phillip and Brian discuss how attitudes shift over time.
• TikTok Bans and Black Markets – The aftermarket for phones with TikTok pre-installed mirrors the Flappy Bird phenomenon.
• “If someone was able to optimize their life so that friction was removed, it would break the system.” – Phillip
• “This is ground zero of something huge. The AI game just changed overnight.” – Phillip
• “The best defense is to flood the zone. The moment you try to contain something, you lose control.” – Brian
• “The return of yuppies proves that history doesn’t just repeat itself—it evolves.” – Phillip
• “Technology enabled back.” – Brian

Links:

• In-show mention: The Cruel Kids Table, New York Magazine
• In-show mention: TimesNowNews: Phones with TikTok Pre-Installed Selling for $25,000 
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

This episode of Future Commerce is brought to you by Future Commerce Plus and our sponsors Omnisend and MotionApp.

“There is nothing but micro trends these days. Sometimes, things bubble up, and they capture the imagination of pop culture…but then they last for a really short time. In that environment, how do you really set yourself up to influence culture?” 

In this week’s episode, Ana Andjelic graces our show with breakthrough advice from her latest book, Hitmakers: How Brands Influence Culture. Discover the secrets of updating heritage brands, keys to transporting customers into imaginative worlds, and how to amplify microtrends to position your brand within cornerstone cultural narratives.  

Architects of the Identity Economy

Key takeaways:

• Reverse-Engineering Hits: The concept of "hit-making" is about creating micro-trends and amplifying them through culture to align with the zeitgeist and resonate with a brand’s audience.
• Capturing Connection: Modern brands are focusing on attention and engagement as measures of success, recognizing that loyalty stems from deeper interactions beyond purchases.
• Brands as Cultural Contributors: Successful brands become part of a larger cultural narrative, contributing to concepts like happiness (Coca-Cola) or creativity (Apple).
• [00:6:34] - “As human beings, we never make decisions in isolation. We are always influenced by what we read, see, listen to, and each other. So in a sense, all of those interactions are narratives or they're fibers of the narrative.” - Ana
• [00:29:27] - “You have to be both sensitive to the zeitgeist and cultures, but also stay true to that innovativeness of those brands because all those founders did create something that didn't exist before.” - Ana
• [00:31:01] - “There's actually a transforming, so taking one form and putting it into a new context, which is how myth begins. It's actually at the moment of transformation.” - Brian
• [00:35:00] - “There is time and place for everything. Performance marketing works really well with brand marketing, but demand is created by brand marketing. Demand is harvested by performance marketing.” - Ana

Associated Links:

• Buy Hitmakers on Amazon
• Subcribe to Ana’s Substack for access to the Hitmakers podcast and more
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

This FREE PREVIEW of the After Dark is brought to you by Future Commerce Plus!

Join today and receive access to ad-free and bonus content from Future Commerce. futurecommerce.com/plus

We're covering the first 100 Days of the New Commerce Department: what trade and tariff policies are up Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's sleeve? PLUS: We dig into TikTok's dizzying fake-out, Doji's mystifying deepfake try-on tech, and the long-awaited launch of the 2025 Future Commerce Annual Journal, LORE. 

Episode Links

• Preorder LORE
• Explore Doji: Doji App
• Watch the Head and Shoulders video from Veritasium we geeked out about

For bonus content, ad-free episodes, and more, join  Future Commerce Plus.

In this landmark discussion from NRF 2025, we lay out our theory of commerce's next evolutionary leap: the necessary fusion of human and artificial intelligence in digital spaces. As today's retailers hastily construct separate domains for silicon and carbon-based shoppers, we explore why this well-intentioned bifurcation may be precisely the wrong approach. From Salesforce's stumbling first steps with Agent Force to NVIDIA's more integrated vision, we examine how commerce might pioneer a symbiotic digital future. PLUS: Our 2025 journal, LORE, makes its debut!

Key Narratives:

• The Evolution of Digital Agency: Tracing the path from simple chatbots to truly agentic AI, and why the distinction matters.
• Biological Precedent as Digital Prophecy: How the coexistence of early human species might inform our approach to human-AI integration.
• The Attention Arbitrage: Why AI agents represent not just tools, but extensions of human cognitive capacity.
• Beyond the ‘Agentic Ghetto’: The case for unified digital architectures that serve both silicon and carbon-based users.
• The Memory Migration: How technology has already transformed human cognition, from oral histories to cloud storage.

