How to use AI to understand consumer behavior: what changed and what CMOs need to know in 2026

Consumer behavior changes faster than any traditional research can keep up with. In 2026, three structural forces — the end of third-party cookies, full LGPD enforcement, and TikTok-shortened trend cycles — made point-in-time research obsolete for campaign decisions.

The CMO who depended on annual research discovered consumers change faster

Five years ago, an annual study on consumer behavior was enough to guide marketing planning. The market moved in quarters. Preferences changed over months. A CMO who researched in March still had relevant data in October.

That world no longer exists.

In 2026, TikTok creates and collapses trends in days. A product that was not on the consumer radar on Monday can become desirable on Thursday. A solid brand can face a perception crisis in hours. Behavior captured three months ago may no longer describe today’s consumer.

And most CMOs still make campaign decisions from the picture taken when the last study was conducted, not from current behavior.

What changed in consumer behavior in 2026?

Did consumer behavior change in 2026?

Yes, across three structural fronts: trend cycles shortened to days with TikTok and creator culture; the end of third-party cookies in Chrome removed a tracking layer marketing depended on; and full LGPD enforcement made first-party data collection more expensive and restricted.

Change 1: trend cycles that last days, not months

TikTok is not only a social network. It is a cultural-acceleration engine. A trend that begins with creators one week can appear on supermarket shelves the next. A CMO researching consumers quarterly is always three months behind the real market.

Change 2: the end of third-party cookies

Google eliminated third-party cookies in Chrome in 2024. This ended 25 years of individual tracking at scale. Digital marketing that depended on third-party data to understand preferences and behaviors had to find alternatives. Companies without first-party data became structurally weaker.

Change 3: LGPD in full enforcement

Brazil’s ANPD intensified enforcement from 2023 onward, with more than 1,400 security incidents reported between 2021 and 2024. Each study using real personal data now requires documented legal basis, supplier DPAs, and compliance approval before execution.

How AI changes the CMO’s ability to understand consumers

How does AI help understand consumer behavior?

AI processes real behavioral data and generates Synthetic Personas that respond to campaigns, prices, and messages in 48 hours, without respondent recruitment. With Galaxies, CMOs validate how specific audience segments react to marketing decisions before any budget is committed.

AI solves the three blockers at once.

• For short cycles: market signals in 48 hours. The CMO does not wait for the research cycle to finish. Ask the Persona today, get the answer tomorrow.

• For the end of cookies: Synthetic Personas are built from the client’s first-party data. They do not depend on third-party tracking, cookies, or external-platform data.

• For LGPD: Synthetic Personas are not personal data under the law. Legal approval applies to the input, not the output. Marketing teams consult Personas without a compliance process for every interaction.

Four 2026 trends every CMO needs to know

What are the main consumer-behavior trends with AI in 2026?

Four trends have direct impact on marketing decisions: AI adoption in marketing grew significantly; consumers expect real-time personalization; first-party data became core strategy; and the creator economy fragmented attention channels.

Trend 1: AI integrated into marketing decisions

According to McKinsey’s 2026 global survey on AI, companies that integrate data and AI into strategic decisions are much more likely to outperform competitors in revenue growth. The gap between AI-led decision companies and those operating with outdated data is widening.

Trend 2: personalization expected, not only desired

The 2026 consumer does not perceive personalization as a bonus. They perceive the absence of personalization as negligence. Generic campaigns for broad audiences lose to specific campaigns for precise segments. This specificity requires knowing how each audience cluster reacts.

Trend 3: first-party data as a strategic asset

With the end of cookies, companies that built their own data bases — CRM, NPS, loyalty programs, direct research — have a structural advantage. These data sources feed more precise and more relevant Synthetic Personas for each marketing decision.

Trend 4: the creator economy fragmented attention channels

The proliferation of creators fragmented consumer attention across thousands of microchannels. CMOs selecting influencers only by performance history in other categories are using the wrong data. What matters is how the specific consumer of your brand responds to that content type.

How CMOs use AI to understand consumers: five practical applications

How can CMOs understand consumer behavior with AI?

Five applications stand out: map reactions to creatives before media; understand purchase objections by segment before agency briefing; simulate how clusters respond to price or positioning changes; validate purchase journeys before launch; and measure brand perception in real time.

• Map reaction to creatives before media: the team has three ad versions. Synthetic Personas from the target audience indicate which approach generates higher click intent and which objections each version raises. Mahta Bio used this model and registered 35% lower CAC.

• Understand objections before briefing: instead of briefing the agency with internal hypotheses, the CMO arrives with data: these are the top objections the audience raises in the category, and these messages address them most effectively by segment.

• Simulate reactions to positioning changes: before committing rebranding budget, the CMO validates how each segment reacts to the new value proposition, which attribute is seen as differentiating, and which segment is at migration risk.

• Validate the purchase journey of a new product: before launch, the CMO simulates how the consumer moves through discovery, evaluation, and conversion, identifying friction points before any budget is committed.

• Measure brand perception in real time: after a communication change, the CMO consults Personas to understand how brand perception is evolving by segment, without waiting for the next annual study.

Frequently asked questions

How does AI help understand consumer behavior?

AI processes real behavioral data and generates Synthetic Personas that respond to campaigns, prices, and messages in 48 hours, without recruitment. With Galaxies, CMOs validate how specific audience segments react before committing budget.

Did consumer behavior change in 2026?

Yes, across three structural fronts: trend cycles shortened to days with TikTok; the end of third-party cookies eliminated a tracking layer marketing depended on; and LGPD increased the cost and restrictions of primary-data collection.

What is the alternative to third-party cookies for understanding consumers?

First-party data combined with Synthetic Personas. The CMO collects data from customer interactions and uses AI to expand those data into scale. Galaxies uses CRM, NPS, and customer research as input to generate representative Synthetic Personas.

How can CMOs understand consumer behavior without traditional research?

With active Synthetic Personas in the platform. Instead of commissioning a study that arrives in two months, the CMO asks Personas questions in natural language and receives the signal in hours, available 24/7 without recruitment.

Read also: Synthetic Personas: what they are, how they work, and why they are transforming marketing decisions · The proactive decision layer