By Crispin Beale, CEO, Insight 250
(Photos courtesy of Pixabay)
Amazingly, we’re already into February of 2026, as we’ve entered the year at a fast and furious pace. We already have Valentine’s Day on the horizon and thought it would be an ideal opportunity to once again get some expert perspectives from across the insights and market research industry.
I had the opportunity to chat with insight, research, and marketing leaders from around the world to get their thoughts on the aspects of innovation and advancement that may not be getting the focus they should from professionals. So, in this spirit, I asked:
“With technology and methodology advancements driving the evolution of insights, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, what aspects of innovation in market research are not getting enough 'love' and attention in your view?"
Vinay Ahuja, VP, Consumer Strategy & Insights, Procter & Gamble Europe, Switzerland
“In our rush to embrace big data, we have mastered the 'what' but are losing the 'why.' AI is a mirror of patterns, not a window into the soul. We must pivot from scraping data points to understanding lived human experiences. Remember that beyond the cold data of users, there are beating hearts of our consumers and customers longing to be rediscovered. The next frontier isn’t faster processing; it is empathy-at-scale – marrying machine precision with the unvarnished, emotional truth of the consumer’s heart. Let’s stop counting people and start making people count.”
Christian Dössel, Head of Innovation at Bonsai, Germany
“With all the attention on new tools and faster analytics, one area of innovation still isn’t getting enough love: observing real behavior and testing ideas closer to people’s everyday lives. We continue to rely heavily on what consumers say, even though many decisions happen automatically, emotionally, and in context. Approaches that simulate real environments, track behavior, and allow early concepts to be tested in realistic situations can reveal far more than polished opinions. If we want innovation to succeed, we need to show more appreciation for methods that bring us closer to how choices are actually made.”
Deborah Mattinson, Baroness Mattinson, MRS President, UK
“Let's not forget the value of face-to-face interviewing, especially for qualitative research. If we do, we lose a vital layer of insight. There is no substitute for observing body language or looking into the whites of respondents' eyes and sensing their mood.”
Mark Langsfeld, CEO, mTab.ai & Co-Chair, Insights250, USA
“As AI accelerates data integration, insight analysis, and prescriptive action, it’s critical to remember that these technologies exist to elevate, not replace, the strategies, decisions, and expertise of people. Our focus is building AI-driven solutions that enable experts across insights, marketing, product, innovation, and strategy to do their best work faster and with greater confidence. AI decision intelligence is ultimately about amplifying human expertise.”
Urpi Torrado, CEO, Datum Internacional, Peru
“In a world racing toward automation, the most overlooked innovation is still deeply human: interpretation. We are surrounded by smarter tools, richer data, and faster outputs, yet insight only becomes meaningful when a person gives it context, empathy, and judgment. Algorithms can detect patterns, but they cannot understand nuance, contradiction, or emotion. Market research needs to invest more in tools and methods that elevate human sense-making. Because behind every dataset, every dashboard, and every model, there must always be a human mind turning information into understanding.”
Marco Baldocchi, CEO & Consumer Neuroscience specialist, Italy
“We keep celebrating AI, automation, and faster dashboards, yet we still rely heavily on self-reported data to understand decisions that are largely emotional and unconscious. Innovation is often framed as “better questions,” while the real leap happens when we stop asking and start observing. At Emotivae, we work on decoding emotional states, attention, and cognitive load directly from facial micro-expressions, using standard cameras and real-time AI. This kind of implicit, non-verbal data captures reactions as they unfold, not as they are rationalized after the fact. The future of insights won’t be about more data, but about truer data - and emotions are still the most undervalued signal we have.”
Chris Wilhelmi, EVP Global Head of Data, Monks, USA
"In our industry’s rush toward the 'new,' we are currently neglecting the 'true.' While technology and AI are driving unprecedented efficiency, the aspect of innovation not getting enough 'love' is integrated intelligence. We are seeing a dangerous, binary divide between traditional methodology and AI-driven research. The real power doesn't lie in choosing one over the other, but in marrying the two - using the speed of AI to scale the proven, rigorous best practices developed over decades.
