Photos by Pixabay
By Crispin Beale, CEO, Insight250
With today’s ‘Age of AI’ comes an ever-growing level of hype across the business world generally, and the insights industry, specifically. There is no shortage of references to artificial intelligence and the myriad of opportunities it presents to market research and the business units it supports across the enterprise.
Unlike many other ‘paradigm shifts’ that have been hyped over the last decade, from ‘big data’ to ‘blockchain,’ AI can be road-tested through a variety of open-source and publicly accessible platforms, from ChatGPT and X’s Grock to Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. So, experts across Insights, Marketing, Product and beyond can see the potential of AI first-hand. However, the key to unlocking AI’s true potential is to integrate it into the insights process to make it more efficient and effective.
To understand what these ideal AI applications are that can spring the impact of insights ahead, I spoke with various insight experts from around the world, asking them, “While the hype around artificial intelligence is growing, what is one specific application where you see AI technology springing insights ahead?” … Here’s what are some of our global leaders and innovators said:
Ben Page, Chief Executive Officer, Ipsos, France
“Aside from the incredible speed in analysing social media and historic data, the new possibilities of synthetic data giving clients both speed and reduced cost in areas like innovation research is truly groundbreaking.”
Caroline Frankum, Global Chief Executive Officer, Profiles Division, Kantar, UK
“AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in revolutionising the speed, scale, and precision of data collection, analytics, and predictive analytics in the Market Research Sector. Measuring genuine public perception has always been a complicated blend of art and science, an endeavour requiring careful navigation through bias, interpretation, distortion, and unpredictable noise. But today, AI is enabling market researchers to make more informed decisions, improve efficiency, and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving industry. In Kantar we’re using AI to purposefully derive deeper insights into consumer behaviour and market trends, with powerful examples including (but not limited to):
- Using machine learning algorithms to sift through noise and fraud and identify authentic voices and true behavioural and attitudinal patterns.
- Using Generative AI to create synthetic data that helps build more comprehensive audience profiles
- Using AI-driven chatbots to enhance the quality of our qualitative work via targeted probing and smart analysis of responses”
Michael, Nevski, Director, Global Insights at Visa, USA
“The latest use case that illustrates the power of generative AI in marketing research is the creation of dynamic consumer personas. Traditionally, this process was time-consuming and relied on limited data points. However, with generative AI, researchers can now analyze vast amounts of real-time data from various sources, such as social media, purchase history, and online behavior. This technology identifies patterns and trends that humans might miss, creating more nuanced and accurate personas.
“For instance, a major retail brand used generative AI to analyze customer data from multiple touchpoints, generating detailed personas that evolved in real-time based on changing consumer behaviors and preferences. These dynamic personas provided research team with deeper insights into their target audience's motivations, pain points, and decision-making processes. As a result, the brand was able to tailor its marketing messages more effectively, leading to a significant increase in customer engagement and conversion rates. This use case demonstrates how generative AI is revolutionizing marketing research by providing more accurate, timely, and actionable consumer insights.”
Urpi Torrado, CEO, Datum Internacional, Peru
“We are leveraging AI in multiple ways to drive actionable insights beyond the hype. On one hand, we use AI-powered tools to streamline processes such as data coding and processing, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. On the other, we have integrated an AI moderator that enables real-time analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. This innovation allows us to offer our clients ‘Conversations with Integrated Analytics,’ a powerful approach that combines dynamic engagement with instant, data-driven insights, ultimately leading to deeper and more strategic decision-making.”
Mark Langsfeld, CEO, mTab, USA
“AI’s ability to process complex, diverse datasets is a foundational strength in market research, but our clients across industries like automotive, entertainment, and food & beverage are taking it further. They’re leveraging our AI-powered insight solutions to surface real-time decision intelligence across core functions including Advertising, Marketing, Product, and Innovation. For example, assembling a creative brief for a marketing campaign or client pitch — once a task that took days of manual effort across multiple datasets — can now be completed in seconds.
