Consumer-facing industries are entering a new technology cycle where “devices + platforms + data” matter more than any single product category. Over the next five years, the biggest shifts will come from AI-native shopping experiences, faster and more invisible payments, and a wave of connected devices that are less about specs and more about services, health, and lifestyle. The opportunity is large—and it’s increasingly concentrated in Asia Pacific, where mobile-first behaviors, super-app ecosystems, and digitally sophisticated consumers accelerate adoption.
One signal of the scale is that “consumer tech” is no longer just phones and TVs—it’s also commerce infrastructure, fintech rails, and AI layers that sit across every touchpoint. Even within traditional hardware, market researchers estimate the global consumer electronics market at about $1.21T in 2024, projecting growth to about $1.78T by 2030. That baseline of devices matters because it creates the installed base for everything else: subscriptions, content, commerce, and AI assistants that follow consumers across contexts.
Where growth becomes more dramatic is in the consumer industries most shaped by digital journeys—retail, payments, and marketing. EMARKETER forecasts worldwide ecommerce sales around $6.9T in 2024. At the same time, a parallel set of market estimates that use broader definitions of ecommerce (including B2B and services) project far larger totals, underscoring how much economic activity is moving onto digital rails. The takeaway isn’t which number is “right” (definitions vary); it’s that commerce is becoming increasingly software-mediated, and that makes experience design, personalization, and trust decisive competitive levers.
Payments are evolving even faster than shopping. Worldpay’s Global Payments Report (as summarized by Payments Dive) highlights a sharp rise in digital payments spend—from $1.7T in 2014 to $18.7T in 2024, with projections that digital payments could exceed $33.5T by 2030. This matters because the winners in consumer industries will increasingly be the ones who can remove checkout friction, offer local payment methods, embed credit responsibly, and reduce fraud without breaking the experience.
AI is the other major accelerant. Analysts estimate the AI-in-retail market at $11.61B in 2024, projecting $40.74B by 2030. Regardless of exact sizing, what’s changing is where AI shows up for consumers: not only in back-end forecasting, but directly in discovery, shopping assistance, and post-purchase support. Reuters recently reported JD Sports launching “AI commerce” in the US, integrating assistants (including Microsoft Copilot first, with plans to expand to Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT) so customers can search and purchase via AI interfaces—an example of retailers treating conversational AI as a new storefront, not just a support tool. In parallel, the Financial Times reported Google introducing personalized ads into AI shopping tools, signaling that conversational shopping is also becoming a new advertising surface—potentially reshaping how consumers find products and how brands pay for visibility.
Put together, these trends point to several concrete opportunity areas for consumer industries.
First, AI-native customer experience is emerging as a differentiator. The opportunity is not simply “add a chatbot,” but redesign the journey so discovery, comparison, and decision-making become guided and contextual. That opens value pools in AI shopping assistants, dynamic bundling, personalized promotions, and customer service that resolves issues without handoffs. It also creates a new competition for attention: if AI agents become the front door, brands need better product data, inventory visibility, and the ability to “sell” to an algorithm as well as to a human.
Second, retail media and performance marketing are being redefined by first-party data and new ad surfaces. As commerce shifts inside ecosystems (marketplaces, super-apps, and now AI chat interfaces), advertising increasingly becomes integrated into the shopping flow. The market implications are significant: platforms can monetize intent more directly, while brands will push for measurable outcomes and higher ROI. The recent move toward ads inside AI shopping experiences is part of this broader pivot.
Third, payments innovation remains a major growth lever, particularly in Asia Pacific where consumers often adopt new payment methods quickly and expect local relevance. Beyond wallets, account-to-account payments, real-time rails, and BNPL-style experiences, the opportunity is in “invisible payments” that are secure, low-friction, and embedded across channels—online, in-app, and in-store. As digital payments volumes rise, differentiation shifts to fraud controls, chargeback reduction, orchestration across payment methods, and compliance that doesn’t degrade conversion.
Fourth, connected lifestyle technology is expanding from consumer electronics into health, mobility, and home services. Wearables and sensors turn devices into long-running service relationships—subscriptions for coaching, diagnostics, and personalized recommendations. Smart home is moving from novelty devices to energy management, security, and eldercare use cases. Over time, regulation and consumer trust will shape winners here as much as product design.
Finally, Asia Pacific is likely to stay the world’s most important “proving ground” for many of these shifts because its consumers are accustomed to mobile-first journeys and integrated ecosystems. That means new interaction models (social commerce, livestreaming, wallet-first checkout, AI-assisted discovery) can reach scale quickly—and then get exported. For brands, the opportunity is large but unforgiving: experiences must be fast, localized, and trustworthy, and the winners will be those who combine product relevance with platform strategy.