Essential Quotes:

• {00:23:00} "When we've talked about agents and bots and how you're gonna have your own assistance, we're talking about consumers... [The industry is] thinking about it from a very different angle than the people that are trying to sell the software right now." - Brian
• {00:25:31} "This is kind of like homo sapien and Neanderthal having to coexist... one advanced form and one less advanced form actually having functional tools and functional societies and functional coexistence together." - Phillip
• {00:28:55} "Written language allowed us to move from having to memorize things and be able to recall them from ourselves to having them available to quote. We actually exported our brains into books." - Brian
• {00:31:44} "The last thing we want on planet earth is to create a non-visual [space] in the ether for it to go purchase that isn't a thing that a human could actually go... The functional web needs to stay functional for humans and for bots to coexist in." - Phillip

The Future Commerce Perspective:

This episode challenges conventional wisdom about AI integration, suggesting that our current trajectory toward segregated experiences misses a crucial evolutionary opportunity. Through the lens of NRF 2025's innovations and stumbles, we explore how commerce might pioneer a more symbiotic digital future—one where the distinction between human and artificial intelligence becomes not a wall, but a bridge.

Associated Links:

• Order LORE on Metalabel
• The Attention Economy (August 2, 2019)
• Your Body Is A Dataland (August 1, 2017)
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

This week, we’re unpacking Adobe’s holiday shopping report, the AI bot takeover, and the dead internet theory. As 2025 kicks off with powerful demand for both in-person experiences and AI-driven, frictionless online shopping, we’re peering into the future of the tension. PLUS: Phillip the Time Capsule Guy takes us back in time, and 5,000 years into the future.

Is AI Just Making Spam More Scalable?

Key takeaways:

• [00:14:30] “Black Friday shopping is one of the most isolating things you can do now. It used to be a team sport, something you'd all go out and do…you get up early, you get the coffee and the hot chocolate in your warm coats, and you go out and you have a good time together amid consumerism madness.” – Brian
• [00:20:24] “I think the return to physical connection and this loneliness epidemic is driving people back to real-life connection.” – Phillip
• [00:46:55] “We are going to be building from this point forward websites or ecommerce experiences, channels, APIs. Anything that we build in ecommerce from henceforth will be done thoughtfully to assist both humans and agents to be able to seamlessly purchase from a brand.” – Phillip
• [00:58:04] "Time capsules by Westinghouse and Panasonic might be humanity’s greatest contributions to cultural preservation." – Phillip 
• [01:01:20] “This is part of Mythopoeia. This is how you build a myth that extends into the future. You do stuff like this that's an extension of the story. And Westinghouse may be revived 5000 years in the future because of these time capsules.” – Brian

Associated Links:

• Future Commerce Upcoming Events
• The Future Now: January 28th, 2025. Immerse yourself in a collaborative and visionary roundtable experience with retail executives. Register here
• Your Body is a Dataland: Insiders #66
• Adobe Holiday Shopping Report
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

In our biggest episode of the year, we explore seismic shifts coming in 2025: from the return of Gen X leadership to a new wave of American counterculture. We revisit our eerily accurate 2024 predictions while laying out bold forecasts for retail consolidation, AI evolution, and the changing media landscape. Plus, we dive deep into why Google might be poised for a massive comeback and how Walmart is transforming into a media empire.

"Quantum Intelligence & Objective Truth": Key Moments from Our 2025 Predictions

• On Taste & Truth (13:12) - "I believe that taste is the unique ability to recognize objective truth in situations where subjectivity reigns supreme." - Brian
• The Future of Retail (34:50) - "In the retail sector, we will see larger holdcos start to downsize by breaking off individual pieces into smaller entities so they can reorganize and pass regulatory muster when selling divisions later." - Phillip
• Hardware Renaissance (54:41) - "The excitement around content actually represents a deeper desire within people for well-designed, bespoke hardware technology." - Brian
• Urban Transport Evolution (1:39:14) - "eVTOL will be a huge tech winner in 2025, creating a paradigm shift in urban transport - starting as the luxury option Uber envisioned in 2017." - Phillip
• Political Realignment (1:59:00) - "There's something latent here around realignment in how people think about the political spectrum post-second Trump presidency. Many political orphans, both right and left, don't know where they fit." - Brian
• The Innovation Paradox (2:18:43) - "When solving problems, we inevitably miss the new problems our solutions will create. It's easy to walk into dystopia thinking you're walking into utopia." - Brian

Associated Links:

• Heading to NRF? Come celebrate the launch of our 2025 print journal, LORE with us on Tuesday, January 14! Register here.
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

This year was a great one for the Future Commerce podcast. We vision-casted with fellow futurists at exclusive events across the nation, launched podcast specials like Spooky Commerce and FC Radio Theater, and were joined on the podcast by many of our industry muses, including Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler and Walmart’s Justin Breton. 

