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 (March 13 – March 19, 2026)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research
IQVIA Partners with NVIDIA to Launch Agentic AI Platform
At NVIDIA GTC, pharma data and insights giant IQVIA unveiled IQVIA.ai, a unified agentic AI platform purpose-built for life sciences. Built on NVIDIA Nemotron, NeMo Agent Toolkit, and LangChain, the platform serves as a "digital command center" that orchestrates AI agents across clinical, commercial, and real-world workflows. IQVIA has filed more than 100 AI-related patents and deployed over 150 intelligent agents, with 19 of the top 20 pharma companies already incorporating IQVIA agents into workflows. SVP Bernd Haas called it a commitment to translating innovation into "practical, high-impact solutions." Additional agents and capabilities are expected in Q4 2026.
Kantar Partners with Quilt.AI, Launches EvaluateExplorer
Kantar announced a strategic partnership with Singapore-based cultural intelligence firm Quilt.AI, including a non-equity financial commitment to co-develop joint offerings. Their first product, EvaluateExplorer, is an early-stage innovation tool that blends AI-driven digital signal analysis with Kantar's validated brand-building frameworks. Unlike generic LLM tools that "flatten nuance," the solution uses multi-agent AI infrastructure that challenges and refines its own outputs. Dr. Nicki Morley, Kantar's Global Innovation Lead, noted that "one in three launches are dead or dying by their second year" — pointing to the need for culturally grounded innovation earlier in the pipeline.
Basis Global and AnswerRocket Form AI Market Research Partnership
London-based brand intelligence firm Basis Global announced a strategic partnership with enterprise AI consultancy AnswerRocket to redesign how market research insights are created and delivered. Their first initiative focuses on AI-augmented brand tracking, where AI exhaustively analyzes the full dataset, tests every hypothesis, and verifies insights for accuracy — with skilled researchers crafting the final narrative. CEO Rune Mortensen said the partnership aims to eliminate the traditional tradeoff between "depth, speed, and practicality." Client roundtables will inform what gets built next.
Onclusive Debuts Unified Media Monitoring Platform
Onclusive launched a new AI-powered "Unified Platform" for PR and communications professionals. The platform integrates four modules — Mention, Review, Contact, and Measure — into a single-login experience, allowing users to track coverage across print, online, broadcast, podcasts, and social media. CEO Rob Stone said brand building is the top priority for more than half of comms professionals in 2026.
Behavix and Fair Response Partner on Behavioral Data Panel
New consumer research firm Fair Response and behavioral data company Behavix announced a partnership to bridge what consumers say with what they actually do. Fair Response also released a mobile app for its Fair Opinions panel, while Behavix launched its Audience Feed solution globally. The Audience Feed is offered free-of-charge to panel companies, automatically creating thousands of behavioral profile attributes for panelists and providing tools for fraud detection and quality assessment.
Nielsen Delays The Gauge to Integrate DASH Data
Nielsen delayed reporting of its monthly edition of The Gauge by one week following the company's adoption of DASH universe estimates from the ARF. DASH is a syndicated enumeration study fielded in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago. Reports suggest the changes may reveal a downturn in streaming audiences, driven partly by high broadcast viewership during the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl.
B2B Market Research Developments
Comscore Reports Flat 2025 Revenue at $357.5M
Comscore announced full-year 2025 results, with annual revenue essentially flat at $357.5M (+0.4%) and adjusted EBITDA at $42.0M. Cross-platform offerings grew 24.4%, but syndicated audience offerings declined. Research & Insight Solutions revenue fell 3.1%. The company guided for similar results in 2026 but highlighted a key development: a January recapitalization that eliminated its $18M annual preferred dividend burden.
Guideline Launches Local Dynamics for Local Ad Spend Intelligence
Guideline expanded its Ad Intelligence Insights portfolio with Local Dynamics, a quarterly subscription report analyzing advertising investment across 175+ DMAs and major media channels including OOH, TV, radio, and digital. Powered by transaction-level data, it tracks spending patterns across 100+ advertising subcategories. The timing is notable: Nielsen simultaneously shuttered SIGMA and discontinued TV ad monitoring in 137 markets.
SampleCon 2026 Convenes at Lake Oconee
SampleCon 2026, the industry's intimate, retreat-style gathering for sample and data quality professionals, took place March 16–18 at The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee, Georgia.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions
Smartly Signs LOI to Acquire INCRMNTAL
New York-based ad tech company Smartly announced a letter of intent to acquire INCRMNTAL, a Tel Aviv-founded AI-powered incrementality measurement platform. INCRMNTAL's always-on methodology uses reinforcement learning and causal AI to measure the incremental impact of marketing across mobile, web, TV, CTV, influencers, OOH, audio, and podcasts — without relying on user-level tracking or formal experiments. Financial terms were not disclosed. All ~25 INCRMNTAL employees are expected to join Smartly.
Publicis Acquires AdgeAI for Predictive Creative Analytics
Publicis Groupe acquired Israel-based AdgeAI, a predictive creative analytics platform, as part of its $970M M&A budget for 2026. AdgeAI will be integrated into Publicis Production to deliver real-time content measurement and predictive performance insights. Co-founders will continue to lead the business.
Global Partners with Sainsbury's/Nectar360 on Retail Media Data
UK media group Global announced a data partnership with Sainsbury's and Nectar360, providing new retail media targeting and measurement options for digital audio campaigns in the UK.
Nielsen Discontinues TV and Radio Ad Monitoring Services
Nielsen announced the discontinuation of TV ad occurrence monitoring in 137 markets and the shutdown of its SIGMA radio ad monitoring service.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes
Clint Wheelock Returns to Omdia; Jean-François Pigeon Named CCO
Tech research firm Omdia brought back former CRO Clint Wheelock as Head of Go-to-Market Insights and Advisory, and appointed Jean-François Pigeon as Chief Commercial Officer.
Angus Reid Group Hires Two SVPs of Research
Canadian research consultancy Angus Reid Group appointed Rohit Nair and Amy Knowles as SVPs of Research in Toronto.
dentsu Appoints Chief Data & Technology Officer for ANZ
dentsu appointed Danica Bellchambers to the newly created role of Chief Data & Technology Officer for its ANZ region.
VideoAmp Adds Board Members and Data Integrations
VideoAmp added Jonathan Gear (former CEO of Clarivate) to its board and announced new audio and cinema data integrations.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
Qualtrics Publishes 2026 Market Research Trends Report
Drawing on 3,000+ researchers across 17 countries, Qualtrics identified four trends: the shift from AI adoption to orchestration, democratization of insights through AI agents, evolving data quality definitions, and the redefining of the researcher's role.
SampleCon 2026 Drives Data Quality and Sampling Conversations
SampleCon 2026 focused on building industry standards for the next decade of consumer insights, with candid discussion around data quality, fraud prevention, and panel sustainability.