Welcome to our webinar all about Gen Beta. My name is Gary. It’s really nice to have you all here. Today, we’ll take just 20 minutes—that’s all, not very much at all, is it? You probably still have time to take the dog for a walk. We’ll share as much as we can with you, and then leave a few minutes at the end to answer any questions. I’ve got one promise for you—or one hope, really—and that’s this: You’ll leave today knowing one thing you didn’t know when you arrived. And really, that’s all we can ask for, right?
So what are we going to talk about? The overarching purpose today is very simple: to give you as good an idea as we can of what Gen Beta is all about. That way, you can look clever in front of your colleagues by actually knowing what this is all about, instead of pretending like they do. Don’t worry about taking notes. You’ll get a video, and we’ll send you a transcript and all that lovely stuff. There might be some swear words in it if I do swear accidentally, but just ignore those. There are three parts to the session.
First, we’ll define who Gen Beta are. Second, we’ll explore whether they’re “ready-made” or if they’ll need some extra “cooking.” Third, we’ll think about some high-level ideas on how you can engage with them. Nothing groundbreaking, but helpful nonetheless, I hope.
Before I say anything else, I want to be abundantly clear that this is all artifice. These generational names are created for the delight of marketers, nothing else, really. They’re not Generation Beta. They’re children. Some of them share traits as they develop in a world with overlapping influences. But the commercial world loves a demographic and a category, so here we are with Generation Beta.
Before we do any explaining, though, we need some anchors—ways of ensuring a shared understanding. You see, these kids have only just started to be born, so as we look ahead, we need to think about factors that will impact the future. Cunningly, I decided to call these future factors. I did a bit of digging and arrived at seven that I consider important. In thinking about Gen Beta, I researched what smarter people than me think these things are, then plugged in my understanding of childhood. The result is the next 20 minutes.
These future factors will keep us all moving in the right direction, and there may well be more, or these may not be the right ones. I don’t know, but these are the ones we’ve decided to use at KI—and it’s too late to change them now because you’re all here. So what’s the first one?
Generational Context
Perhaps the most obvious, and important: Children are shaped by the cultural, social, and historical moments they grow up in. Understanding these bigger generational shifts gives us direction in understanding emerging values, behaviours, expectations—all of that sort of stuff. This could include parenting styles, demographic shifts, societal attitudes, and all sorts of different things going on. Generational context is the first future factor.
Technology
Second: Technology. Technology continues to redefine childhood. From AI and virtual worlds to how children communicate and learn, the impact of technology is immense. How will AI, immersive tech, and new interfaces shape learning, play, and socialisation? How will tech affect children’s cognitive development? You’ve got AI copilots—we’ve all seen them pop up in our meetings—Metaverse experiences, the endless screen time debates, digital literacy, child-focused data privacy concerns. This is by far the noisiest current future factor.
Next, we have play. Play is a child’s work. How could we not include this? Play is a core driver of creativity, social skills, and emotional intelligence. As digital and physical play evolve, so do children’s ways of exploring the world. This will be quite impactful.
Education
Education is another future factor. Learning is being disrupted by technology. We’ve done quite a lot of work in this area, and it’s crazy—what’s going on is exciting and scary in equal measure. So, how will the trend of adaptive learning change education? What skills will be most valuable in the future? How will education systems adapt to an ever-evolving job market? We need to consider personalised learning skills for the future: problem-solving, emotional intelligence, resilience—all of that. Alternative education models, globalised access to education—it goes on and on. Education is fundamental for children in Gen Beta, and it will continue to shape their future.
Climate & Global Challenges
Next is climate. Children grow up in a world shaped by environmental and societal challenges, which will influence their worldview and their behaviours. How climate change affects childhood experiences, and how they engage with the future, will be critical. Sustainability will absolutely define this cohort.
Economy
Then we have economic conditions. These shape opportunities, aspirations, and access to resources, which isn’t exactly equal now, let alone in the future. We’ve got cost of living pressures, generational wealth shifts, changing attitudes toward work and success—all of this will shift. It’s a very exciting / scary time to be alive, isn’t it?
Social Norms & Values
Finally, social norms and values. Children develop with ever-evolving social and cultural expectations. These shape their identities, interactions, and worldviews. We need to look at how ideas about identity, inclusivity, and self-expression are shifting. What role do families, communities, and digital culture play in shaping these values? Changing family structures, gender and identity discussions, inclusivity, representation in media, the role of digital communities—all of these things will impact these children.
