The Next Boom Is Running Late
On artificial intelligence, family traditions and the courage a new generation will need
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Some questions get asked around the same dinner table, generation after generation.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
In many families, the answer is given long before the child has had a chance to think about it. Picture a brass nameplate beside a front door. Law Offices. Grandfather's name. Father's name. And below them, an empty space, waiting.
That nameplate carries pride. And pride is not something you simply set down.
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We live in a time when exactly that kind of pride is being put to the test. In just a few years, artificial intelligence has gone from something we read about to something that sits beside us at the desk. The AI market was valued at roughly 391 billion dollars in 2025 and is expected to reach around 540 billion in 2026. That is growth of around 38 percent in a single year (Grand View Research, 2026).
Behind the big numbers lies a quieter story. Researchers at Stanford have followed employment in the fields where AI has the greatest influence: software development, customer service and data analysis. Here, employment among young people aged 22 to 25 has fallen by 13 percent, while their older colleagues in the same fields have held steady or moved ahead (Brynjolfsson et al., 2025).
What is interesting is how. It is not layoffs driving the change. It is the hires that never happen. The door doesn't slam shut. It simply never opens.
The researchers also point to why. Young employees mainly bring the kind of knowledge found in books, and that is exactly the knowledge a machine can imitate. The experience that only comes from meeting people, solving problems and failing along the way is far harder to replace.
That is worth pausing on. Because if what the machine cannot do is relationships, trust and human experience, where should our young people look for their future?
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Recognition comes before change
I want to be honest. The numbers do not show a boom in network marketing today. Globally, the industry had sales of 163.9 billion dollars in 2024, almost exactly the same as the year before, and the number of independent sales representatives was virtually unchanged (WFDSA, 2025).
It would be strange if things looked any different. Technology moves in months. Human identity moves in years, sometimes in generations.
The philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn described how a paradigm shift never happens at the moment the new facts appear (Kuhn, 1962). First we defend the old picture. We explain the anomalies away. Only when the old picture can no longer hold reality are we ready to see the world in a new way.
That is exactly where we stand now. The AI boom has arrived. The recognition is on its way. And I am convinced that the next boom, when people truly begin to create their own work and their own future, is running late. It will come once families have had the conversation around the dinner table. Once someone has said out loud that the education that was a safe choice for the father may not be one for the daughter.
It takes something to break a family tradition. It takes the ability to tell the difference between what we are proud of and what we are simply used to.
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A budding hope
I do not believe the network marketing of the future will look like the multilevel marketing many people remember from the 80s and 90s. The hard-sell meetings, the pressure on friends and family and the promises of quick riches belong to another time. A new generation neither wants that nor will put up with it.
What can grow instead is something else: A community where you learn from someone who has walked the road before you. Where relationships are built over time. Where honesty about effort and earnings is the starting point, not the exception. And where digital tools, AI included, become a way to meet more people, not a replacement for the meeting itself.
There are signs that something is moving. The industry's own world federation points to a growing interest in entrepreneurship and to more positive attitudes towards direct selling among younger generations (WFDSA, 2025).
And some companies are already showing what this can look like. I know Zinzino from the inside, because Henriette and I are partners there ourselves, so feel free to read the next lines with that in mind.
Zinzino was founded in Sweden in 2005 and built its model on something the old multilevel marketing never had: test before product. Customers first measure their own balance and can afterwards see whether anything has changed. The company is publicly listed and publishes its sales figures every month, so anyone can follow along. No blind promises. Just numbers on the table.
And those numbers tell the story of something that grows. In 2015, Zinzino had net sales of 394 million Swedish kronor. Ten years later, in 2025, the figure was 3,172 million. That is eight times as much, and an average growth of around 23 percent a year (Zinzino, 2016; Zinzino, 2026).
The most remarkable thing is not the highest number. It is that there is not a single year of decline. Over the same period, global investment in AI grew almost 17 times, from 29 to 490 billion dollars, but with two years in a row of sharp drops along the way (Our World in Data, 2026). One curve looks like an earthquake. The other looks like something putting down roots.
While the industry as a whole stood still in 2024, Zinzino grew by 25 percent, and in 2025 by 51 percent. Part of that growth comes from acquiring other network companies, and that in itself is a picture of the shift. The modern and serious companies are gathering the industry up, while the old models fall behind.
Perhaps this is exactly where the budding hope lies. For the student who can see the first jobs in her field disappearing. For the employee who senses that the machine has started doing the tasks he used to be valued for. What a modern network company offers is not a position that someone can cut. It is a chance to build something of your own, on exactly the abilities AI cannot imitate: relationships, trust and the wish to help another human being.
It is no shortcut, and the income does not come by itself. It takes work, patience and honesty, and far from everyone gets to where they dream of being. But it is a door that stands open, even when other doors do not open.
No guarantee. But a hope for those who dare.
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As we look ahead…
Let us give our young people permission to ask the dinner-table question all over again.
Let us tell the difference between the pride in a name on a nameplate and the pride in daring to choose your own path.
Let us remember that the traditions we cherish today were once a break with something older.
Let us build a culture where willingness to change is not a betrayal of the family, but the finest legacy you can pass on.
Perhaps the empty space on the brass nameplate is not a loss at all. Perhaps that is where the new tradition begins: the courage to think for yourself.
Which tradition in your family is it time to retire, and which is it time to begin?
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As for me, I have made my decision. I am not waiting for the numbers to give me permission… I believe in the people who seize new opportunities before anyone else can see them. It is time for COURAGE. It is time for NEW PARADIGMS. And the future looks bright for those who dare.
Wishing you a FANTASTIC day with your courage intact 🌞💥
Ronnye Larsen
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References
Brynjolfsson, E., Chandar, B., & Chen, R. (2025). Canaries in the coal mine? Six facts about the recent employment effects of artificial intelligence. Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
Grand View Research. (2026). Artificial intelligence market size, share & trends analysis report, 2026–2033. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/artificial-intelligence-ai-market
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press.
Our World in Data. (2026). Corporate investment in artificial intelligence [Data from Stanford HAI, AI Index Report 2026]. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/corporate-investment-in-artificial-intelligence-by-type
Zinzino AB. (2016). Year-end report 2015. https://mb.cision.com/Main/10976/9926425/483122.pdf
Zinzino AB. (2026). Annual report 2025. https://mb.cision.com/Public/10976/4339845/91f42d02e1ccfc69.pdf
World Federation of Direct Selling Associations. (2025). 2024 global annual direct selling statistical data report. https://www.wfdsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/WFDSA-STATS-Report-2024-2025-V1.pdf