2024 Storylines

Mashing up AI, a non-violent communication needs inventory, and intuition to generate storylines to watch in 2024

February 02, 2024

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G’day, pals. In a break from our usual programming (1 case study, every week), I’m bringing you something slightly different: emergent themes I think we’ll be seeing more of in 2024.

I spent a rainy Seattle evening this week talking to Google Bard and ChatGPT about 2024 trends. It was pretty interesting.

In today’s post I’m going to cover:

  • The trouble with trends

  • Storylines and how brands can use them

  • How I used AI to build this list

  • 2024 Storylines

🤖 Ready?! Let’s go! 👇

The Trouble with Trends

Trend reports are funny things.

I don’t love ‘trends’. They feel like prediction, and predictions assume a level of certainty that just isn’t realistic. Also, the same trends show up year in, year out (“we’re the loneliest we’ve ever been, and the most connected we’ve ever been” - IYKYK). Humans are complex. Human systems are complex. The way we interact with our complex world is complex. I like how Matt Klein describes this:

Trends aren’t meant to have a 365-day shelf life…Expecting new movements and norms to track at the same pace as our memes and headlines is unrealistic.” KleinKleinKlein

At the same time, brands need to be aware of culture. Humans are social animals. We’re influenced by what’s happening around us. If brands want to influence culture, they have to be able to read it.

So instead, I’ve been thinking a lot about storylines, or what Rick Rubin calls “currents in the culture.” In a story, a character wants something. That’s how I’ve focused this post. What do people want? How are they trying to get it?

Storylines: and How Brands Can Use them

But brands (and people) don’t exist in a vacuum. I think about culture and storylines like checking the weather. What’s happening? How does it influence how a brand shows up, and how it gets to where it wants to go?

Here’s how I’ll be checking 2024’s ‘weather’ and some ideas for how brands can use storylines:

  • Identify the storylines most relevant to your brand or category (for example, if I’m running a healthcare startup brand, I’m staying close to AI)

  • Try to spot these storylines in the news each month. Notice: Are the stories progressing? Changing? How?

  • Dive deep on one storyline and find the companies who are riding the bleeding edge. For example - Muute is a Japanese journaling app that uses AI to analyze your emotions and give you feedback on them. 🤯 (AI Awakening 🤖)

  • Use them as provocations: for example, what does the authenticity renaissance and rise of community mean for healthcare?

Most importantly - these are provocations, not rules. Do things that haven’t been done before. Manifest what doesn’t exist yet. Use this as creative fuel on your journey. ✌️

How I used AI to build this list

This process was 1 dash of human needs (inspo: a non violent communication needs inventory), 1 sprinkle of intuition and 1 scoop of widely reported trend that emerged across 200+ trend reports. These are the steps I took to analyze the storylines I’m watching in 2024:

  • 🤖Fed 200+ trend reports into Google Bard

  • 🤖 👧 Spent time chatting with AI and digging deeper into trends I thought were interesting

  • 👧 Read the reports I found most interesting and did a freewrite of top themes

  • 🤖 📈Used AI to gather stats to substantiate trends with data

  • 👧 Applied human needs (from non-violent communication), related trends, behaviors, and wrote them up.

It’s an imperfect process, but it’s been fun (yes, I am a nerd).

Without further ado, storylines I’ll be watching in 2024. 👇

📚 2024 Storylines

1. Living in Permacrisis 🚨

This storyline is basically: everyone’s coping, and everyone’s coping differently. Last year the World Economic Forum declared we were on the brink of a polycrisis. In 2024 with war, climate crisis, a glut of information, online trolls, eco-anxiety, the disintegration of lack of social cohesion…feels safe to say we’re firmly in it. As a result, we’re looking for protection, turning to comfort, coping, collective action and community.

🖤 Needs: Meaning, safety, security, comfort

👀 See also: climate crisis, war, cost of living crisis, loneliness, inflation

🌱 Behaviors: Escaping, resilience building through local communities, collective action & activism, TikTok as therapy

📈 Data points:

  • 75% of global citizens are worried about climate change, with concerns highest in emerging economies (Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2024)

  • ‘Comfort viewing’ of nostalgic TV shows and movies as acquired titles (26.8B minutes) outpace new originals (11.9B minutes) (Source: Nielsen, 2023)

🎤 Friends of the trend:

2. Fantastical World Building 🧙‍♀️

This is more than a coping mechanism - it’s dipping into world building. Perhaps due to the ** gestures at state of the world **, we’re seeking escape in fantasy worlds. The weirder the better.

🖤 Needs: Escape, Imagination

👀 See also: Surrealism, Fantasy, Anime

🌱 Behaviors: Gaming, Streaming

📈 Data points:

  • Rise of surrealism on streaming platforms: Severence, Saltburn, Loki

  • Video game industry forecast industry forecast to reach $312B in revenue by 2027 up from US$227 billion in 2023  (Source: PwC)

  • 86% of young people say it’s ‘weird to be normal’ (Source: Vice 2024 Trend Report p.90) 

  • Global anime market size to be around $26 billion in 2023, with projections of reaching $48.3 billion by 2030 (Source: Enterprise Apps Today)

3. Shopping Sucks 🛒

This is a storyline about yearning for quality. We can shop anywhere, anytime, on any platform, but we’re trapped in a vortex of fast-fashion and declining quality.