As different as all of these seven future factors are, it became clear that there are themes, ideas, and insights that permeate all of them. The future of Gen Beta is definitely not binary, and sadly, in 20 minutes, I don’t have the time to explore all of that nuance. But there is nuance. There are reasons to be inspired, and reasons to be concerned about Gen Beta. I’m going to share some of those with you in the next 20 minutes.
So anyway, right? Let’s crack on with who, what, and how. So, Alpha baby was born on the 31st of December 2024. The last baby born on December 31st, 2024, is an Alpha. The first baby born on January 1st, 2025, is a Beta. We welcome the latest marketing cohort into the world—Generation Beta. A child born on December 31st, 2024, is literally, categorically different from a child born on January 1st. But honestly, that distinction is a little silly, isn’t it?
Generational transitions are always an evolution and are shaped by overlapping influences, cultural shifts, and technological advancements. Children are products of nature and nurture. They have the possibility of their lives encoded in them even before they’re born, but it’s the forces around them that shape them and dictate the extent to which that potential is realised. It’s clear that understanding this continuum is going to be increasingly necessary for people like us. And it doesn’t take a tech buff to know that Gen A and B are shaped by world priorities, with technology and connectivity being central to it all. Technology will likely be the defining dimension of who they are.
I included this photo because I just think it’s really funny that those men are all wearing the same colour tie.
Alphas, born into an era of smartphones, smart homes, and social media ubiquity, have grown up in a world where digital is not an innovation but a given. These are the first so-called digital natives. Then we’ve got Beta with real-time emergence of AI companions, AR integration, and more immersive forms of entertainment. These technological shifts promise opportunities that we probably couldn’t quite imagine, and yet, there, within a few short years of being the norm, I said Tech was the loudest, and of these seven future factors, and you can see why. This is not evolution in the dramatic sense of the word, but it is adaptation. It looks a bit like this. Generations don’t exist in isolation, just as their millennial parents' tech-savvy approaches influence Alphas’ habits, Beta’s upbringing will be moulded by Gen Z’s curious tendencies, the first cohort to internalise digital media en masse during their formative years, Gen Z, but let’s not get distracted by the troublesome Zs. The generational interplay between A, B, millennial and Z means that values, behaviours, and expectations of one cohort will inevitably blend with another. A single moment in time cannot define an entire generation.
This interconnectedness requires flexible strategies that balance familiarity with forward-thinking innovation, but they wouldn’t be B's if there weren’t some differences. So let’s have a quick minute talking about the differences between A and B, if you like, the peaceful transition of purchasing power, and we’ll do this in accordance with our future factors. Right on the left, we’ve got a Gen A, on the right, we’ve got Gen B.
Digitally native, climate crisis for B, it’s climate awareness and screen-based interaction for A. AI awareness and social media for B, it’s immersive interaction, AI co-creation, and decentralised platforms. Then we go for A and play, interactive play, franchise-driven, and streaming culture. But for our friends in B, it’s immersive play, creator culture, and interactive narratives. Education, hybrid learning, gamification, linear progression. For B, it’s about AI-led, personalised learning, micro-learning, and a real experiential focus.
We’ll talk more about this in a minute, in terms of climate for A, early understanding, relatively speaking, technology introduction starting to happen a little bit for them around this space and advocacy. But for B, it’s going to be active participation, technology, climate moderation, will be integrated into their lives, and they will take a more, we hope, a more global position on their citizenship.
In terms of the economy, for A, economic shifts, digital currencies, economic values shifting around. For B, it’s integrated digital economy. Financial literacy goes through the roof in a skill-based economy, and then for social norms and values, climate consciousness, social awareness, focus on mental health, but it evolves just a little bit for B, climate action, global citizenship and mental wellness priority. So that’s the difference between A and B, because this is called from A to B. So you see what I did there. So while GEN B will inherit many traits and values from Gen Alpha, technological environment advancements, evolving parenting styles, and global challenges will define them as a distinct and highly adaptive generation, kind of going back on what I’m contradicting myself a little bit, because there are some real things which will happen to these children, right? Let’s go into section two, nature and nurture.
