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Episode Summary: AI, Innovation, and Market Research Trends (May 23 - May 29, 2025)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research:
- Adjust beta-launched an AI-driven Growth Copilot tool, allowing marketers to ask natural-language questions about campaign performance and instantly receive insights. CEO Andrey Kazakov noted it will not only streamline reporting but eventually suggest optimizations, marking a shift toward conversational analytics.
- Pureprofile introduced Datarubico, a self-serve insights platform offering two modes: an end-to-end survey creation tool with AI guidance and analytics, and a sample-only option. Aimed at budget-conscious teams, it puts researchers in control with features like automated analytics, templated reports, and flexible sample bidding.
- Comscore began reporting on US consumer adoption of AI tools, covering 117 platforms and features. Initial data shows over 30% of Americans online use generative AI monthly (with ~67 million on mobile). Aside from voice assistants, top use cases include audio, image, and video generation – underscoring how mainstream AI has become in daily life.
- Havas Media Network launched its consultancy arm CSA in Southeast Asia and appointed James McNeely as its head. CSA brings together digital transformation tools, proprietary measurement tech, and a global expert network to help brands accelerate growth via data-driven strategies, further expanding Havas’s analytics footprint.
B2B Market Research Developments:
- Priceagent, a Swedish pricing research firm, expanded its leadership by adding senior experts to its Board – including an ex-Amazon pricing leader and a former Cint executive. The move infuses e-commerce and research tech experience into Priceagent’s strategy as it develops new pricing insight products for B2B clients.
- Expandi formed a partnership with B2B data giant Kompass, integrating Expandi’s intent signals and digital ad tech with Kompass’s global database of 60+ million companies. This alliance promises to reinvent B2B outreach – allowing marketers to pinpoint target businesses (and decision-makers) using detailed firmographic and technographic criteria, powered by AI-driven intent data.
- Leger continued its US expansion plans, hiring former Kantar SVP David Driscoll as Executive VP and co-leader of Leger USA. Working alongside Tracey Berkenbush, Driscoll will help grow Leger’s American business and enhance cross-border research offerings – building on Leger’s recent US acquisitions and its status as Canada’s largest insights firm.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions:
- Paradigm Sample and Interbrand announced a strategic partnership combining real-time consumer data with brand valuation expertise. By linking Paradigm’s analytics with Interbrand’s brand equity models, the duo aims to give clients deeper insights into brand performance – including predictive brand health metrics tied directly to financial outcomes – especially valuable in today’s volatile market.
- Salesforce made waves with plans to acquire Informatica in an $8 billion deal. Informatica’s cloud data management platform will fold into Salesforce’s CRM and AI portfolio, creating a unified data powerhouse. Salesforce expects this to turbocharge its Tableau, MuleSoft, and Customer360 offerings with robust data integration, governance, and AI-ready infrastructure – positioning Salesforce as an end-to-end data+AI platform for enterprises.
- Hex, a rising analytics workspace provider, raised a hefty $70 million in Series C funding to accelerate its development. Founded by ex-Palantir engineers, Hex offers an AI-infused platform bridging data science and business teams. The new capital (from top VCs) will fuel product enhancements aimed at replacing legacy notebooks and BI tools with Hex’s collaborative, “single flow” approach to analytics – reflecting investor confidence in AI-driven analytics solutions.
- Besample, an insights startup focused on emerging markets, secured $1.1 million in pre-seed funding. Launched last year, Besample will use the investment to scale up its engineering and data science teams, improve respondent quality controls, and extend its reach into underrepresented regions. This funding underscores continued investor interest in inclusive sampling and behavioral data quality in the research industry.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes:
- Crispin Beale was appointed Worldwide CEO of IDX, a global marketing performance agency. A former leader at Chime and longtime industry influencer (including past roles at ESOMAR/MRS), Beale will steer IDX’s next phase of growth. His mandate includes expanding strategic services and innovation; his appointment fills a leadership gap after the previous CEO’s departure and signals renewed ambition at IDX.
- One Minute to Midnight (OMTM), a fast-growing insight consultancy, hired Hannah Rogers as a Senior Global Partner to lead client partnership strategy. Rogers, formerly with Kokoro and Blue Yonder, will oversee OMTM’s U.S. offices in New York and Los Angeles and lay groundwork for a new Asia-Pacific hub. Her brief is to cultivate OMTM’s “human insight” ethos across regions as the firm scales up to meet demand.
- Ipsos brought on Daren Poole as its Creative Excellence Leader in Australia. Poole – an advertising research veteran who led Kantar’s creative domain globally – will help Australian brands maximize campaign impact amid fragmented media. He’ll drive Ipsos’s creative development and testing business, integrating advanced analytics (and leaning into AI where useful) to ensure ads are effective and ROI-positive in a challenging ad landscape.
- Leger named David Driscoll as co-leader of its U.S. division, tapping his 25+ years in insights and strategy. Driscoll’s experience (including a decade at Kantar) positions him to boost Leger’s U.S. presence. Partnering with existing U.S. head Tracey Berkenbush, he’ll focus on client growth and making “the best kept secret in U.S. research” less of a secret – capitalizing on Leger’s 600 staff and dual-country expertise to win more American clients.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership:
- AI’s impact on research was a key theme at a recent industry conference. Experts agreed that AI is rapidly changing research workflows – from automating survey coding and translation to augmenting data analysis. The takeaway: insights professionals must adapt to AI-powered tools becoming standard, by upskilling and focusing on tasks where human expertise adds value (like strategic thinking and ethical oversight). The conference underscored a collaborative future where human researchers and AI together drive faster, richer insights.
- Global consumer sentiment: A new global trends report highlighted that inflation has become the number-one concern on consumers’ minds worldwide, outranking issues like job security and healthcare. This reflects how rising prices and cost-of-living pressures are universally felt, influencing purchase decisions and brand perceptions. Insights teams are advising brands to address these economic anxieties in messaging and strategy, as consumer confidence remains fragile in many markets going into mid-2025.
- Insights tech showcase: The Insight Platforms Demo Day this week put a spotlight on innovation in research tech. A host of startups and tech firms demoed their solutions – from AI-driven qualitative analysis platforms and advanced text analytics tools to new panel management, social listening, and knowledge management systems for research teams. The breadth of companies (spanning automation, AI, and analytics) showcased the industry’s push towards more efficient, tech-enabled research processes. The event’s takeaway: the market research toolkit is rapidly expanding, giving insights professionals more options than ever to deliver faster and deeper consumer understanding.