briefd: Market Research & Insights (9-24-26)

Welcome to briefd: Market Research & Insights – your weekly intelligence briefing on the market research industry. Each week, we scan leading MR publications, blogs, and news sources to surface the developments that matter. Please note, briefd is AI-generated and may occasionally make mistakes.

Edition Summary: Market Research & Insights Trends (September 18 – 24, 2026)

AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research

Nexxt Intelligence | inca Launches SmartInsight for Research-Grade Conversational Analysis
Toronto-based Nexxt Intelligence | inca launched inca SmartInsight, a conversational analysis module designed to let researchers interrogate study data by voice or natural-language chat while preserving research rigor. The tool automatically adjusts confidence levels for sample size, links quotes back to individual participants, can compare findings across multiple inca studies, and generates an initial report from a researcher's objectives before allowing deeper conversational exploration. CEO Kathy Cheng positioned the launch around reducing data-processing work without removing researcher judgment.

Mass Cognition Launches Around AI Persona Engineering and Structured Semiotics
Research technology veteran Andrew Jeavons launched UK consultancy Mass Cognition with an unusually focused proposition: formalizing how synthetic personas are constructed and using AI to systematize semiotic analysis. Its Persona Engineering Module treats AI personas as structured, version-controlled data rather than prose prompts, allowing researchers to test personas in interviews, compare them and deploy the definitions across different AI models. The firm's second practice applies a fixed taxonomy of sign classes to advertising imagery to generate comparable "mechanism fingerprints."

flowres Brings Research Evidence Directly Into PowerPoint
Qualitative research platform flowres launched SlideBuilder, a PowerPoint add-in that moves analyzed summaries, themes and verbatims from the flowres workspace directly into researchers' existing presentation decks. Rather than taking a fully automated "prompt-to-PowerPoint" approach, SlideBuilder leaves researchers in control of evidence selection, narrative structure and slide composition while eliminating repetitive transfer and formatting work. Founder and CEO Jiten Madia said the aim is to shift researcher time from rebuilding analysis into slides toward shaping the story.

UZRA Uses AI Moderation to Open Japanese Consumer Research to Overseas Teams
Tokyo-based UZRA launched torima.in Global, giving organizations outside Japan access to AI-moderated text interviews conducted with Japanese consumers in Japanese. Buyers provide the questions; the platform returns translated transcripts, an English-language summary and a cross-interview report. Founder Tatsuhiro Sato is positioning the service partly as an answer to sampling problems that arise when international recruitment platforms require Japanese residents to navigate English-language sign-up processes, potentially overrepresenting English-proficient participants.

DAIVID Scales Creative Testing to Thousands of Ads at Once
Creative intelligence company DAIVID introduced Creative Audit, an entry-level service capable of analyzing as many as 5,000 creative assets at once. Its human-trained, AI-powered system evaluates indicators including attention, emotion, brand recall, consideration and purchase intent, then correlates those signals with campaign outcomes such as media performance, social engagement, brand lift and sales. Early user Boots analyzed more than 3,500 assets and, according to DAIVID, saw a 0.89 correlation between the platform's creative-intelligence signals and campaign outcomes.

Hello Haven Raises $15M to Launch a Personal Digital Twin
U.S. startup Hello Haven emerged from stealth with $15 million in pre-seed funding led by Mayfield and introduced Haven, a personal digital twin designed to learn an individual's preferences, history, relationships and decision patterns. The system draws on more than 500 AI models and more than 100 application integrations to build a private memory graph and then execute actions on a user's behalf. While positioned as a personal productivity product rather than a research platform, the launch is notable for insights practitioners tracking the rapid commercialization of digital-twin technology and AI models intended to replicate individual decision-making.

Greenbook and Qualtrics Examine the AI-Era Research Team
In a September 21 Greenbook piece, Qualtrics AI thought leader Jordan Harper argued that automation, synthetic data and AI are changing where insights teams create organizational value. The central thesis is that as machines absorb more executional research tasks, researchers need to move closer to business decisions and outcomes rather than defining their value around study production alone—a useful indicator of how major research platforms are reframing the profession as AI capabilities mature.

Greenbook's "Flywheel" Essay Questions What Creates Durable AI Advantage
Insight Innovation Ventures published the first installment of The Flywheel on September 18, examining what actually compounds into defensible advantage for insights businesses in the AI era. The piece challenges the assumption that proprietary data by itself creates an enduring moat and instead considers the broader combinations of data, workflows and learning loops required to create a genuine industry flywheel.

