Sub-shift
“PROVENANCE PURCHASING”
People gain a clearer choice about whose work they are buying.
A portrait of a parent and an image for a presentation can both look exactly right. The buyer may still want to know quite different things about how they were made. For one, a particular artist's attention could be central to the purchase. For the other, the image simply needs to do its job.
As generated work becomes easier to obtain, we expect more purchases to come with this choice about origin. “PROVENANCE PURCHASING” concerns the occasions when customers want the making of a product to be part of the offer. The useful information will depend on the promise being sold.
From a reassuring word to a specific account
This October's “Von Menschen” initiative gives that distinction a concrete form. Its participating children's publishers commit to human-written text, human illustration and design, and editorial review. It does not claim that every publishing process is free of AI. The mark can appear where people encounter the book, including digital product information. [115]
The appeal is easy to understand without assuming every reader shares it. Someone choosing a book for a child may care who imagined the story and who checked it. Another buyer may be happy with a personalized generated tale. A useful description allows that difference to become a choice before money changes hands.
For other categories, the important history may be different: a named designer's decisions, the origin of a photograph, a craftsperson's work on a particular object. Over the next one to three years, those accounts could become a more ordinary part of comparing offers. A broad authenticity badge is less useful when customers cannot tell what it certifies.
Make the history usable
If origin matters to your customers, explain the contribution in language they can use. Designed by a named person and produced by machine. Generated from the customer's recollections, then edited together. Made by hand in a particular workshop. These describe different processes without requiring a hierarchy between them.
Evidence matters as much as the description. C2PA's technical explanation distinguishes verifiable provenance from truth: a recorded history does not, by itself, make every assertion reliable. A customer-facing account should be equally clear about what the seller can substantiate. [58]
There is room to innovate in how that information travels with a product, from discovery to delivery and resale. Keep it short enough to understand and available early enough to influence the purchase. Independent makers should not have to buy an elaborate certification system to tell a credible story of their own work.
The commercial test is whether the account helps people choose and reduces disappointment about what they received. Some customers will care deeply; others will pass over it. Both should be able to understand what is on offer.
Early signs of change.
by TrendWatching
1 closely related example from the Innovation Database. Each helps explain an aspect of the shift. None establishes that the whole forecast will happen.
A book cover can carry an account of human authorship
British certification organisation Books By People
Reader-facing mark and title metadata convey authorship provenance.
Why this example is here
Certification applies the scheme’s standards to reviewed evidence; its own terms say it is not an absolute guarantee of human authorship. Registration does not mean government verification of each book. A blanket absence of AI assistance and a consumer price premium have not been established by this review.
Original sourceEditorial selection · reviewed 1 Nov 2026
Dates distinguish launches, announcements and substantial updates. Examples with a more indirect connection are labelled.
See the full selection for “PROOF OF HUMAN”THE SOURCE NOTESFollow the thinking 2 sources · what they show and where their limits lie
Sources and further reading
These sources inform the article. A product announcement describes an offer, not how widely people use it. Arguments and imagined futures are kept separate from observed results.
Full four-page release read. Mark covers human-written text, human illustration/design and editorial review; publisher process/research assistance is not generally prohibited. Participating publishers may use mark digitally and in print. No sales, adoption or independent verification claim.
This source explains the distinction between verifiable provenance and factual truth. We use it for that distinction, rather than as current technical implementation guidance.
About this research edition
This article draws on selected sources and our interpretation of their implications for consumers. The wider collection contains 50 articles and original illustrations. We have not read everything by everyone on the reading list, calculated the probability of each future or established worldwide adoption. The collection is not exhaustive.
The illustrations are AI-generated, with a visual approach informed by TrendWatching’s 2024 and 2025 reports. They depict ideas rather than observed events. If an article’s central idea changes, its image needs another look. Small edits need not mean a new illustration; automatic replacement is not active.
Each innovation has a source, a review date and an explanation of its relevance and limits. Some are early signs of the change; others offer a useful comparison. None proves the forecast. Monthly monitoring and automatic selection of new examples are not running.