Furthermore, we must stop falling in love with vanity metrics. Innovation in insights is meaningless unless we do the hard work of identifying the KPIs that actually tie to real business impact and bottom-line growth. We need to stop obsessing over what we canmeasure and start focusing on what we should measure to drive value. True innovation in 2026 is about applying the best of our past to the speed of our future."
Jane Frost CBE, CEO, MRS, UK
“I sat through an amazing MRS AI Conference last week and was struck by the balance of the approach and the amount of collaboration in the room. So I would say that we don’t give ourselves enough collective love. We should especially remember that if some of these AI applications seem difficult, if it feels like progress is slow, it may be because, as a sector, we have been using LLMs and innovating in this space before the recent AI advances, so our headroom to develop further is less than in other industries that are still at the “efficiency stage“. We also need to fall in love with research rigour again; as clients said from the platform time and time again last week, AI needs more rigour, not less and more professional skills, not fewer – anyone for a skills refresh?”
Sharmila Das, Chairwoman, Purple Audacity, India
"After decades in the global market research ecosystem, I find myself thinking about PDA. Not the kind that makes people look away politely in public spaces, but a different avatar altogether. For our industry today, PDA stands for Pride, Determination, and Agency. Pride in our craft, because insights shape decisions and sometimes lives. Determination to stay curious and rigorous at a time when speed often tempts us toward surface answers. And Agency, the confidence to take ownership of our thinking rather than simply execute briefs. Research has always done its best work when practitioners saw themselves as custodians of judgment, not just deliverers of output. This new PDA is an invitation to bring ownership, responsibility, and quiet confidence back into the heart of our profession."
Mariela Mociulsky, CEO & Founder, Trendsity. Argentina
“At a time when innovation in market research is often equated almost exclusively with technology, I believe what receives the least “love” is the time required to mature better questions and hold human complexity. Discursively, we talk a lot about a new role for researchers: more strategic, more integrative, closer to decision-making. Yet in practice, there is a gap between what is said and what, in many cases, can actually be done. The acceleration of business, combined with the pressure for near-immediate answers and a fascination with technology, often reduces the space for reflection, context, and critical thinking. We are making impressive advances in tools and automation, but not always with the same progress in how insights are read, connected, and debated inside organisations. Paradoxically, in a world of more fragile relationships and more contradictory consumers, the most undervalued capability remains the time and skill required to understand tensions, ambivalence, and meaning. It doesn’t scale easily or shine in a demo, but that’s where the insights that truly matter are born.”
Herbert Höckel, Managing Director, moweb GmbH, Germany
“In my humble opinion, there are two major aspects that do not get enough love for Valentines Day: Firstly, sample and data quality in the “speed era” - we talk a lot about AI, but far too little about sample quality, documentation, and quality criteria - especially in online/DIY research - even though established norms and standards exist, including very concrete requirements (ISO-aligned, plus German ADM quality guidelines). What deserves more attention is better recruitment, bias checks, mixed-mode designs, and transparent fieldwork reporting. Secondly, love for respondents through a lower burden and a better experience. At the same time, panel fatigue is real, and innovation that’s too rarely celebrated includes survey UX, shorter instruments, better incentives, smarter contact logic, more accessible participation, and greater respect for people’s time. From a uniquely German perspective, this benefits us twice, because trust and willingness to participate are closely tied to a sense of fairness.”
Seyi Adeoye, CEO, Pierrine Consulting, Nigeria
“The true strength of qualitative research is its ability to reveal the deeper human truths and nuances that drive behavior, i.e., insights that often lie beneath what we can observe through numbers alone. However, it is often time-consuming, from design and recruitment to fieldwork and reporting. Whilst quantitative research methods are powerful, when it comes to understanding humans, correlation is not causation. What’s exciting is that qualitative research is evolving. Recent innovations are making it more agile and efficient, while also bringing greater rigor through AI-powered intelligent coding and real-time quantification of qualitative outputs. Some exceptional restech firms are leading this transformation, and they deserve recognition. They’re bringing qualitative into the future, and they deserve more attention and love!”