“We’re deploying these tailored solutions across enterprise teams to deliver consistent speed and efficiency. This not only liberates Insights teams from data wrangling but also empowers them to focus on high-value strategic work, enabling smarter, faster decisions that accelerate business growth.”
Mark Ursell, CEO, QuMind, UK
“In terms of AI at QuMind this is very much in a series of stages, focussing initially on operational improvements and speeding up the delivery of insights to decision makers. The areas QuMind have developed using AI have focussed around specific project data sets, so very much within a walled garden. This started with reporting, enabling AI to write full reports, summary reports and the ability to Q&A a data set. We then moved on to sentiment analysis for analysing verbatim comments within surveys and more recently the ability to create automated code-frames using AI. We have now moved onto improving data quality enabling AI to screen out BOTs, straight line answers, poor quality verbatim comments and the like improving overall data quality. We very much see the next stage is to develop AI driven respondent personas and evolve into the arena of synthetic data mixed with real data from respondents.”
Vesna Hajnsek, Senior CMI Manager, L’Occitane Group, Switzerland
“In my opinion, the most low-hanging fruit we have in the insights industry is AI-enabled summarization. It is not fancy, it' won't win any awards for most innovative approaches, but it does something crucial for us: it releases time for us to focus on more value-added work. A good AI-summarization can save us hours, if not days of work and refocus us on telling the story and driving action that will benefit the consumers and the company.”
Priscilla Mckinney, CEO, Little Bird Marketing, USA
“As CEO of Little Bird Marketing, I've seen firsthand how AI is transforming the way we evaluate strategic plans and competitive landscapes, particularly in the market research industry. While everyone's buzzing about AI's potential, I'm already leveraging tools like ClaudeAI by Anthropic to cut through the noise and get to actionable insights faster. When evaluating unique value propositions and go-to-market strategies for our clients, Claude helps me quickly generate comprehensive typologies of potential approaches, identify differentiation opportunities, and test sustainability factors—all in minutes rather than days. This isn't about replacing strategic thinking; it's about augmenting it. The real magic happens when you combine AI's ability to process vast information with human expertise in asking the right questions and applying insights to specific contexts. I can now present clients with a more thorough analysis of their competitive position and clearer pathways forward. Then, we get to apply human-driven creativity around these insights.
AI doesn't eradicate the need for strategic practitioners or creative partners—it elevates those of us who know how to leverage it as part of our SOAR system for delivering marketing clarity and predictable lead generation.”
Herbert Höckel, Managing DIrector, moweb GmbH, Germany
“While AI's influence on market research is widely discussed, practical applications that enhance the accuracy and relevance of insights remain the real game-changer. At moweb reserarch, we developed MindsetMatching®, an AI-powered tool that transforms the way brands connect with influencers and their communities.
“One of the biggest challenges in influencer marketing today is the lack of psychographic data - brands often select influencers based on visible metrics like reach and engagement, without understanding their deeper personality traits or how well they align with the brand’s values. This can lead to ineffective partnerships and wasted budgets.
“MindsetMatching® solves this by leveraging Artificial Intelligence and the OCEAN (Big 5) personality model to analyse both influencers and brands on five key psychological dimensions. By studying past successful influencer campaigns, our system learns which personality profiles best align with specific brand goals - whether it's boosting awareness, improving brand image, or driving conversions.
“This AI-driven approach reduces campaign risk by ensuring that brands partner with influencers who genuinely resonate with their target audience. It’s a step beyond traditional influencer selection, bringing scientific precision to a space often ruled by guesswork. As AI evolves, its power lies not just in automation but in delivering richer, more predictive insights that drive strategic decision-making.”
Matt Hay, Founder & CEO, Bulbshare, UK
“AI is no longer just a future vision—it’s transforming the way we work today. At Bulbshare, we’ve built AI-driven tools that are helping some of the world’s biggest consumer brands run insight projects in days rather than weeks, unlocking unprecedented efficiency and depth. One of the world’s biggest beer brands is already leveraging our AI-powered Brief Builder to generate complex surveys in seconds, drastically reducing the time needed to launch research.