First things first, our species has been the same for under 50,000 years, and evolution needs either a macro event or a succession of micro events to work its magic. Our brains have been exactly the same all this time. We’ve still told stories in the same way, and as time goes by, we steadily moved along the path of development, but nature doesn’t move that fast. It’s why we can all still relate to ancient histories and stories. They’re part of the shared human condition. The nature of Beta cannot change. Evolution doesn’t move that fast. It’s like that thing that people bang on about, isn’t it? They say, "Oh, kids are getting older, younger," yeah, it looks like they might, because they’re doing stuff we didn’t do. That’s what we call progress, but in my research and working this out, I started to see something a little bit different. The potential impact of AI, particularly on children’s cognitive development, particularly through effective prompting, is an emerging field of study, and whilst there isn’t any huge volumes of evidence, this is an emerging area.
There’s some things which are going to actually positively impact this next generation’s cognitive development, assuming they have access. So informing effective AI prompts requires clear logic. It enables them to think. They’ve got to have the ability to break down problems into smaller parts. And you know, if you’ve used ChatGPT, you know what I mean. You have to have your head fully around the issue that you’re exploring to get to the good stuff. You need to be able to use your own sort of thinking, really. And this aligns perfectly with the skills needed for critical thinking, and that core aspect of cognitive development. Prompting AI well encourages children to think about how they think. They must consider how the AI interprets their input, prompting, and the metacognitive skills that they get, so it becomes massively powerful for them in terms of their understanding of how they actually think. They’re asking things in a much more pointed way. And then there’s this notion that maybe this thing’s going to help with the development of communication skills. Developing an effective prompt involves using precise language, which can enhance linguistic skills and abilities and improve verbal and written communication that we know that kids anthropomorphise smart speakers, so this is only going to get even more real. So maybe that’s a good thing, maybe that’s a bad thing. I’m not quite sure yet, but effective prompting often requires trial and error. This sort of iterative process mirrors scientific problem-solving methods that encourage perseverance. So AI tools like generative systems encourage open-ended exploration, and that should push children to think creatively and approach problems in multiple ways, and that’s called divergent thinking. So there’s a really, really interesting kind of pseudo-evolutionary thing going on there. But of course, there’s going to be a few challenges. We’ve got to be open to this. All those lovely cognitive benefits from prompting AI depend on equitable access to those tools and resources. And look, that’s probably not going to happen. Let’s crack on to nurture. So let’s deal with our seven future factors. I just want to run through each of them and the big things that are going to happen for GEN B. So unlike Alpha, who experienced the global disruption of COVID-19, GEN B will grow up in a world that’s adjusted to new norms. You know, the hybrid working thing, our integration, health monitoring, these are all standard practices for them. Beta will likely take adaptive technologies for granted, viewing them as intrinsic, as part of their life. And of course, we’re talking a lot about AI and that AI experience being fully integrated into their lives, affecting their personal decision-making, from health and education to work. And of course, you know, at a higher level, it’s going to impact how they perceive governance. The niggle I’ve got for Beta right now, and I don’t have a crystal ball, is that a world shaped by automation and efficiency may harness technology for problem-solving and decision-making, and that will be wonderful, but it could also raise questions about individual agency. We don’t want that, not at least while the lunatics are running the asylum.
So here’s the second of our future factors, technology – that AI word again, isn’t it? Immersive. Immersion generation Beta will grow up fully immersed in the metaverse, augmented reality, virtual reality. Technology will blend seamlessly with daylight. No, it hasn’t yet. They tell us it has. It hasn’t yet. That’s nonsense, but it will, and their digital interactions may well end up blurring the boundaries between reality and virtual environment, shaping how they socialise, how they learn, how they play, and all of a sudden, boom. Here we are in an earnest climb novel, and then for Beta. Well, the evolution of AI as an assistant to a partner. AI systems will make personalised decisions from learning plans to entertainment recommendations, and Beta may prioritise convenience and efficiency over traditional problem-solving skills, raising the bar for digital literacy and for the ethical use of AI, but that’s another conversation entirely. And then finally, and perhaps most importantly, the over-reliance on technology, if not balanced with human-driven experiences, will inhibit all of that lovely critical thinking stuff that I was alluding to just now. But that should be okay, because we know Gen Z, their parents, love to make real memories.
Number Three of our future factors, play or toys, games, and activities will integrate AR and AI properly, at long last, fully immersive experiences that combine the real and virtual worlds. And to my mind, at least there’s a cigarette paper between virtual worlds and imaginary worlds, so maybe that’s a good thing, and then we’ve got our personalised play experiences. Toys will evolve alongside the child, adapting challenges and storylines to developmental stages. It’s like choosing your own adventure books with a nuclear reactor. It could be amazing.
