Where Is Growth? Just Ask The Youth

We are witnessing a shift in market influence from one generation to the next. As millennials and Gen Z gain purchasing power, shape digital norms, and set cultural direction, they are redefining what growth looks like across industries.

To better understand the scale and implications of these shifts, a group of our global equity team associates who fit within the relevant demographic led a session exploring how younger generations are influencing demand, business models, and platform economics.

Their work highlights that companies able to understand and adapt to these behavioral changes early appear to be positioned to lead the next cycle of growth.

Equally important was how the work was generated. The session reflected the strength of our research culture: collaborative inquiry, generational perspective, and a willingness to examine emerging behaviors before they fully register in market fundamentals. That mindset—curious, connected, and forward-looking—remains central to how we identify growth early and maintain an edge in a rapidly evolving environment.

Together, the research and the process surfaced a clear message: growth is shifting, and the signals are already visible for those willing to look ahead. Below we discuss five insights that stood out. But first, why focus on these new demographics?

The Genesis: Why Focus on Gen Z and Millennials?

Millennials and Gen Z now account for more than half the global population, and their economic impact is rising rapidly. Our team’s analysis estimates a $24 trillion total addressable market (TAM) of spending power for these cohorts, compounding at 6% annually to reach $43 trillion in the next decade; this is double the rate of the broader market.

Youth Consumption Estimated at 6% 10-Year CAGR

Sources: Statista and William Blair, as of November 2025. CAGR refers to compound annual growth rate.

But it’s not just about numbers. These generations are fundamentally different. Gen Z, born after 1997, is the first truly digital-native cohort. The members of this generation have life experiences shaped by ubiquitous technology, social media, and a rapidly changing world. Millennials, meanwhile, have come of age amid globalization, economic liberalization, and the rise of the middle class. We believe companies must win over these cohorts early to secure enduring growth.

Growth of a Generation

Source: William Blair, as of December 2025.

Key Discoveries: How Youth Is Shaping Growth

Our associates’ discussion surfaced several themes that help explain how younger generations are reshaping markets and influencing where growth is emerging. While the shifts are broad, five areas stood out as particularly meaningful for understanding demand patterns, platform evolution, and future investment opportunity.

1. Consumption Patterns Are Broadening Rather Than Replacing Older Categories

Gen Z’s consumption habits defy easy generalization. While this generation is often characterized as favoring experiences over goods, our research shows they spend more on both than previous cohorts. For example, travel and entertainment are strong areas of discretionary spend (10% to 30% share of wallet, according to Bank of America and William Blair), but so are goods and services. Alcohol consumption patterns, too, are nuanced; this generation has fewer occasions to drink, but when they do drink, they consume higher-quality alcohol.

Brand loyalty is evolving rather than disappearing. Younger consumers are less influenced by traditional mass-market brands and more responsive to niche, identity-based and experience-driven offerings. Digital discovery, creator influence, and algorithmic personalization mean loyalty is increasingly earned through relevance, community, and repeat value—not legacy recognition. At the same time, brands built on strong intellectual property, cultural resonance, or immersive engagement are strengthening as younger generations gravitate toward franchises, creators, and products that reflect identity and participation rather than passive consumption.

These generations’ consumption patterns are more measurable.

While these generations are more diverse than prior generations, thanks to data tracking, their consumption patterns are more measurable. Brands now can target niche audiences with unprecedented precision.

The implication for investors is clear: growth opportunities lie in companies that can adapt to granular, data-driven segmentation and deliver both experiences and products that resonate with evolving values.

2. Financial Behavior Blends Experimentation and Caution

Millennials entered the workforce during the global financial crisis, driving a “save-to-escape” mentality. Gen Z, by contrast, is shaped by uncertainty, volatility, and choice overload. They prioritize lifestyle and flexibility, invest earlier, and are open to alternative products, crypto, and tokenization. However, they face higher financial illiteracy.

Social media is a primary source of financial advice for Gen Z, with platforms such as TikTok and YouTube influencing over 40% of investment decisions, according to MarketWatch. Robo-advisors and AI-driven wealth management are gaining traction, but Gen Z seeks holistic, low-cost, personalized solutions that integrate investing, insurance, and tax advice into a single interface. And 80% of Gen Z looks for the lowest-cost financial services offerings, according to RFI Global.

Driven by these cohorts, the future may bring always-on digital agents akin to personal CFOs optimizing finances in real time (leveraging blockchain) and programmable money. Investors should watch for companies innovating in financial technology, especially those bridging fragmentation and delivering seamless user experiences.

3. Technology Is Reshaping Communication and Platforms

Gen Z is the last screen-native and first AI-native generation. They own an average of 10 technology products, use 5 daily, and spend 7 hours online. [1]

It makes sense, then, that the creator economy is booming, with 50 million monetizing influencers worldwide, almost half of whom are Gen Z. Brand spend is shifting toward content creators, and 60% of Gen Z users prefer product recommendations from influencers [2], who are who are sometimes trusted more than family and friends.

Social platforms have shifted from relationships to entertainment and commerce.

However, social platforms have shifted from relationships to entertainment and commerce. The feed is no longer a reflection of who someone knows, but what the algorithm believes will hold the viewer’s attention or trigger a transaction. As a result, younger users are disengaging from performative, public-facing formats and gravitating toward smaller, quieter digital spaces that feel safer, less curated, and more human. This is driving the rise of “cozy media” formats (lo-fi content, slower pacing, softer aesthetics), closed-group or invitation-only communities, and ambient computing interactions where the platform fades into the background and content becomes passive, continuous, and low-friction.