We’ve rounded up our 2024 highlight reel in one year-end finale episode. All featured episodes linked below.

The Good, the Spooky, and the Visionary

Featured Episodes:

• When Technology Changes, Context Changes (February 6, 2024)
• You Can Buy Haunted Dolls on eBay (October 11)
• After Dark: Luddite Luxury, Acorn-Based Economies, Starbucks Star Days as Economic Indicator (February 21, 2024)
• The Tyranny of Visibility (February 13, 2024)
• DECODED: Polymaths and Philosophers (May 13, 2024)
• Building Culturally Intelligent Brands (May 17)
• What is Futureproof for Gen Alpha? (June 7, 2024)
• Don’t Say Metaverse (August 23)
• How Liquid Death is Murdering Marketing (July 7)
• The Dark Forest of Creative Capital (December 6)

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa, an original story by Erin DaCruz. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher and Leonor Woodworth. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa can be found in the Muses journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com. 

Timecodes:

• [00:02:28] Time of day – 5:45
• [00:04:01] Time of day – 6:22
• [00:05:20] Time of day – 8:17
• [00:07:02] Time of day – 10:00
• [00:07:46] Time of day – 10:36
• [00:09:05} Time of day – 12:02
• [00:09:21] Time of day – 12:10
• [00:10:38] Time of day – 16:28
• [00:11:56] Time of day – 17:37
• [00:12:25] Time of day – 19:30
• [00:13:07] Time of day – 20:19
• [00:13:46] Time of day – 22:12
• [00:16:15] Time of day – 5:45

Associated Links:

• Enjoy A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa in print: Order the Muses journal
• Get your copy of the Archetypes journal
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: The Wrong Part, an original story by Brian Lange. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

The Wrong Part can be found in the Muses journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming radio theater readings: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa by Erin DaCruz.

Timecodes:

• [00:00:19] Act 1
• [00:11:35] Act 2

Associated Links:

• Enjoy The Wrong Part in print: Order the Muses journal
• Get your copy of the Archetypes journal
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: Dissociating at Costco, an original story by Brian Lange. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

Dissociating at Costco can be found in the Archetypes journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming radio theater readings: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa by Erin DaCruz, and The Hardest Part by Brian Lange.

Timecodes:

• [00:00:20] Chapter 1
• [00:08:19] Chapter 2
• [00:17:45] Chapter 3
• [00:26:43] Epilogue

Associated Links:

• Enjoy Dissociating at Costco in print: Order the Archetypes journal
• Get your copy of the Muses journal
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Yancey Strickler on Metalabel, Digital Scarcity, and the Coming Creative Revolution

Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler unveils his vision of a radical economic future where artists become society's power brokers. Through Metalabel, he's building the infrastructure for collective commerce and creative ownership that could transform how we value and exchange culture.

“In 50 years, artists won't just influence culture—they'll control capital”

Key takeaways:

• {00:13:10} - “The concept of art and creativity that we think of today that we take as givens that we're like, “Oh my God, I have to promote my drop again today,” are incredibly modern inventions.” - Yancey
• {00:24;51] - “I believe {this project} will produce a world where 50 or 60 years from now, artists and creative people are the most powerful members of society. They will have the greatest influence. They will have the greatest access to wealth. They will be the most powerful people in society, and this is a structure by which that will occur. And that's a project we'll announce next year.” - Yancey
• {00:26:20} - “We all want to be able to homestead and have our own spaces that are ours, but we also want to be part of spaces where we can be discovered. And so how can our catalogs exist in a world like that? Artists right now are excluded from capitalism. Let's change that.” - Yancey
• {00:28:53} - “People are still just looking in the dead channel, the dying channels…where we've been trained to look for what is new and what matters. And the answer is that that's not where those things are happening now.” - Yancey
• {00:38:09} - “Anyone who's 20 years old today, born and raised on the Internet, there's just like a mentality, a metamodern, just flat openness, super well-curated sort of vibe that I just think lends itself quite well to operating very specific, but I think very successful, small to medium-sized creative businesses.” - Yancey

Associated Links:

• Pre-order the LORE Journal by Future Commerce on Metalabel
• Connect with Yancey Strickler and learn more about Metalabel
• The Dark Forest Collective
• Kirby Ferguson’s New York Times piece, Is Creativity Dead?
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!