It’s been a busy week — earnings in full swing, continuing AI headlines, and geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China showing no sign of easing. Amid all the macro noise, I’ve been juggling two sick girls at home (aged one and three), which has offered its own window into consumer behaviour. My resolve against screens didn’t last long, and I’ve since learned a lot about which entertainment platforms hold a toddler’s attention the longest — subscription models are clearly the cheap babysitter of our era. My eldest has also developed a strong opinion on how her hair should be styled, a battle I’m consistently losing. It’s a small but familiar reminder that brand awareness, identity, and aspiration start incredibly young — and that beauty, personal care, and self-expression are powerful and enduring consumer forces. These small household moments mirror the broader trends we study every day: innovation adapting to changing generations.
Seeing the Future Differently
Over the past year, we’ve written about EssilorLuxottica as a quiet but major force at the crossroads of fashion, health, and technology. What began as a vision to blend optical excellence with digital functionality through its partnership with Meta is now materializing at scale.
On the latest earnings call, management highlighted that Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses contributed more than four percentage points to group growth this quarter — a remarkable testament to how quickly consumers are embracing wearable eyewear as both a functional and lifestyle device. The company expects momentum to accelerate through the holiday season, where connected eyewear could emerge as one of the consumer sector’s most talked-about product categories.
At the same time, EssilorLuxottica is deepening its healthcare footprint. The imminent U.S. launch of myopia management lenses marks a strategic expansion into a high-growth, medically-driven segment — one that positions the company squarely at the intersection of preventive eye care and consumer health technology. Complementing this are hearing devices, now rolling into new markets, and a series of med-tech integrations and acquisitions broadening its diagnostic reach.
Glasses are evolving from static accessories into intelligent platforms — layering AI services, health diagnostics, and communication tools into everyday life. EssilorLuxottica’s plan to scale connected eyewear production to 10 million units by 2026 speaks to that ambition. For investors, it’s a compelling case study in how a heritage consumer brand can reinvent itself into a technology leader — bridging luxury, longevity, and innovation in one lens.
The Retail Platform Play Materialises
Doug McMillon is orchestrating one of the most sophisticated AI transformations in retail. This week’s OpenAI partnership provides further evidence of Walmart’s evolving platform strategy — and investors have noticed, with shares up 6%, reaching all-time highs.
CEO McMillon’s statement that “the e-commerce shopping experience consisting of a search bar and a long list of item responses is about to change” encapsulates the scale of Walmart’s ambition. The integration of ChatGPT activates a potential 700 million weekly-user acquisition channel, allowing Walmart to reach consumers directly inside conversational interfaces — effectively bypassing the Google–Amazon paid-search duopoly that has siphoned retail margins for more than a decade.
This may represent retail’s mobile moment for AI: a compressed window where early infrastructure investment drives algorithmic preference and consumer habit formation that later entrants will struggle to replicate.
What differentiates Walmart’s approach is its physical–digital infrastructure convergence — an asset base that makes “Instant Checkout” economically viable at scale. The company’s transformation of more than 4,600 U.S. stores into hyperlocal fulfillment nodes, capable of same-day delivery to 93% of American households, has reduced per-unit delivery costs by over 40% year-on-year.
Demographically, Walmart’s strategy aligns with the next generation of consumers: Gen Z and Millennials are 10x more likely than Baby Boomers to use AI for product discovery, precisely the cohorts driving Walmart’s online growth. McMillon’s multi-track execution — from proprietary AI agent to robotics automation and third-party seller ecosystems — demonstrates a playbook:
- Capture consumer intent at the interface layer,
- Fulfill profitably through store-based logistics, and
- Monetise traffic through platform economics as external brands follow their customers onto Walmart’s rails.
It is a rare combination of scale, data, and discipline — and a powerful example of how incumbents can lead in the AI era, not lag behind it.
Food for Thought: “The World Is Changing, and We Need to Change Faster”
Branded food and beverage companies have faced growing tension between defending legacy margins and adapting to a world defined by efficiency and affordability. Last week’s discussion around Pepsi highlighted this defensive posture, yet Nestlé’s latest results suggest that transformation may finally be underway at the top of the sector.
New CEO Philipp Navratil has injected urgency into the world’s largest food company. Delivering 4.3% organic growth alongside a sweeping restructuring plan that will eliminate 16,000 jobs and deliver CHF 3 billion in cost savings, Navratil is resetting Nestlé’s cost base and rekindling its innovation engine. The market responded immediately — shares rose 8%, the largest single-day move since 2008 — reflecting investors’ appetite for decisive, execution-oriented leadership in a sector long burdened by inertia.
Navratil’s own words — “The world is changing, and we need to change faster” — capture the essence of this inflection point. For decades, scale equaled safety in consumer staples. Today, agility does. Nestlé is embedding AI throughout its operations — from recipe formulation and sensory testing to predictive sourcing and demand forecasting — turning data, not tradition, into competitive advantage.
It is still early to declare a new growth cycle for global staples, but the signals are encouraging: the companies willing to restructure, reinvest, and embrace technology are beginning to pull ahead. The courage to adapt may become the ultimate form of brand equity.
Between sick kids, screens, and shifting markets, one truth stands out — the way people live, spend, and express themselves keeps changing. The best companies don’t resist it; they shape it.
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What an exciting time to be alive!