Wim Hamaekers, Founder, One Inch Whale, Belgium
“What’s not getting enough love is critical thinking about innovation itself. Technology, AI, and new methodologies are evolving at an incredible pace, and many organisations are rightly adopting a test-and-learn mindset. However, too often new tools are implemented because they are new and promising, not because their added value has been rigorously proven. We rarely see these innovations properly benchmarked against existing research approaches in terms of insight quality, speed, cost, or depth of understanding. The real opportunity lies in more disciplined screening: asking what sits behind the technology, what it truly improves, and where it falls short. Innovation should serve better decisions, not become an end in itself.”
Melanie Courtright, Chief Strategy Officer, Sago, USA
“As a profession, we’re giving a lot of love to technology and not enough to the people. Human-centered design...how research feels to do and to take...is still the most underloved innovation in insights. Design is the unsung hero. The future isn’t just smarter platforms and tools, it is research experiences that are intentional, respectful, and deeply human. That's where we will always generate the best insights and value.”
Diego Casaravilla, CEO, FINE Research, Argentina
"We’re living in a golden age of storytelling — and, why deny it, we’re falling in love with the magic. New technologies make it easier than ever to create elegant, persuasive narratives that win hearts and minds.
What’s getting far less love is validating the truth beneath the story: opening the black boxes and showing the evidence that separates genuine insights from seductive fairy tales."
Pavi Gupta, Former VP Insights and Analytics, Chobani and SCJ
“I would love to see greater belief in the fact that even as AI augments Insights, the Insights function itself has the power to improve AI. Human Insights bring focus (why), drive prioritization (what), as well as scale adoption (how) for AI. Insights will improve AI and AI will improve insights, thereby creating the infinite growth loop.”
Finn Raben, Founder, Amplifi Consulting, Netherlands
“Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Evidence Governance
Will ensure your A.I. speaks true!”
Lucy Davison, Founder & CEO, Keen as Mustard Marketing, UK
“This Valentine’s, I’d advise insight professionals to serenade their data and insights and profess their love for them. With the growth of (and threat from) AI, we need to prove the value of what we do and our role in nurturing the truth. It’s time to double down on persuasion and apply those powers to the data and insights we develop - in order to drive change. Let's love up the benefits of great insights, pursue the ROI of using them, and shout our insight love stories from the rooftops.”
Alex Hunt, CEO, Behaviorally, USA
“Our human capital, but not for the reasons so often cited. We must be honest and sincere in providing clear feedback about the technologies and tools that will shape the next decade of growth for the industry, as well as sincere and transparent about the need for all to take advantage of training opportunities that allow them to level up.”
Danny Russell, Chief Customer Officer, IDX, UK
“From my perspective, it’s INSIGHT ACTIVATION that isn’t getting nearly enough love. It gets talked about a lot — but is anyone actually buying it chocolates, sending red roses, shucking oysters, or booking that luxury spa weekend? Somehow… I doubt it. So just how neglected are the real romance-makers: stakeholder mapping, understanding the internal decision-making process, and post-debrief budget allocation to make sure the insight doesn’t just flirt with the organisation, but actually moves in and marries it. Because an insight that isn’t activated has zero ROI. Activation is the love story between research and commercial growth.”
Victoria Usher, Founder & CEO, GingerMay, UK
“Insight innovation too often focuses on how data is collected, rather than how it’s communicated. One area not getting enough love is designing insights with communication in mind from day one. When insights are built to be shareable, with clear narratives and relevance, they have far greater commercial impact. Market research shouldn’t sit in silos or reports but should be rocket fuel for PR, thought leadership, and reputation-building. The most powerful innovation lies in bridging research and communications, so that insights shape conversations rather than just data conclusions.”
Arundati Dandapani, Founder and CEO, Generation1.ca, Canada
“Market research was once called commercial research—and in many ways, it (and MR executives) still behaves that way, like we are all just numbers. We routinely apply sophisticated tools, techniques, and methodologies to optimize brand assets, pricing and packaging, while social research—using many of the very same methods—grapples with questions that carry far more immediate consequences for people, policy, and public trust. This is not by any means a critique of candy production, CPG, or the very complex and essential food and beverage sectors—industries that can generate trillions in global value—but a challenge to our collective priorities. When global CPG marketing budgets exceed $500 billion annually, while social research, civic data infrastructure, and community insight-powered ecosystems remain chronically underfunded, the imbalance is no longer accidental; it is structural.