Meanwhile, Gen Z is a key driver of AI adoption, using tools for content creation, social interaction, and product discovery. TAMs for AI tools range from $3 billion to more than $50 billion, according to William Blair estimates. The next wave of devices (ambient, wearable, and conversational) could further broaden data tracking and consumer targeting.

Investors seeking to take advantage of this area of growth may want to look for companies at the intersection of technology, media, and commerce, especially those enabling new forms of engagement and monetization.

Average Gen Z Daily Hours Spent on Key Platforms

Sources: SQ magazine, WARC, Forbes, eMarketer.com, IMH Business, and William Blair, as of November 2025.

4. Wellness Evolves From a Category to a Lifestyle

Wellness is shifting from discretionary purchases to ongoing, integrated behavior—something closer to maintenance than indulgence. Younger demographics, in particular, view physical, mental, and emotional health as continuous states requiring calibration rather than episodic correction.

This mindset is accelerating demand for products and services that support daily wellness routines, including sleep tracking, hormone and metabolic testing, supplements, mindfulness tools, and movement-as-habit rather than gym memberships alone.

At the same time, technology is reshaping wellness from reactive to proactive. Digital diagnostics, personalized insights, and AI-enabled recommendations are making individualized care—once reserved for elite or clinical environments—accessible at scale. Wearables, biometric monitoring, and habit-shaping software are becoming part of personal operating systems rather than standalone products.

Younger generations share routines, products, and progress as part of personal identity.

Lastly, wellness is increasingly social, culturally embedded, and aspirational. Younger generations share routines, products, and progress as part of personal identity, blurring wellness with lifestyle, fashion, and status signaling. This fuels rapid brand cycles in areas such as supplements, skincare, nutrition protocols, athletic apparel, and therapeutics—but also strengthens the position of platforms and ecosystems that can anchor long-term behavior.

Combined with the willingness to spend—which appears less tied to income level and more to perceived necessity and identity—these behavioral changes are resulting in predictable recurring spending patterns, creating long-term data-driven engagement loops. And with the TAM for wellness expanding from birth to death, we see opportunities for companies that can deliver integrated solutions.

The Wellness Flywheel

Source: William Blair, as of December 2025.

5. Emerging Markets and the Super App Phenomenon

Emerging markets (EMs) are advancing through technology cycles differently from developed markets—not by replicating old infrastructure, but by leapfrogging it. The combination of cheap bandwidth, widespread smartphone access, and seamless digital payments has created a powerful foundation for rapid digital adoption.

This convergence, often described as the “Wang Trifecta,” has enabled youth in EMs to embrace new digital behaviors faster than their counterparts in developed markets. As a result, these markets are not playing catch-up; they are setting cultural and commercial precedents that increasingly influence global trends.

This shift is visible in the rise of super-app ecosystems, where messaging, payments, commerce, mobility, entertainment, and financial services coexist in a single platform. WeChat, Gojek, Grab, and UPI-enabled ecosystems in India demonstrate how integrated digital rails can scale when the infrastructure, consumer behavior, and regulatory environment align.

Younger users in EMs also treat these platforms not just as utilities but as identity hubs: places where social interaction, commerce, content, and community blend seamlessly. Younger cohorts in EMs are not merely consumers of global digital culture; they are originators, exporting trends in music, beauty, gaming, and creator-driven content.

While appetite for similar integrated platforms exists in developed markets, regulatory environments, entrenched corporate silos, and antitrust frameworks constrain convergence. And platform boundaries (app stores, data ownership, payments regulation) make it difficult to build unified ecosystems at scale.

However, AI may begin to collapse some of these barriers by enabling orchestration across apps rather than consolidation within one. For investors, the opportunity is twofold: EMs offer live testing grounds for scalable digital models, and developed markets warrant monitoring for regulatory inflection points that could unlock similar platform dynamics.

Implications for Investors

Our analysts’ discussion underscored several critical themes for investors:

• Demographics are destiny. The rising economic power of millennials and Gen Z could shape demand, innovation, and capital flows for decades.
• Behavioral shifts are sticky. Digital nativity, flexibility, and a preference for convenience are likely to persist, even as cohorts age.
• Technology is a multiplier. Companies that harness data, AI, and new media could capture outsized growth.
• Emerging and developed markets are converging and diverging. Youth in emerging and developed markets share some traits but differ in adoption patterns and regulatory environments.

Importantly, the discussion made clear that youth-driven behavioral and technological shifts are creating new engines of growth across sectors. From digital consumption and financial experimentation to wellness and platform innovation, the patterns shaping Gen Z and millennial behavior are durable and increasingly investable.

We believe positioning portfolios to capture these currents—across consumer technology, financial platforms, wellness ecosystems, and the creator economy—will be critical in the future as these cohorts become the dominant global economic force.

Paul Birchenough, partner, is director of research and a portfolio manager on William Blair’s global equity team.

[1] For 10 products, CTA, PYMNTS, and William Blair. For 5 daily, CTA and William Blair estimates. For 7 hours online, New York Post. [2] Sources: Grin, Allied Global Marketing, Simplicity, and William Blair.