📈#078: Inside the 426B liters, 33.7% market share & $5.6B partnership

Welcome to Market Mosaic, where, in this week's edition, we explore how the Gulf's trillion-dollar AI ambitions are colliding with water scarcity realities and uncover why e-commerce adoption varies dramatically from 33.7% in the US to just 11% in Chile.

We also analyse how consumer environmental expectations are driving oil giants to transform carbon emissions into profitable products through cutting-edge AI partnerships.

Also, download our newly-released Consumer Insights report (H1 2025 edition) here on “how AI and market feedback drive product innovation.”

Let’s now dive into the insights and stories.

— Insights Team, Rwazi

In our edition this week:

• Sector Performance Tracker

• Technology

• Economy

• Consumer Universe

• Supply Chain
  

In the service economy, consumer trust is increasingly fragile and valuable. Companies that maintain operational transparency and prioritise safety over cost-cutting will build stronger consumer loyalty in risk-averse markets.

The Middle East's trillion-dollar AI dream is colliding with harsh environmental realities as data centres threaten to consume over 426 billion litres of water annually by 2030.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are attracting tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft with massive investments, but our data analysis shows a concerning disconnect. While 78% of consumers in Gulf states express strong environmental concerns, 91% still expect seamless, AI-enhanced digital experiences. This creates a complex challenge for tech companies operating in the region.

Regional consumer behaviour analysis shows that Gulf consumers are among the world's highest adopters of AI services, with 67% using AI-powered applications daily, significantly higher than the global average of 43%. However, only 34% are aware of the environmental impact of their digital consumption habits.

Our analysis of global e-commerce penetration over the last month shows real differences in consumer digital adoption across markets. The United States leads at 33.7% of consumer goods purchased online, followed closely by China at 31.2%, both far exceeding the global average of 17.3%.

Countries with lower online shopping penetration, like Chile (11.0%) and Switzerland (11.3%), aren't necessarily less digitally advanced; rather, their consumers demonstrate different value systems around physical retail experiences and product verification.

Emerging trend: Mobile-first markets like South Korea (22.0%) show higher adoption rates than traditional e-commerce markets, suggesting that consumer behaviour is leapfrogging desktop-based online shopping entirely in favour of mobile-native experiences.

According to our analysis of customer satisfaction rankings, Alaska Airlines leads with a score of 82, while traditional giants like United struggle with declining satisfaction (-3 points to 75).

Safety perceptions now drive 89% of airline choice decisions, up from 54% pre-2020. United's decline correlates directly with highly publicised safety incidents, demonstrating how quickly consumer trust can erode in the social media age.

Interestingly, budget carriers like Frontier (69, +3) and Spirit (67, +5) are showing improvement, suggesting consumers are becoming more sophisticated in their value calculations.

We are now seeing how Saudi Aramco's partnership with Google spinoff SandboxAQ is causing a shift in how consumers perceive environmental responsibility from major corporations.

This $5.6 billion AI-powered project aims to transform carbon emissions into profitable products, addressing consumer demands for corporate climate action.

The partnership's focus on converting CO2 into valuable materials like plastics and aerospace components addresses a key consumer insight: 76% of environmentally conscious consumers prefer companies that turn waste into useful products rather than simply reducing emissions.

Regional differences are notable: European consumers show 93% awareness of carbon capture technologies, compared to 62% in North America and 41% in emerging markets, indicating varying levels of environmental sophistication among consumer bases.

We are excited to announce the release of our Consumer Insights Report H1 2025, themed “Building with Data: How AI and Market Feedback Drive Product Innovation.”

We analysed, predicted presented how AI technology and real-time market feedback are transforming product innovation in global markets. And this report provides the strategic roadmap for you to navigate this shift.

As a Market Mosaic subscriber, you receive immediate download access, priority invitation to our insights webinar and direct access to our Insights team for consultations.

📈 What you will get:

✅ 50+ pages of actionable insights on market trends in H1 2025
✅ Global consumer segmentation analysis
✅ AI adaptation strategies
✅ H2 2025 predictions and market forecasts
✅ Strategic frameworks you can implement immediately
✅ Visual data storytelling with compelling charts

This report is our most comprehensive analysis of global consumer behaviour and AI adoption trends for you to stay ahead of the curve.

Meet Anirudh Ramesh, a strategy consultant at Bain and Company, with a strong track record of driving innovation at the intersection of business, technology, and inclusive development.

In our latest Conversations with Market Mosaic, Anirudh speaks on AI-powered market entry and growth strategy for global businesses across diverse sectors.

🟣 Market Mosaic: How can AI help businesses across global markets build with data?

🟢 Anirudh Ramesh: AI is a starting point that helps us to understand which datasets are required. And I think that’s a very critical starting point, because what is happening now with additional data is that you fail and experiment faster.

It basically enables companies to have a closed feedback loop of sorts, which did not exist before, in order to achieve outcome-driven analysis.

After years of building the world's most comprehensive market intelligence platform and helping global enterprises understand "what's happening" and "what it means," we are now solving the final piece of the puzzle: "How do we act on this?"

Want to learn how Sena helps teams like yours execute strategic moves and explore market opportunities in real-time across functions?

 
Thank you for reading and joining us on Market Mosaic this week. We hope this edition provides valuable, actionable insights for decisions with data. 📊

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Here are the insightful visuals we shared on LinkedIn. Feel free to check them out, comment or repost if it hits home for you.