And then finally, our social and environmental themes, while play experiences will often, in the very near future, include themes of collaboration, diversity, and sustainability, and they’ll foster a global eco-conscious mindset in the children. This will be reflected in the IPs that breakthrough in the years to come. And I hope that this kind of attitude is the thing that will mean that more children will go out to play.
I’ve talked a bit about education, but it will rely heavily on AI tutors that adapt to their strengths and weaknesses, offering hyper-personalised curricula. Learning will become more efficient and tailored, and that’s a good thing, but students may miss broader social lessons, and the things that we gain from traditional group learning. The I word again, AR and VR, will transport students to virtual historical events or scientific environments where experiential learning happens. And how amazing would that be to go to Pompeii?
And while tech education has the potential to be disparate, not everybody will have the same access, we will see that educational approaches will cross the globe. Not just helping children’s understanding of curriculum and knowledge, but it should, if these equity and access challenges are surmounted, decrease the gap economically around the world.
Beta growing up in a world where climate adaptation is critical, this includes learning to live with severe weather, resource shortages, and stricter environmental policies, and so on. Sustainability will become second nature for these children, and corporations and individuals will face greater scrutiny from them, and that’s only right. Beta’s consumer choices will be heavily influenced by sustainable practices, and with climate challenges affecting everyone, beta may grow up with a stronger sense of global interconnectedness and shared responsibility.
Beta will enter the workforce dominated by ultimate automation. Many traditional jobs will be replaced and transformed. There’s about 80% of jobs these children will have that haven’t been invented yet. And then we’ve got this flexible working thing that we all know and probably quite enjoy, press work, short-term contracts. This will be the norm in many careers. Beta may value independence and entrepreneurship, but they also may struggle with financial stability as a result. And then we’ve got the gain, this inequality and access, economic polarization could increase.
We’ve seen it already. I told you some of this was a little bit concerning. Automation may benefit some industries more than others, leading to greater inequality if systemic solutions aren’t enacted.
And finally, of our seven future factors, social norms and values, beta will grow up in a hyper-connected world where exposure to diverse cultures and perspectives is the norm. It doesn’t help that the rollback of DEI initiatives and the rise of polarising narratives may affect how they perceive inclusion and fairness, but hopefully, brands, institutions, or maybe even parents, will help ensure that those children are shown perhaps a different way to look at things. And we hear a lot, don’t we, about alpha being the activist generation. I’m not sure I’ve ever really bought that, but I am starting to buy it for beta. They may inherit alpha’s passion for social change, but I think they’ll focus more on systemic solutions rather than grassroots activism, right?
That’s that part three, very quickly, some very quick things for you to think about how you can use this. You’re all from different places, you’re all doing different things. I can’t be all things to all people. So here are some very high-level ideas, strategies, if you like, for each of those future focus areas:
Number one, generation context – build trust through transparency.
You know, there’s an example for you that includes real-time updates on supply chain sustainability or carbon footprint. Nothing new there, but not enacted enough. It needs to happen. Go see products have changed. Look at the website. Join products of change and make that happen.
Number two, technology – leverage immersive technologies.
Here’s an example: a toy company allowing children to play pre-play with toys in a Digital Sandbox before purchase. Some of the games we create for children, for brands, for toys, particularly where we enable the children to play with the toy digitally before they play with it physically, has resulted in the sales of the toy going up. It kind of makes sense.
Part Three, play – design for collaborative and inclusive play,
so board games or apps with avatars, play pieces, or designs that are customisable across cultures and abilities. Imagine that, you’ve got a game we can make it flex to whomever’s playing it. How good would that be?
Education, number four – support adaptive learning platforms,
VR-based experiences such as space exploration, and then build a toy line around that.
Climate and global challenges perspective, number five – lead with sustainability,
highlighting environmental impact savings. You could say we use 50% less water than the carbon petition. Very simple, very persuasive.
Number six, prepare for the automation economy –
so, you know, toys and games to teach thinking, collaboration, leadership skills.
And then finally, seven, commit to authentic DEI.
Never has this been more important than now. So use cultural knowledge and sensitivities to personalise experiences for each individual.
So to finalise the bottom line, I can’t tell you exactly how they will be because they’ve just been born a month ago, but I can tell you, having done this digging around, the bottom lines as I see them, and hopefully the red thread through this deck:
Number one, AI will be victorious.
Number two, immersion is key in each of those seven future factors. Immersion is prevalent.
