Welcome to twir — the weekly show delivering AI-powered summaries of market research news and insights. Each week, we scan and ingest media from top blogs, podcasts, articles, and reports, distilling the key trends shaping the industry. Best of all, twir episodes learn and get smarter over time, building a POV on an archive of past news and trends.
Episode Summary: AI, Innovation, and Market Research Trends (Feb 21-27, 2025)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research
Accenture Ventures Backs Synthetic Data Firm Aaru
Accenture’s venture arm invested in Aaru, an AI-powered prediction engine that simulates consumer behavior to generate insights rapidly, aiming to replace time-intensive surveys. Accenture Song will integrate Aaru’s “Lumen” model into its offerings for new product development and marketing. Aaru’s CEO says simulation overcomes sampling bias and scalability issues, positioning it as a differentiator for companies in the “AI age.”
Seed Funds for Research Automation Firm Conveo
Conveo, a startup specializing in AI-led video interviews, raised $5.3M seed funding to expand in the US and Europe and advance its “AI research co-worker” platform. The AI coworker can instantly answer researchers’ questions by mining existing insights, launch new studies, and even conduct hundreds of AI-moderated video interviews overnight – automating everything from recruitment to instant analysis. Conveo aims to be the “Qualtrics of qualitative research.”
Kantar Upgrades LINK to Guide Early-Stage Creative
Kantar enhanced its LINK ad testing suite with new capabilities to evaluate multiple creative concepts quickly and predict ad performance before production. The upgraded LINK combines survey research, qualitative expertise, and AI-powered analytics so marketers can test up to a dozen early concepts (from rough ideas to scripts) side by side. It also introduced LINK AI, which takes a text synopsis of an ad and uses Kantar’s database of 80,000+ past ad tests to output predictive metrics.
Pureprofile Adds Synthetic Responses Option
Pureprofile launched a synthetic data solution to help researchers fill survey quotas with AI-generated respondents, ensuring timely studies even when real participant supply falls short. The “Synthetic Responses” feature uses machine learning trained on real survey answers and profile data to generate additional responses that closely mirror actual panelists. This solution serves as a top-up to traditional panels, ensuring reliable data for hard-to-reach demographics.
B2B Market Research Developments
Klick Health’s AI FocusGroup for Healthcare Professionals
Klick Health unveiled an AI FocusGroup product that lets pharma marketers test ad messages with simulated healthcare providers, eliminating the need for real HCP focus groups. The tool uses generative AI to create thousands of realistic healthcare professional personas across specialties, then models their reactions to marketing content. This approach bypasses the notoriously hard recruitment of doctors for research and yields feedback much faster and cheaper.
The Data City Secures Funding to Expand Real-Time B2B Data
The Data City, which offers a real-time company data classification platform, received a £2M investment to fuel global growth. The Data City replaces outdated SIC industry codes with its AI-driven “RTIC” classifications, providing up-to-date views of economic sectors. With this funding and a new joint venture with Oxford Economics, the firm will integrate its platform with global economic forecasts and expand into the U.S.
Savanta Launches Clariti for Enhanced B2B Data Collection
Savanta launched a new data collection brand called Clariti, led by senior Savanta staff, to deliver expert data gathering services augmented with AI insights. Clariti’s platform brings innovative features for B2B and consumer research, including an API that feeds highly targeted respondents directly into client surveys, and a digital ad activation service to precisely target and recruit niche audiences in real time.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions
Publicis Acquires Data Marketplace Leader Lotame
Publicis Groupe acquired Lotame, a marketing data company known for its identity graph and data marketplace, folding it into Publicis’ Epsilon unit. Lotame’s platform spans 109 countries and ties together 1.6 billion consumer IDs, which – combined with Epsilon’s data – will enable personalized marketing at massive scale. The deal bolsters Publicis’ position in privacy-safe, cookieless advertising solutions.
T-Mobile Buys Vistar Media and Blis for AdTech Expansion
T-Mobile acquired two companies to boost its advertising technology arm (T-Ads): Vistar Media, a programmatic digital-out-of-home ad platform, and Blis, a UK-based location data and ad targeting firm. T-Mobile paid roughly $175M for Blis, which collects mobile location, app usage, and demographic data to map real-world consumer behavior and enable cookieless, cross-channel targeting.
J.D. Power Acquires SIA to Power Used Auto Marketplace
J.D. Power purchased Superior Integrated Auctions (SIA), an online vehicle auction platform, to enrich its growing dealership marketplace business. SIA’s technology will merge with J.D. Power’s vehicle valuation data and predictive analytics to help auto dealers and manufacturers more efficiently manage pre-owned inventory.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes
Semrush Names New CEO, Emphasizes AI Strategy
Semrush appointed William (Bill) Wagner as its new CEO, as co-founder Oleg Shchegolev steps into a CTO role. Wagner, former CEO of GoTo, brings experience in scaling SaaS companies and guiding product-led growth. Shchegolev said this move allows him to focus full-time on leveraging AI and expanding product offerings.
Smart Data Foundry Appoints Permanent CEO to Drive “Data for Good”
Smart Data Foundry confirmed Dougie Robb as its permanent CEO after he served as interim chief. Robb has helped shape the organization’s mission of “opening financial data for good,” forging data-sharing agreements with major banks and securing funding to launch a new Financial Data Service hub.
Former Zappi Exec Joins aytm as Chief Revenue Officer
Aytm (Ask Your Target Market) hired Glenn Fleischman, previously Chief Growth Officer at Zappi, as its new CRO to spearhead sales and client growth. Fleischman’s expertise in scaling businesses will help advance aytm’s mission to revolutionize market research with faster, innovative consumer insights.
RAIT Group Chooses New CEO to Lead Nordic Expansion
RAIT Group appointed Stine Halberg as its Group CEO, elevating her from CEO of RAIT’s Danish subsidiary Wilke. Halberg’s promotion follows RAIT’s string of acquisitions aimed at building a pan-Northern European insights group.
FiveThirtyEight Shuttered by Disney in Restructuring
Disney announced the closure of FiveThirtyEight, the data-driven news and polling site, as part of broader layoffs affecting 200 employees. The move underscores the pressures on media organizations as Disney restructures amid declining linear TV revenues.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
Embracing AI in Everyday Life: A Path Forward
A blog post discusses how AI is reshaping daily life and the insights industry, emphasizing the need for a measured approach to adoption. The author suggests that successful AI integration requires balancing innovation with domain expertise.
B2B Experts on 2025 Marketing Trends
A thought leadership roundup highlights the impact of generative AI versus the need for human connection. Experts note that while AI will be transformative, many teams lack the skills to use it effectively. The consensus is that 2025 will require blending tech innovation with authenticity.
Global Data Quality Initiative – Industry Leaders’ Pledge
A coalition of major research associations launched a “Data Quality Excellence Pledge,” calling on insights firms to uphold rigorous standards in data collection, participant privacy, and research transparency. Industry leaders see this as a pivotal self-regulatory move.
Podcast Insight – AI Ethics & The Future of Insights
A panel of insights thought leaders debated the ethics of AI in research, discussing bias in AI-generated data, transparency in synthetic respondents, and future trends such as research metaverse environments and behavioral data fusion.