“Our AI Video Analysis tool is enabling them to process and extract meaning from vast amounts of video content at the touch of a button, eliminating hours of manual work. And with our agentic, conversational AI co-pilot, they can now dig deeper into their data, cross-reference insights with external research, and surface historical findings instantly—ensuring every decision is backed by the fullest possible picture.
“This is the real impact of AI in research: not just faster processes, but smarter, more insightful outputs. By combining speed with depth, AI is empowering brands to extract richer meaning from their data, act with greater confidence, and put customer voice at the heart of every decision like never before.”
Mariela Mociulsky, CEO, trendsity.com, Argentina
“Generative AI is now within everyone’s reach, revolutionising research in exciting ways. It helps save time on tasks like instant summarisation and time management, while also providing real-time insights, emotional analysis, and meaning extraction from digital conversations.
“Brands can even simulate future scenarios, testing strategies before rolling them out in the real world. For instance, it’s possible to project how inflation or regulatory changes might affect demand for specific products.
“But it doesn’t stop at consumer insights. Cities can leverage AI to model how new infrastructure might impact mobility, while banks can anticipate shifts in credit perceptions across different customer profiles.
“However, it’s crucial to remember that simply amassing data—often laden with biases and inaccuracies—isn't enough. The real challenge lies in turning this data into strategic actions that genuinely influence business decisions. Ultimately, the responsibility rests with us, the users.
“As for your question, true new knowledge is generated through the scientific method. AI doesn’t create innovative knowledge itself; it offers new ways to access, utilise, and maximise existing knowledge.”
Alex Hunt, CEO, Behaviorally, USA
“AI is embedded into our workflows and generating substantial productivity improvements: notably via our GLADYS qualitative platform. But imagine most of the industry is already, or should be already, using AI to enhance speed to insight. Where AI has been a game-changer is improving what Behaviorally does best: predicting the effectiveness of new packaging designs.
“This is both through machine learning that connects our market leading primary database to secondary sales data, as well as vision recognition AI, such as Convolutional Neural Networks and Transformers that can supplement for the role of survey respondents. The result has been an improvement to the predictive accuracy of our core survey methodology, PackFlash, where Behaviorally now has enhanced capability to pinpoint sales impact of packaging design, as well as the successful development and rollout of a fast growing new revenue stream in Pack.AI that forgoes the need for collection of primary consumer data at least for early stage or small brand objectives.”
Ray Poynter, President, ESOMAR
“What am I using AI for? Beyond the typical cases of helping write articles, summarise documents, and answering a vast range of questions. I am using it for conversational data collection, conducting qualitative data analysis, using it for data cleaning and preparation and creating RAG systems to deliver answers. One of the main uses I am seeing others use it for includes synthetic data. The two main ways of leveraging synthetic data are augmented synthetic data (mostly a quant thing) and personas (mostly a qual thing). However, the biggest impact from AI that I see most often is the use of AI to boost efficiency. For example, I see lots of people leveraging Copilot with Office 365 to boost their effective use of time and the Microsoft products.”
Sharmilla Das, Chairwoman, Purple Audacity, India
“Qualitative research is witnessing many use cases of AI at present. I am still skeptical about AI-assisted moderation and going blindfolded into an AI-generated report. However, I am excited by how AI brings in efficiencies in many processes and acts as a very nimble partner for the Researchers when they are designing the study, or designing the instruments, or stringing their insights together.
“According to my experience, the greatest value addition of the AI is that of a diligent colleague who will ensure that all elements are getting covered, and nothing is left out from the scrutiny, or suggest frameworks that could help the different processes, or help verbalise the thoughts better.
“The caution that needs to be exercised is the same as what you will use with a colleague who does very fast turnarounds. Check the outputs judiciously to adjust excesses or absurdities."