B2B Market Research Developments

ISG Packages Thousands of B2B Research Reports Behind an AI Interface
Technology research and advisory firm ISG launched OneSource, an AI-enabled provider-intelligence platform combining proprietary research, market analysis and access to its advisors. Powered by AskISG, the platform gives subscribers natural-language access to nearly 9,000 documents covering approximately 4,700 technology providers, with prompts designed around B2B workflows including competitive intelligence, provider strategy, product planning, sales, marketing and analyst relations. President of ISG Research John Boccuzzi Jr. framed the product as a way to put trusted research directly into commercial decision workflows.

Endeavour and Quantium Turn Australian Shopper Data Into a Conversational B2B Insights Product
Australia's Endeavour Group and Quantium launched Distilled Data, giving Endeavour's trade partners conversational access to store-level shopper behavior spanning more than 1,700 stores. Powered by Quantium's Q.Checkout AI, the platform is designed to support product innovation, assortment, promotion and localized demand forecasting, with tiers ranging from metric scorecards for small producers to regional category analytics for larger suppliers. The launch illustrates how retailers are productizing first-party shopper intelligence for their B2B supplier ecosystems.

Veridata Insights Partners With Virtual Incentives for BizKnowledge Rewards
Data-collection and market research company Veridata Insights selected digital rewards and payments specialist Virtual Incentives to provide reward fulfillment for its U.S. BizKnowledge research community. Chief Panel Officer Heather White said the partnership is intended to support a better recognition and reward experience for community members, making it a noteworthy operational development in the business-respondent and specialist-panel side of the industry.

California Gives Alcohol Taste-Test Research Explicit Legal Standing
A California law supported by the Insights Association has removed years of legal ambiguity around alcohol taste testing conducted for bona fide market research. Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 18, the legislation permits qualifying tests subject to rules covering participant age, responsible administration, incentives, frequency and use of resulting data. For research suppliers and beverage-industry clients, the change provides a clearer operational framework for conducting product research in the state.

Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions

Zappi and Picsart Connect Consumer Evidence Directly to AI Creative Generation
Zappi partnered with AI media-production platform Picsart to introduce Vera, a specialized AI agent grounded in Zappi's proprietary consumer-insights data and predictive technology. Vera provides audience insights and pre-launch creative validation, while Picsart agents can use those findings to generate optimized creative versions. Zappi says the underlying model, validated against hundreds of digital ads assessed by real consumers, identified the stronger creative across key metrics 86% to 93% of the time.

dunnhumby Ventures Invests in AI Shopping Optimization Platform Azoma
dunnhumby Ventures invested in Azoma, whose platform measures and improves how AI shopping agents discover, interpret and recommend retailer and CPG products. The companies plan to combine dunnhumby's customer-data expertise with Azoma's work in answer-engine and generative-engine optimization, while dunnhumby will also use Azoma's expertise to help retail clients improve customer-facing AI agents and visibility in agentic-commerce environments. dunnhumby Ventures head Leo Nagdas will become an adviser to Azoma's board.

Comscore Integrates Its Currency With datafuelX
Comscore announced an integration with predictive analytics platform datafuelX that allows media buyers to use Comscore currency inside their existing linear-TV planning and transaction workflows. The integration covers both advanced audiences and traditional age-and-gender demographics and also brings Comscore audience segments developed with OpenAP into datafuelX. For measurement buyers, the significance is less switching between measurement and execution systems as alternative currencies compete for adoption.

Albertsons and LiveRamp Expand Cross-Platform Retail Media Measurement
Albertsons Media Collective launched Retail Media Incrementality-Based Multi-Touch Attribution in partnership with LiveRamp. The system combines impression-level exposure across owned media, off-site channels and participating digital platforms with Albertsons transaction data to create a deduplicated view of incremental impact across the customer journey. LiveRamp said Albertsons is the first grocery retail media network to deliver this form of incremental measurement across previously siloed channels with the company.

Demoverse Raises $600K for AI-Assisted Consumer Co-Creation
Bengaluru-based Demoverse raised $600,000 in pre-seed funding led by Lumikai's Pixels program. Founded by Akshay Mehta, the startup lets brands involve consumers directly in product design, combining AI-generated concepts with community voting and preferences before commercial production, while creators can receive royalty payments. Starting in fashion, Demoverse plans to expand into beauty, cosmetics and home décor while building its U.S. presence.

