If you're in your 40s, you've probably noticed something weird: the "default settings" of adult life are changing. People aren't partying the same way, fitness looks different, and AI is escaping the laptop and showing up in… everything.
What matters for business is this: behavior is moving faster than brands. When that happens, new categories open up, and old ones start to wobble.
Editor's Note: "Personally, I’m seeing these trends everywhere—from my group chats shifting from 'beer' to 'biohacking,' to the way my kids interact with AI toys. Out of these 6 trends, I believe 'Physical AI' and the 'Alcohol Substitution' are the biggest goldmines for 2026. Here is my breakdown of what's actually happening."
Trend 1: Alcohol is in the gutter, substitutes are booming
Photo by RDNE Stock project
Inventory is piling up, and it's not just a "my friends" thing
One of the sharpest signals that alcohol demand is cooling is boring, unsexy data: inventories.
The trend being discussed was "inventory as a percentage of sales" rising hard over time (think: what used to be under 20% moving into the 60% to 80% range for some brands). That's the kind of chart that basically whispers, "We made the stuff, but it's not leaving shelves like it used to."
Now, it's tempting to dismiss that as a bubble. Maybe your social circle just got more health-conscious. Maybe everyone you know is in parent mode. Still, broader alcohol forecasts have also been getting cut in recent years, which points to something bigger than a few friend groups swapping IPAs for mineral water. If you want a quick industry-level snapshot, here's one example: IWSR cuts 2025 alcohol forecast.
So what's actually happening? People rarely turn into saints. They substitute.
When a "vice" declines, the bigger story is where the craving goes next.
The real opportunity is the new "jobs to be done"
Alcohol used to do a few clear jobs: take the edge off, make socializing easier, fill boredom, mark celebration, help people feel "off duty."
Those jobs still exist. The replacements are what's interesting, because they're spawning new products and new rituals:
- Non-alcoholic beer and spirits: Not just a "dry January" gimmick anymore. The non-alc shelf is getting crowded, fast.
- Weed: For some people, it's the new nightcap.
- Staying in: Phones, streaming, and scrolling can replace going out, which quietly cuts drinking.
- Nicotine pouches: A lot of people won't touch cigarettes, but pouches feel like a loophole.
- Psychedelics: More people openly talk about "journeys" now, sometimes on a regular cadence.
- Exercise: It's not only health, it's identity. It's how people socialize too.
The weirdest version of this shift is how some brands market "performance" as cool. A good example: Ultra nicotine-free focus pouches. The pitch is basically: same pouch behavior, different story, "cognitive enhancement without addiction." The details being discussed were eye-popping (a recent raise, high price per can, and very fast sales claims), but the bigger point is positioning. The product isn't sold as a crutch, it's sold as a badge.
Source: My First Million
Trend 2: Voltra and the rise of compact, precise fitness tech
A "brick-sized cable machine" changes the math of home gyms
A lot of gym equipment has the same problem: it's huge, heavy, and a pain to ship. Even when you want a simple cable setup at home, you end up dedicating a whole corner of your life to metal.
This trend centers on Voltra, a compact resistance device that gets described like a brick or small shoebox you can attach to an anchor point. It's part of a broader push toward "motorized resistance" and smaller footprints.
The product link shared was Beyond Power's VOLTRA, and reviewers in the home-gym world have been covering it heavily. Here's one deep review that gets into what it is and who it's for: Beyond Power Voltra review.
The key shift is that resistance doesn't have to come from stacks of metal plates anymore. If your "weight" comes from a powered resistance system, shipping and storage stop being the bottleneck. That opens up a different kind of customer: people who want real training, but don't want their garage to look like a warehouse.
The eccentric vs concentric idea (and why it sells)
A big part of the excitement here is the concept of varying resistance during different phases of a lift.
With dumbbells, 60 pounds is 60 pounds up, and 60 pounds down. Your body doesn't work that way. Many people can handle more load on the lowering phase (eccentric) than on the lifting phase (concentric). Traditional weights force you to train to the weakest phase.
The pitch with devices like this is simple to understand, even if you don't nerd out on physiology: "Give me 100 pounds on the way up, and 150 pounds on the way down."
No claim needs to be magical for this to matter. Even the idea of precision makes people curious, and curiosity is a strong buyer emotion in fitness. Add the fact it's battery-powered and can travel, and suddenly you're not selling a machine, you're selling freedom from bulky gear.
There's also a second-order effect: spaces matter. People want the "cool gym room" vibe without stuffing it with 15 machines. That's why the conversation drifted into practical home-gym setup hacks like using horse stall mats for flooring, and literally pinning seams so they don't shift over time. The tech is new, but the buyer desire is old: make the space feel legit without making it complicated.
