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.
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Episode Summary: AI, Innovation, and Market Research Trends (February 6 – February 12, 2026)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research
- Electric Twin Secures $14m to Scale Synthetic Audience Predictions
The UK-based synthetic audience modeling firm raised $14m (including a previously undisclosed $4m pre-seed) to expand internationally and deepen its prediction tech—positioning “synthetic audiences” as a faster way to test reactions to communications, products, and scenarios using a blend of survey inputs, LLMs, and social science-informed ML. - Similarweb Launches AI Studio with Chat, Deep Research, and AI Dashboards
Similarweb rolled out “AI Studio,” combining proprietary digital intelligence with AI agents to support conversational Q&A (“Chat”), automated reporting (“Deep Research”), and visualization (“AI Dashboards”)—aiming to make expert-style market and competitive research available through natural-language workflows. - iSpot Unveils SAGE Agentic AI for Ad Measurement and Research Operations
iSpot introduced “SAGE,” an agentic AI solution backed by investment in NVIDIA AI servers—designed to extract metadata/storylines from millions of ads and synthesize themes from large-scale survey verbatim libraries to accelerate measurement, attribution, and insight generation. - Nielsen Trials Wearable Co‑Viewing Measurement During the Super Bowl
Nielsen used the Super Bowl as a pilot moment for an enhanced co-viewing method—deploying wrist-worn devices that passively capture audio watermarks to improve estimates of how many people are watching live events together (with broader pilots planned across major sports and entertainment). - Wiland Adds RetailSignals to MarketSignals Using Real‑World Spending Signals
Wiland introduced “RetailSignals” to help retailers activate and optimize acquisition/retention using what it describes as a large corpus of individual-level spending signals analyzed through an AI-enabled response prediction platform. - Sentra Raises $5m Seed to Build “Thinking Companies”
Sentra raised $5m seed funding to develop software—it says rooted in research originating at MIT—that continuously builds timelines of organizational decisions/commitments and learns priorities, framing the product as infrastructure for more “cognitive” companies. - Tobii Reports Weak Quarter as a New CEO Faces a Profitability Test
Tobii posted a quarter marked by a notable organic sales decline and continued losses, underscoring the pressure on leadership to stabilize and reposition an eye-tracking player that sits adjacent to research, UX, and shopper insights workflows.
B2B Market Research Developments
- Basis Global Hires Conor Wilcock as Managing Director, B2B
Basis Global appointed Wilcock—previously a long-tenured leader at B2B International (now part of dentsu)—to run and grow its B2B practice, continuing the trend of specialist B2B capabilities being explicitly built inside broader insight and strategy groups. - ZoomInfo Posts Modest Growth and Emphasizes Copilot AI
ZoomInfo reported low single‑digit annual revenue growth and highlighted “Copilot,” an AI offering that combines its firmographic/contact/intent assets with client CRM data—reflecting the broader convergence of B2B data, sales tech, and insight tooling. - Forrester Reports Another Down Year and Targets AI Integration
Forrester disclosed an 8.2% revenue decline for 2025 and pointed to restructuring and a push to accelerate AI across its product portfolio—an indicator of ongoing commercial pressure across subscription research and advisory models (and the urgency to modernize value delivery). - Yext CEO Pulls Back from Buyout Attempt
Yext’s CEO withdrew a take-private proposal and instead pursued a stock repurchase via a Dutch auction, a reminder that adjacent “insights-enabling” platforms (knowledge management + cross-channel analytics) are still navigating valuation, capital allocation, and strategic direction.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions
- Rep Data Acquires ReDem to Expand Real‑Time Anti‑Fraud Coverage
Rep Data acquired ReDem to combine pre‑survey fraud prevention with in‑survey response evaluation, including AI-driven scoring models that assess open-ended quality, timing patterns, coherence, and duplication—positioning the merged stack as “end-to-end” protection against bots and AI-assisted bad actors. - Thomson Reuters Buys Noetica to Add AI‑Native Deal Intelligence
Thomson Reuters acquired Noetica, which structures transaction deal data into qualitative/quant benchmarking and signals for deal professionals—extending the “AI-native market intelligence” footprint inside incumbent information services portfolios. - VideoAmp Extends Person‑Level Data Partnership with TVision
TVision expanded its agreement supplying person-level calibration data for CTV to VideoAmp, reinforcing the current measurement theme: merging large-scale viewership datasets with attention/co-viewing calibration to improve demographic ratings and planning confidence. - Tubi Renews and Expands Multi‑Year Measurement Partnership with Nielsen
The Fox-owned streamer expanded its relationship with Nielsen—adding access to products spanning streaming metrics, TV research, and ad intelligence—illustrating how streaming platforms continue to professionalize measurement stacks to support ad monetization and planning.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes
- FlexMR Launches CX Practice Led by Charlotte Duff
FlexMR formally launched a CX Practice—pairing consulting and technology (including a CX module within InsightHub) and leaning into conversational survey interfaces, AI-assisted prompting, and video feedback to increase engagement and depth across customer touchpoints. - STRAT7 Promotes Helen Donald to Managing Director of Advisory
STRAT7 elevated Donald to lead its Advisory division, signaling continued investment in “conversion of insight into impact” leadership layers as groups standardize consulting, activation, and commercialization functions. - Stravito Appoints Tina Cush as VP of Marketing
Stravito named Cush as VP Marketing, a senior go-to-market signal for insight knowledge-sharing platforms competing in a more crowded “AI + insight activation” landscape. - tvScientific Names Heather Carver Chief Customer Officer
tvScientific hired Carver as Chief Customer Officer—an org-level move consistent with CTV/measurement providers scaling post-sales and customer outcomes functions as buyers demand measurable business impact. - Circana Adds Board-Level Retail and AI Leadership
Circana appointed new board members including Brian Cornell and Rohit Prasad, framing the move around strengthening retail and AI expertise as the company continues to evolve its data platform and AI-layered offerings. - Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement Adds Board Members and Publishes 2026 Priorities
CIMM added Dana McGraw and Ben Hovaness to its board and set priorities for the year across CTV/streaming infrastructure, outcomes/attribution and MMM evolution, and AI-driven transformation (including synthetic data, identity resolution, forecasting, and decision automation).
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
- Quirk’s: Decision Risk, Simulations, and the End of Static Insight Delivery
Quirk’s published a cluster of Feb 10 essays pushing beyond “AI feature talk.” Alex Holmes applied MAYA (Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable) as a practical lens for recommendation-making under disruption; Kelly McKnight positioned simulations as decision environments that go beyond synthetic data; and Horst Feldhaeuser argued that static reports slow adoption—calling for living, interactive insight environments where AI can amplify exploration instead of summarizing frozen decks. - Insights Association: Global Leaders Call for “Evidence Governance” and Human-Centered Research Experience
In a round-up curated by Crispin Beale, leaders across regions emphasized that the biggest innovation gaps aren’t purely technical—highlighting priorities like empathy-at-scale, better benchmarking of new methods vs. legacy approaches, the durability of human interpretation, and a renewed focus on how “research feels” for participants and stakeholders.