🖤 Needs: Trust, Effectiveness, Interconnectedness

👀 See also: Fast fashion, slow movement, buy nothing, minimalism, buy less/buy better, rise of repair

🌱 Behaviors: Resale, repair, buy-nothing

📈 Data points: 

  • 40% of US consumers have shopped at Shein or Temu in the last 12 months

  • 70% of global consumers believe product quality has declined in recent years (

  • 74% say sustainable practices and commitments are an important consideration when making purchase decisions (Reinventing Consumption, Accenture)

  • The global secondhand market is projected to nearly double by 2024 (Source: ThredUp, 2023)

🎤 Friends of the trend:

4. Scorecard Parity ⚽️

The battle for equal pay in sport goes way back to the 70s (can you imagine: Title IX and the Battle of the Sexes in less than a year of each other?). Gender equality in sports has progressed slowly. Although an Equal Pay for Team USA bill was signed into law in January of 2023, there’s still massive desire for meaningful inclusion in sport.

🖤 Needs: Respect, equality, inclusion, belonging

👀 See also: Equal pay, esports, gender neutral sports apparel, trans inclusion

🌱 Behaviors: Advocacy, activism, investment and sponsorship, inclusive language

📈 Data points: 

  • Over 263 million unique viewers tuned into the FIFA Women’s World Cup, making it the most-watched women's sporting event ever. (Source: Euromonitor)

  • Women’s esports tournaments generated 28M hours of viewing time, a 15% YoY increase from 2022 to 2023. (Source: Esports Charts)

  • Several US states enacted laws restricting trans athlete participation in youth and/or collegiate sports, prompting ongoing legal challenges.

  • FIFA policy updates allow trans athletes to compete without requiring surgery or hormone therapy, sparking debate about international standards.

🎤 Friends of the trend:

5. Vacation Mode ✈️

This storyline: travel - it’s back. We’re back to traveling after the pandemic, and boy are we traveling: exceeding 2019’s travel levels, with a tweaked set of values and desires.

🖤 Needs: Rejuvenation, inspiration, exploration

👀 See also: Workations, spontaneous travel, sustainable travel, contactless travel

📈 Data points: 

6. Unlocking the Outdoors ⛰️

A simple story: Folks opted outside during the pandemic and liked it. The great outdoors is trending, whether it’s actual outdoor activity or ‘gorpcore’ technical outdoor wear that blurs the lines between fashion and the outdoors.

🖤 Needs: Rejuvenation, Inspiration, Exploration

👀 See also: Gorpcore, resale, sport x luxury partnerships 

📈 Data points: 

7. Healthful Pleasures 😇

This is a feel good story. The headline: Health feels good. This is a cultural current of pursuing feeling good even over looking perfect (how good). Vice called these ‘healthful’ pleasures and I like this term.

🖤 Needs: Pleasure, rejuvenation, healing

👀 See also: Biohacking, community, psychedelics, cannabis, ketamine treatments, cold plunging, communal health, mental and emotional wellness

📈 Data points: 

8. Fandemonium 👯

This storyline is about creation. Fans aren’t new. The way they’re organizing, and the way brands are incorporating them into their strategies are. The internet has accelerated the rise of creators, communities, and how we make meaning together. Call them diehards, fanatics, crusaders, but don’t call them inconsequential. 

🖤 Needs: Interconnection, power, creativity, ownership, belonging, identity, passion

👀 See also: Multiplayer brands, alternative distribution models, ownership models

🌱 Behaviors: Remixing, trading, creation

📈 Data points:

🎤Friends of the pod:

9. Decentralized Dynamics 🕸️

This is a story about power. It’s a shift from corporate to collective control, alternative models of ownership, and how people view power: and perhaps, a reaction to a long decline in unionization, and the erosion of dignity at work. Words to watch for: Decentralized, distributed, organizing, networking.

🖤 Needs: Mobility, dignity, status

👀 See also: Hot labor summer, alternative models of ownership, unions, communities, collectives

🌱 Behaviors: Organizing, gathering, networking

📈 Data points: 

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 14.4 million union members in the US, representing 10.0% of wage and salary workers

  • Notably, this a slight decrease from 2022 (10.1%) and a significant decline from 1983 (20.1%), indicating a long-term decrease in union membership rates

🎤 Friends of the trend:

10. AI Awakening 🤖

One of the biggest storylines of 2023 was people fully grasping what AI is and what it can do. This will blur into all of our other stories.

🖤 Needs: Effectiveness, exploration, learning, inspiration

👀 See also: Loneliness epidemic, empathetic AI, girlfriend AI, AI assistants

📈 Data points: 

11. Authenticity Renaissance 🖤

After years of seeing influencers edited, perfect lives, we’re craving things that look and sound, well, real. 

🖤 Needs: Authenticity, connection

👀 See also: Creator economy, day dumping, community

📈 Data points: 

That’s a wrap. If you made it this far, bless you - I’d love to know what you found interesting and what’s on your list to watch in 2024. Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.

Tomorrow I’ll be dropping a January vibe check on where we saw some of these storylines show up in the headlines.

Next week we’ll be back with a brand deep dive that’s leveraged culture and authenticity to build a leading position in its category. Can you guess it? 😉

Happy Friday,

✌️ - Amanda