Nick Baker, Chief Research Officer, Savanta, UK
“Fool's Gold (Stone Roses)....The gold road's sure a long road. Winds on through the hills for fifteen days. The pack on my back is aching. The straps seem to cut me like a knife. AI facilitates efficiencies throughout the research process (Metaforms, Co-Loop, Dante etc), but synthetic personas and data make new & different research possible, perhaps quicker or even more robust and a lot more. The ability to interrogate segmentations in real time, to communicate insights through multiple media outputs and really engage stakeholder audiences and unlock the value in the research done are huge opportunities...but beware the 'Fools Gold' - AI products without a robust foundation. “
Justine Clements, Consumer Insights Manager, Samsung Electronics, Australia
“AI can become an effort multiplier if used for things like pressure testing and optimising global assets before launch, or finding patterns in unstructured data such as social listening. It can certainly generate high quality visual outputs bringing data to life. Used well, it can speed up some of the manual work, help uncover patterns we couldn’t possibly see in the time we have available and speed up decision making. As long as we ultimately rely on human judgement to know when to trust it and where to deploy it.”
Victoria Usher, CEO, GingerMay, UK
“In 2025, AI chatbots and virtual assistants won’t just be support tools. Instead, they will be powerful frontline brand ambassadors for personalised, conversational experiences at scale, as well as boosting productivity in insight businesses.
“This AI will analyse customer data in real-time, understand context, predict need and tailor conversations across websites, social media and voice-enable devices. All of this will help with lead generation, improve and speed up customer service, and enhance insight at scale.”
Laura Ruvalcaba, CEO, BRAIN Research, Mexico
“Unlocking Shopper Insights with AI-Driven URL Analysis: At Brain, AI-powered URL analysis is already enhancing the way we understand online shopper behavior. By tracking and analyzing URLs from web sessions, we can map the entire digital journey—revealing patterns from initial browsing to final purchase decisions. This allows us to identify key touchpoints, friction areas, and behavioral trends that traditional analytics might overlook.
“With AI-driven insights, we can detect where users drop off and uncover opportunities for optimizing the shopper experience. This approach helps refine marketing strategies and improve conversion paths with data-backed precision. As AI continues to evolve, URL-based shopper journey analysis is proving to be an invaluable tool for staying ahead in the competitive digital marketplace.”
Arundati Dandapani, Founder and CEO, Generation1.ca, Canada
“As one of the first marketing researchers professionally trained in AI governance, thanks to my role on the advisory board and team that launched the world’s first AI governance certification through IAPP, I’ve constantly been upskilling in AI as well as its guardrails across all stages of AI ingestion, preparation, training, and output. We’ve witnessed AI’s transformative impact across different parts of the research and research automation processes, particularly in analysis, analytics, and communications. I’ve specifically deployed AI to drive data and insights innovation by creating AI agents that visualize timelines and milestones, while offering tailored responses based on data such as syllabi, curriculum, and learning objectives. These agents can act as a personalized after-course guide, empowering learners to navigate courses at their own pace. Such agents can also be applied across a variety of contexts, from navigating websites and employment resources to enhancing any member-centric journey.
“Additionally, I’ve used synthetic augmented data to enhance our understanding of immigrant experiences with brand satisfaction, focusing on key touchpoints like banks and educational institutions as these hard-to-reach groups transition to a new country. This augmented intelligence is crucial for a settlement-service entity like Generation1.ca, which aims to integrate immigrants professionally.”
Jonathan Williams, CEO, ONE Virtual Strategy Studio, UK
“With ONE Strategy Studio we’re using AI to reinvent the agency model and client experience from the ground up. It’s 100% automated end to end insight, strategy and innovation projects delivered in as little as an hour, by a senior team of expert strategist, all with 20+ years industry experience.
“This means clients can embrace AI without any subscriptions, software, training or self serve - the best agency experiences… powered by AI. Our approach has been tested Vs traditional methods and is proven to deliver the ‘golden triangle’ of faster, cheaper and better… as well as being a more agile iterative way of working.