Suzy Adds Growth Capital Alongside Its CEO Transition
Suzy disclosed additional investment led by H.I.G. Growth Partners as founder Matt Britton moved from CEO to Non-Executive Chairman and longtime executive Bryan Silverman took over the chief executive role. The amount was not disclosed, but Suzy said the capital will support its continuing "AI-first product evolution." The investment comes five months after Britton described a "refounding" of Suzy around becoming a decision engine rather than simply a research tool.

Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes

Bryan Silverman Takes the CEO Role at Suzy
Suzy founder Matt Britton stepped down as CEO and became Non-Executive Chairman, handing day-to-day leadership to Bryan Silverman. Silverman joined predecessor company Crowdtap in 2015 and most recently served as Suzy's COO, giving the company an internal succession at a moment when it is repositioning around AI-enabled decision support. Britton will remain involved in supporting growth.

Former Criteo Product Chief Todd Parsons Named Prodege CEO
Consumer marketing and research platform Prodege appointed Todd Parsons CEO effective October 1. Parsons most recently served as Criteo's Chief Product Officer and President of Performance Media and previously held product leadership roles at SocialCode, OpenX and Acxiom's Marketing Services business. His appointment puts an executive with deep ad-tech, first-party-data and AI product experience in charge of a company spanning market research, loyalty and performance marketing.

Discuss Creates Chief Research Officer Role for Luke Williams
Continuous-insights platform Discuss appointed Luke Williams as its new Chief Research Officer. Williams joins from Press Ganey Forsta, where he served as Chief CX and Research Officer, and previously held roles at Microsoft, Qualtrics, AECOM and Ipsos. Discuss said Williams will help shape research strategy as the company combines AI agents, human-led research, quant, open-ended analysis and the recently launched Discuss Intelligence platform.

Swayable Adds Senior Growth and Revenue Leadership
Predictive creative-intelligence firm Swayable appointed Jenny Wall Chief Growth Officer and Brian Lawrence Chief Revenue Officer as it moves beyond early adoption toward broader enterprise marketing. Swayable says it has invested more than $50 million in its AI-native platform since 2023 and has surpassed $20 million in annual recurring revenue. Wall brings leadership experience from Hulu, Gimlet, Nickelodeon and VideoAmp, while Lawrence has built commercial organizations across multiple software companies.

Tapestry Hires Phil Heuring to Lead North American Qualitative Research
London-based Tapestry appointed former Material SVP Phil Heuring as Head of Qual, North America. Heuring brings more than 25 years of research, UX and strategy experience and joins as Tapestry expands its U.S. senior leadership following its integration with emotion-based research sister company Coherency earlier in 2026. Co-founder and Joint Managing Director Ian Wright said the hire supports stronger integration of qualitative and quantitative findings.

MM-Eye Adds Claire Harding as Senior Research Director
Research agency MM-Eye appointed former Lacuna Agency managing director Claire Harding as Senior Research Director. Harding brings experience across automotive, luxury, innovation, qualitative and integrated qual-quant research, including work with hard-to-reach and high-net-worth audiences, brand and customer experience, and future mobility.

eHealth Inspire Appoints Maria Galicia Prado to International Growth Role
Healthcare panels company eHealth Inspire named Maria Galicia Prado VP of Business Development and Partnerships. Prado brings more than a decade of market research and healthcare experience, including roles at Survey Healthcare Global and Sermo, and will focus on new business, strategic partnerships and international client relationships for the firm's healthcare-professional, patient and caregiver communities.

Expert Insights & Thought Leadership

JIC Opens the Black Box on Alternative TV Currency Methodology
The U.S. Joint Industry Committee published How a Number Is Made, a methodology-transparency report explaining how Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp measure, analyze and report viewing. The publication accompanied two-year recertification of all three companies as transactional ad currencies following an evaluation involving 39 data questions and 672 tests across transaction types and estimation methods. For insights and measurement professionals, the broader development is the industry's push toward greater methodological comparability as buyers gain more currency choices.

Young Foundation Launches a Journal Pairing Academic Research With Community Knowledge
The Institute for Community Studies at the Young Foundation launched the Journal for Community Studies, built around pairing academic research with responses and knowledge from practitioners and communities. The model is relevant to researchers wrestling with the gap between formal research production and lived or practitioner expertise: instead of leaving academic findings isolated, the journal is structured to place different forms of evidence and interpretation alongside one another.

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