Gen Alpha holds $100 billion in direct annual spending power — roughly three times Iceland's GDP — and five of its members just told a room of marketers exactly what loses their business.

At Shoptalk Fall in Nashville last week, a panel of five Gen Alpha shoppers, from middle schoolers to high schoolers, took the stage to talk candidly about what they want and don't want from the brands competing for their time, dollars and clicks. Marketing school was in session, but this time the students were the teachers.

Why should marketers look past Gen Z?

Many retailers and brands today focus on Gen Z, whose purchasing power is projected to reach $12 trillion by 2030, according to World Data Lab. But Gen Alpha — the oldest of whom are in their late teens — is increasingly catching their eye.

The scale of the cohort's influence is substantial:

• Gen Alpha influences nearly half of total U.S. household spending in families with children ages 8-14.
• The generation has $100 billion in direct spending power annually.
• Amazon, Nike and McDonald's rank among the top brands in households with Gen Alpha teens, according to a 2026 study by HarrisX and Allison Worldwide.

What did the teen panel actually say?

The conversation touched on a range of topics, from the use of AI in ads to why analog media is resonating with the generation right now. The verdict on AI in advertising was blunt: "That's a huge turnoff," one panelist said.

On the appeal of analog media, another shopper explained the motivation in personal terms: "I do need to feel different and unique."

The panel format put the generation's expectations directly in front of the marketers trying to reach them — no intermediaries, no syndicated research summary. The teenagers spoke about what earns their time, dollars and clicks, and what actively pushes them away from brands.

What does this mean for brand strategy?

The panel's pushback on AI-generated advertising lands at a moment when brands are scaling the technology across creative production. A generation with $100 billion in direct spending power — and influence over close to half of spending in U.S. households with children ages 8-14 — describing AI in ads as "a huge turnoff" is a direct signal about creative risk.

The simultaneous appetite for analog media, driven by a desire to feel different and unique, suggests the cohort rewards the handcrafted over the automated. Brands courting Gen Alpha as its oldest members move through their late teens will need to weigh that preference against efficiency-driven creative pipelines.

The full discussion, first reported by Modern Retail, signals where the next purchasing generation draws its lines — and which brand categories, led by Amazon, Nike and McDonald's, already hold the top spots in its households.