What we need is not less commercial research, but a far more interconnected system—one in which knowledge moves freely across sectors, and where funding, talent, CSR commitments, and profits circulate with the same ease or fluency as our insights decks and dashboards. Siloed excellence is no longer enough in an open-access world. Real progress comes from deliberate cross-sector collaboration and resource sharing—whether through Generation1.ca, AAPOR, WAPOR, Esomar, QRCA, IAPP, WIRe, Insights Association, and our many sister and brother organizations around the world committed to improving societies—not just markets—at both global and local scales. If research truly claims to map and measure the voice of the people, then our investments, incentives, and alliances must reflect that conviction.”
James Endersby, CEO, Opinium, UK
“What isn’t getting enough love in market research and insights right now isn’t a new platform or technique; it’s judgment. As technology accelerates, we risk mistaking scale for understanding and speed for insight. The industry has never been better at collecting data, but collecting data is not the same as understanding people. The most underappreciated innovation is the human craft that sits between signal and decision, interpretation, context, and the courage to say when the story isn’t neat. Ethnography, qualitative depth, behavioural observation, and synthesis are too often treated as slow or soft, when, in reality, they are what prevent organisations from confidently doing the wrong thing at scale. If the future of insights is automated collection, the future value of insights is human understanding. That’s where we need to reinvest attention, trust, and love.”
Roland Abold, Managing Director, infratest dimap, Germany
“In the rush toward technological innovation, the true heart of market & social research—data quality—often gets too little love. Advancements matter only when they strengthen validity, transparency, and reliability. The real innovation lies in pairing smart technology with rigorous quality standards to ensure insights that are not just accelerated, but genuinely trustworthy.”
Isabelle Fabry, CEO, ActFuture, Esomar and WIRe representative, France
“In my view, what still doesn’t get enough 'love' in market research innovation is the human dimension itself. As technology, AI, and advanced methodologies accelerate, we sometimes underestimate the enduring value of attention, respect, and responsibility. Attention to people — really listening beyond the data points. Respect for respondents, clients, cultures, and contexts. And responsibility toward society and the planet, ensuring that insights are not only efficient and predictive, but also meaningful and ethical. True innovation is not only about doing things faster or at scale; it’s about using our tools to create understanding, empathy, and positive impact. These human values are not outdated — they are precisely what should guide innovation today and in the future.”
Laura Ruvalcaba, CEO BRAIN, Esomar representative, Mexico
“Innovation that deserves more “love” is the researcher’s mind—the human craft that turns data into decisions. We say researchers give AI direction and meaning, yet too often we don’t truly live that belief—we don’t price it, protect it, or feel its value. We celebrate faster tech and cheaper outputs, but undervalue what gives insights their heartbeat: asking the right questions, hearing what’s unsaid, and translating signals into strategy with judgment and empathy. AI can scale, but it can’t own meaning. This Valentine’s Day, let’s fall back in love with the people behind the insight.”
Priscilla McKinney, CEO, Momma Bird, LiTTLE Bird Marketing, USA
“What's not getting enough love in market research? Your workflows. Everyone's chasing the next AI breakthrough, but the real problem is standard operating procedures gathering dust while teams bolt new tech onto outdated processes. Market research teams are putting the cart before the horse, investing in sophisticated tools, then contorting workflows to fit them. Instead of questioning whether these processes deserve to survive at all. How many of your workflows were built for a world that no longer exists? How many steps exist because "that's how we've always done it"? When did you last question that five-step approval process or redundant data formatting ritual? The real opportunity isn't applying AI to your existing mess, it's using this technological moment to audit what you're actually doing. Before integrating another platform, ask whether this process creates value or just creates work.
Market researchers are drowning in administrative tasks and legacy workflows when they should be generating insights. Here's my challenge. Before buying another tool, map your workflows. Find bottlenecks. Question every "always" and "because."
Give your workflows some love. Your team, and your clients, will feel it.”
A special thank you to all the leaders and innovators from around the world who have shared their views with me for this piece - it has been fascinating hearing your perspectives.
Happy Valentine’s Day,
Crispin Beale
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Crispin Beale - Chief Executive, Insight250, Senior Strategic Advisor, mTab; Worldwide CEO, IDX
Crispin 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 worldwide CEO at IDX.