“In just our first year we’ve worked with 35+ global clients (Unilever, Diageo, Haleon, Asahi, Philips; Coca Cola and more) and run 150+ projects spanning innovation, positioning, category growth strategy, foresight, market mapping, comms & activation and naming. AI project automation is already transforming the industry and there are plenty more New innovations coming. (Plus we do a great sideline in manga warrior hero images as well!)”
Jean-Marc Léger, President / CEO, Leger, Canada
“AI, the new rock star: AI is an essential part of my team and has become a rock star at Léger, participating in all our activities. It helps us think, create, analyze, systematize, structure, and challenge ourselves. AI has become a mentor who makes us smarter and more efficient in all aspects of our work. Some suggest that we should change our company name from LEGER to LEGAI :)”
Eleni Nicholas, Chief Client Officer, Ipsos, UK
“Ipsos demonstrates its use of AI in research through several key initiatives and frameworks that integrate both Human Intelligence (HI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The following points summarize the evidence of AI application in Ipsos' research practices:
- Ipsos GenAI Framework: This framework emphasizes the ethical and responsible use of AI in market research. It focuses on three core principles: Truth (accuracy of AI outputs), Transparency (understanding AI mechanisms), and Trust (ethical treatment of data). The framework ensures that AI systems are evaluated against these principles, highlighting Ipsos' commitment to integrity in AI applications
- Integration of HI and AI: Ipsos champions the combination of Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence to enhance creativity and effectiveness in insights generation. This approach is evident in their Ipsos Facto Gen AI platform, which leverages high-quality datasets and expertise in prompt engineering to produce human-centric insights. This integration allows for faster and safer insights while maintaining a focus on the human context
- Generative AI in Advertising: Ipsos has recognized the transformative potential of Generative AI in advertising research. The agency has been actively using AI to create, version, and optimize advertising assets in near real-time, which significantly enhances productivity and allows for more effective brand strategies
- Innovation in Product Development: Ipsos Innovation utilizes AI to meet evolving consumer needs by creating and optimizing new products and services. This involves using validated insights and agile solutions powered by AI, demonstrating a practical application of AI in product development processes
- Ethical Considerations: Ipsos is aware of the ethical implications of AI use in research. The agency emphasizes the importance of treating participant and client data with integrity, ensuring confidentiality, and maintaining compliance with ethical standards
- Overall, Ipsos showcases a robust application of AI in its research methodologies, focusing on ethical practices, integration with human expertise, and innovative approaches to data analysis and product development.”
Karine Pepin, Co-Founder, The Research Heads, Canada
“AI has tremendous potential to improve data quality, and we're already seeing promising applications that detect incoherent data and filter out irrelevant open-ended responses. It can significantly reduce manual effort but also introduces potential risks. As these tools continue to evolve, it's important to ensure they account for the real-world context in which participants respond—like small smartphone screens, low incentives, and poorly targeted surveys they may not be interested in. AI works best when used with continuous human oversight, integrated feedback loops, and in combination with other proven fraud detection tools.
Good participants are the backbone of the industry. The last thing we want is to reject genuine participants at scale mistakenly.”
So, as you can see, there is a wide spectrum of applications that are impacting market research processes and insight production. The key to moving beyond the hype of AI is to adopt relevant applications that drive the speed, accuracy, efficiency and efficacy of insights and how they are applied to make smarter decisions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Crispin Beale - Chief Executive, Insight250, Senior Strategic Advisor, mTab; Group President, Behaviorally
Crispin Beale is a marketing, data, and customer experience expert. Crispin spent over a decade on the Executive Management Board of Chime Communications as CEO of leading brands such as Opinion Leader, Brand Democracy, Facts International, and Watermelon. Before this, Crispin held senior marketing and insight roles at BT, Royal Mail Group, and Dixons. Crispin originally qualified as a chartered accountant and moved into management consultancy with Coopers & Lybrand (PwC). Crispin has been a Fellow, Board Director (and Chairman) of the MRS for nearly 20 years and UK ESOMAR Representative for over 10 years. Crispin is currently a Senior Strategic Advisor at mTab as well as Group President at Behaviorally.