Number three, these children need agency. We need, as parents, as carers, as their adults, to give them every opportunity to be themselves.
Point four, physical experience is fundamental. Linked to point three, we can’t have kids strapping a screen onto their heads and expecting that to do everything they need to be happy, healthy children.
Point five, GenZ parents are going to need to step up.
So, I think that's it. Yes, it is. Thank you very much. We have a few minutes for a quick Q&A, if you'd like to do that. I'm opening the Q&A now... there it is. I’m not sure if you can see me, but I’m not very good with this. Are there any questions? Has anyone got any questions?
Okay, I can’t see any questions. Fine. I’m going to assume that was amazing and that you now know everything you could possibly want to know about our Gen Betas.
What we’ll do after this is wrap everything up. We’ll send you a copy of this, along with the transcripts and the video. Oh, someone just said it was amazing. Oh, bless you. That’s kind. Thank you. Thank you for saying that, that's very nice.
How do you… Oh, look, they’re all coming now. There are hundreds of them! Hang on, right…
Jody, thank you. That’s kind. How do you see this generation trusting the media and institutions more than Gen Z? Oh my God, that's a huge question. Thank you, Claire. How do I see them trusting the media and institutions? I think it’s about critical thinking skills, isn’t it? That’s what I’ve been saying: we have a responsibility. Educators have a responsibility, and parents have a responsibility, to enable children to challenge, to ask the right questions, to probe, and to make their own minds up. It’s happening at the moment, but we need to make sure it continues. So I think they will trust the plurality of media sources they choose to trust, if that makes sense. Probably not. I’ll write to you with a proper answer.
Lily says, “Do you think hard copy books will still have a place for these children?” Yeah. Oh, I hope so. I used to be an English teacher, and there’s nothing like holding a book, is there really? And look, the reason I say that is twofold. One, I’d want it to be so. And the second reason is that there is huge evidence—other people know this better than me—that when eBooks started, physical books actually sold at an increasing rate as well. In fact, I think they outstripped eBooks. There’s something about holding knowledge. So yes, I do think they’ll have a place.
Sam says, “Are there types of IPs that interact with other types of IPs? Are the types of IPs they interact with likely to change much, or the way they consume media?” Great question, Sam. IPs—yeah, I alluded to this. I think the IPs that reflect where their heads are going are always, you know, they need to identify with the characters, with the narrative. It needs to connect with them on a meaningful level. IPs that reflect their world experience will be the ones connecting with them. And those will be reflective of the world we're going into. So, for example, environmental IPs—old ones like ‘Save the planet, save the iceberg, save the polar bears’—won’t cut it. What will work are things like Wild Kratts. I know, if you know Wild Kratts, it’s about 15 years old now, but it’s just brilliant. It instils the values children need to understand how to look after the planet.
Someone’s thinking of a question… Keep going, you’ll get one. It’s okay, you’re amongst friends.
Joanna wants to know, “How will B’s watch films?” I don’t know—because they’re only a month old! But they’ll probably watch them on a screen. We’re not going to do the kind of Star Wars “things on the chess table” scenario with the Millennium Falcon. What are those called again? Those things... we won’t be doing that. It’ll still be on a screen, but it will probably be more interactive. The idea of being able to choose your own story, like with Bandersnatch on Netflix—amazing, but the tech wasn’t quite there yet. That will come fast. That’s what’s being talked about. I think that’s how they’ll enjoy stories—kind of like “choose your own adventure” books, but with a nuclear reactor!
Kirsty says, “How do you feel about banning personal phones in schools, especially secondary schools? There are lots of petitions about this at the moment.” How do I feel about it? I think that’s a really dangerous place to go. I agree and I don’t. Some children actually need a phone for good reasons. But do children need a phone in school all the time? No. I can send you a link to a good article on that, Kirsty.
Lovely 30 minutes! How do we, as parents, adapt to be better suited to all the emerging things like AI and climate change? Should brands help us have those conversations? Yeah, I think they should. Every brand that can authentically talk to us and help us should do so. But I think it’s also up to us to go out and find out, isn’t it? We have to take responsibility and accountability for how we want to bring our children up and do it.
I think that’s it, right? We’ve done all 30 minutes. Thank you very much for coming, everyone. I hope that was useful. We’ll send you all of this stuff. Have a lovely day, and it’s sunny here, so enjoy the sunshine. Take care. Thank you! Bye-bye, bye-bye.
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