Trend 3: "Physical AI" is AI escaping the screen
It's not humanoid robots, it's AI stuffed into everyday objects
When people say "physical AI," they often mean humanoid robots. That's not what this trend is about.
This version is simpler and arguably bigger: small devices that take one job and add AI, so the object becomes "smarter" without becoming a robot. It can feel gimmicky, but gimmicks become habits faster than we like to admit.
A clean example is a dedicated meeting recorder that can transcribe and summarize. One device mentioned was Plaud, described as business-card sized and aimed at meetings and student lectures. The promise is almost perfect: drop it on a table, record, get notes. The reality, at least in early versions, can be messy. Still, the category is clearly real. Here's the product site: Plaud AI note-taking devices.
This is what's coming: not "one AI assistant," but hundreds of tiny assistants tucked into single-purpose objects.
Toys that talk back (and why parents will pay)
The other example was AI-enabled toys, like teddy bears that can hold open-ended conversations with kids. Most "interactive" toys today are basically hardcoded soundboards. Press the button, get the line. AI toys flip that into open conversation.
It's early, and yes, a bit janky. But the direction is hard to ignore. Once these toys become reliable and safe, they don't just entertain. They tutor. They role-play. They answer endless "why" questions at 7:12 pm when your brain is cooked.
The conversation also described using in-car AI to play games (guess the animal) and answer kid questions (even silly ones like the origin story of chocolate). That's the point: AI doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be present when the question appears.
And, in a funny side alley, "physical tech for adult entertainment" came up too, like The Handy interactive device. Not AI today, but it shows how fast people buy hardware when it scratches a real itch. The "physical AI" bucket will include a lot of stuff people don't say out loud at dinner.
Trend 4: Too many podcasts, too little time
The production quality is exploding, and it's attracting "real" operators
Podcasting used to feel nerdy. Now it's mainstream, and it's pulling in serious talent and serious sets.
You can see it in the way shows are staged. Some are filmed outdoors with dramatic lighting and fireside setups. Others look like warehouse studios. Sports podcasts now feature top athletes breaking down film, not just doing interviews. Even business shows are getting Hollywood-level polish.
One example mentioned was a show called Relentless. Here's the official site: Relentless podcast. The broader point wasn't "go start a podcast." It was that podcasting has become a status medium, so more high-quality people keep entering.
That creates a weird kind of competition. Not for topics, for attention.
Also Read: Curiosity Is the Most Underrated Skill Successful Entrepreneurs Have
The shelf-space problem (and why clips are taking over)
The hard constraint is time. A day has only so many "ear hours," the moments when someone can listen while commuting, lifting, cooking, walking, cleaning. Podcast supply keeps growing, but listener time doesn't scale the same way.
A useful way to think about it is time spent. The discussion shared a simple internal benchmark: average watch time on YouTube around 15 minutes, while audio listeners go 40 to 45 minutes.
Here's that comparison in a quick table:
| Format | Typical time spent per episode | What it tends to create |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube watch | ~15 minutes | Faster discovery, lighter connection |
| Audio listen | ~40 to 45 minutes | Deeper habit, stronger trust |
The takeaway is blunt: audio builds relationship, video often builds reach. That's why the "clip farm" strategy is rising. Many shows are built to generate short clips that spread on X, TikTok, and Reels. It's a different sport.
Clips aren't worthless, but they can turn the long-form product into a mere factory line. If the goal is influence built on time spent, short clips alone struggle. If the goal is constant visibility, clips can work, but you need volume. Lots of it.
Trend 5: Peptides are going mainstream (and the demand signal is… intense)
When non-nerds start jumping through hoops, it's real demand
Peptides came up as a trend that's leaving the biohacker corner and entering regular conversations. The way it was framed was kind of chaotic, "peptides everywhere," but the core signal was clear: people who aren't known for experimenting are suddenly interested.
In these markets, willingness to jump through hoops is a proxy for demand. If people are hunting down hard-to-get treatments, dealing with sketchy sourcing, or bending rules, they're telling you something: they want the outcome badly.
There was also a nod that many people are already familiar with peptides without using that word, because GLP-1 drugs are peptides too. The shift is that peptides are being talked about for more than weight loss, including recovery, pain, and "feeling younger."
For a mainstream media read on how this topic hit culture, here's one example: peptides as a biohacking trend in tech.
The business catch: churn is brutal
Here's the contrarian part that matters if you're building: these might not be amazing businesses unless you earn long-term trust.
