Mintel 2027

Someone who wants to sleep better might change their evening routine, buy a mattress, try an app and check their smartwatch. For that person, these choices belong to one concern. Businesses tend to divide them into separate markets.

Mintel calls the shift towards connected products, services, technologies and habits Products to Systems. The starting point is the outcome someone wants: a calmer home, more energy or an easier daily routine. [1, pp. 4–7]

What interests me is the work between those products. Someone still has to choose, connect, understand and maintain them. A useful offer can take some of that work off their hands.

Choice comes with decisions, accounts, instructions and routines to remember. I read two signals in the report as an invitation to ask how much effort an offer demands from the person using it.

63%

of UK consumers would prefer one app for all their health needs

85%

of Brazilian adults responsible for cleaning their homes prefer a simpler cleaning routine

These findings concern different markets and questions; they are not a global measure. [1, pp. 15, 42] They suggest a useful design question: does adding another feature make someone’s day easier, or give them another thing to manage?

For a business, the opportunity may be better instructions, compatible services or dependable help after purchase. The value lies in reducing effort across the whole experience.

Mintel predicts that AI assistants could help people start with their situation and desired outcome, then find products and services around it. Recommendation systems may become intermediaries between brands and their audiences. [1, pp. 7, 13, 17]

There is an appealing promise here: less time searching and comparing. My question is how much control remains with the person. Can they understand a recommendation, change their mind or leave the service?

Mintel also flags the risk of closed ecosystems. [1, p. 7] For me, this makes clear information and freedom to choose part of good design. Brands can support that by explaining compatibility, costs, limitations and the conditions of using their offer.

A promise may encourage someone to try a product. Mintel argues that a tangible benefit increasingly matters to whether it stays in their routine. People compare their own experience with other people’s accounts, measurements and recommendations. [1, pp. 12–14, 30–31]

Yet more data does not automatically bring confidence. If someone changes several habits at once, an improved reading on a device cannot establish which product made the difference.

I take a simple communication lesson from this: explain what a product can reasonably help with, what remains uncertain and what to do next. Trust can grow through useful support and honest limits.

Mintel describes four possible roles: providing a specialist part, connecting separate elements, guiding choices or coordinating the whole process. [1, p. 52] A smaller business can contribute through a well-made product or a reliable partnership; it does not need to own every part of someone’s routine.

The report’s Tide Cleaners example makes this concrete. App-connected lockers help organise dropping off, cleaning and returning clothes. The benefit reaches beyond the cleaning product to the task being taken care of. [1, p. 43]

This also changes the competitive question. Which other products, services or habits help someone reach the same goal? Looking beyond a category can reveal both competitors and useful collaborators.

For me, the strongest design brief begins with a person’s situation: what they are trying to do, what already works and where they get stuck. The answer might be a clearer comparison, a repair option, a simpler service or fewer steps.

A website can make suitability and effort easier to judge. Packaging can explain how something fits into an existing routine. Support can help when that routine changes.

That is the connection I see between the human and business perspectives: an offer earns a place in someone’s life when it helps with something that matters to them. Understanding that life is part of the work.

[1] Mintel, Global Predictions 2027, 56-page English-language whitepaper. This article focuses on Products to Systems. References above use the report’s page numbers. Mintel report and resources ↗

The report combines country-specific data with forecasts for 2027 and beyond. The two percentages above should not be generalised to Poland or other markets; sample sizes and full survey details are not provided beside them in the whitepaper.

The questions about effort, agency and design are my interpretation of Mintel’s analysis. The report’s scenarios describe possible directions, rather than outcomes that have already happened.