A lot of consumers switch providers quickly. They chase discounts. They go where prescribing feels easier. Many don't stay on a protocol for life, even if that's the ideal subscription story. They run it for 6 to 12 months, feel better, then stop.
So yes, the category can grow, but company loyalty can be thin. The winners tend to be the ones who build credibility, a smooth experience, and ongoing care, not just "the same vial with a new label."
Trend 6: Sports betting is scaling fast, and the consequences look ugly
Betting companies can profile you after one bet
This is the trend that feels most "in plain sight," yet still underestimated.
The core idea shared was chilling: betting operators can often predict a customer's lifetime value with high confidence after the first bet. Then they adjust offers, limits, and incentives based on whether you're likely to be profitable (a sharp bettor) or unprofitable (a likely long-term loser).
It's easy to laugh at that until you remember this is behavior shaping at scale, and it's happening on phones, all day.
Meanwhile, sports culture itself shifts. People don't just watch games, they watch bets. Teens talk about over-unders like it's normal. Players receive harassment and threats because someone's parlay died on a missed rebound.
Prediction markets are becoming sports books in disguise
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket came up as a parallel lane. Unlike a traditional sports book (house sets odds), prediction markets run on a market mechanism where "yes" and "no" prices move based on trading.
The optimistic argument is that markets with money on the line can be more accurate than media narratives, because the incentive is to be right, not to be clickable.
The darker twist is that sports betting volume is crowding out everything else, so these platforms can start to look like sports betting apps with a different regulatory wrapper. One stat mentioned was massive weekly volume, and that kind of activity has been reported widely. Here's one example from late 2025: Kalshi and Polymarket trading volume report.
A prediction was floated that regulation will clamp down hard in the next few years, and that some platforms may crumble under pressure. Maybe that happens, maybe it doesn't, but the social costs feel like they're still ramping.
Also Read: Business Ideas for Women in 2026: 6 Online Businesses You Can Start Now (Even With $0)
Bonus: Success, seasons, and the weird emptiness that can show up
A reminder from Tony Robbins, and an unexpected moment of honesty
A side thread that stuck was a coaching-style conversation where Tony Robbins worked with Alex Hormozi. The theme was uncomfortable, but common: success can stack up, and you can still feel empty.
The frame offered was "seasons." A season to push. A season to rest. A season to enjoy. The problem wasn't ambition. It was getting trapped in one mode, forever.
Scott Galloway was mentioned in a similar light, basically choosing family time over high-status events. Not as a moral speech, more like a simple human preference.
The older you get, the more you realize this isn't new wisdom. It's old wisdom that still works.
"Victory and defeat are liars"
Another story landed because it's so usable. A veteran coach tells younger coaches that both victory and defeat are liars. One day you feel unstoppable, the next you feel useless, and both feelings distort reality.
That lines up with Rudyard Kipling's poem "If," which treats triumph and disaster as impostors. It also matches that old "there's a season for everything" idea that keeps getting rediscovered, then forgotten, then rediscovered again. Kind of annoying, honestly. Still true.
What I learned (and what I'm watching in my own life)
I'm in that age where I can't pretend trends are "out there." They show up in group chats, at the gym, at kids' events, even in the stuff people casually confess after a long week.
The alcohol shift feels real to me, mostly because the ritual changed. Fewer big nights out. More early mornings. More friends who want to feel sharp on Saturday. I also notice that people don't remove the vice, they just swap it. If it's not drinks, it's pouches, or late-night scrolling, or constant "optimization."
Physical AI is the one that sneaks up fastest. I'll catch myself thinking, "Why would anyone buy that little gadget?" Then I remember how often I want a quick recording, a quick summary, a quick answer, without opening five apps. I don't want more software. I want fewer steps.
The podcast thing hits close too. I love long-form audio, but my listening time hasn't expanded. So now I'm pickier. A show has to earn the spot, and if it doesn't, I drift. That "shelf space" idea is painfully accurate.
Sports betting worries me the most. It's not just money lost, it's attention lost, mood lost, and social trust lost. When teenagers speak fluent parlay, something has already shifted.
Conclusion: Build where behavior is moving, not where hype is
These six trends all rhyme with one big idea: people are redesigning their daily lives. They're changing how they relax, train, learn, and seek thrill. Some of those shifts create healthy markets, others create problems that society will eventually push back on.
If you're building in your 40s, the edge is seeing the substitution early, and picking the part you can live with long-term. If you want a quick starting point for brainstorming, the side hustle idea database mentioned alongside this episode is a handy skim.
The best businesses here won't feel like stunts. They'll feel like the new normal. And they'll still make sense when the trend stops being a trend.