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 (July 11 – July 17, 2025)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research
- Burke’s AI-Powered Innovation Tool – Burke, Inc. unveiled an AI-backed innovation solution via its Seed Strategy unit, combining creative intuition, consumer insight, and tailored AI to help clients generate “breakthrough” product and marketing ideas faster. The approach lets Burke’s experts and clients use AI to rapidly iterate concepts while staying grounded in human understanding, aiming to cut time-to-market and boost ROI on innovation initiatives.
- Nuance’s Open-End Analytics Platform – Nuance (Decision Analyst’s analytics subsidiary) launched Colibri, a verbatim coding and analytics platform to transform how researchers process and visualize open-ended survey data in 30+ languages. The platform uses AI to speed up and standardize text coding, offers built-in translation and dashboards for managing multiple studies, and enables collaborative analysis of unstructured feedback. Nuance’s President says Colibri provides a “smarter, more productive” way to handle qualitative data at scale.
- Protobrand’s Quick-Turn Behavioral Suite – Boston-based consultancy Protobrand introduced Nimble Explorations, a suite of rapid-turnaround research solutions grounded in behavioral science, and launched its first tool, Topic Explorer. The offering combines Protobrand’s AI-powered qual-at-scale platform (which features an AI moderator) with narrative inquiry techniques to yield “quick, deep, contextual answers” to tough research questions. By merging AI-moderated depth interviews with storytelling-based analysis, the firm promises rich insights in about one week – blending qualitative depth with quantitative speed for clients’ brand, innovation, and concept development needs.
- smartclip’s AI Agents for Ad Intelligence – European adtech firm smartclip (part of RTL Group) debuted Sidekicks, an “agentic AI” platform embedding media intelligence into advertisers’ workflows. Developed with subsidiary Realytics, Sidekicks deploys AI agents to assist at each step of digital ad campaigns – from planning and creative insights to automation – while keeping first-party data secure. smartclip’s Co-CEO noted the challenge of implementing GenAI in complex business contexts, saying Sidekicks was designed to integrate AI “where it’s needed most” in day-to-day media operations to help teams move faster and smarter.
B2B Market Research Developments
- Kantar’s CX Benchmarking Launch – Kantar introduced ExperienceEvaluator, a new tool on its Kantar Marketplace platform that lets brands benchmark and improve customer experience metrics. Built on Kantar’s “Meaningfully Different Experiences” methodology (linking CX to business outcomes), the tool uses feedback from Kantar’s panels to score brands’ customer experiences (e.g. NPS and MDX scores) against competitors. Early client Orange is using these benchmarks to quantify the business impact of its CX programs. Kantar says too many companies rely on metrics that don’t reflect real experiences; this offering aims to provide more actionable CX insight and identify where brands are falling short on their promises.
- Opinions LTD Expands to London – U.S.-based fieldwork agency Opinions LTD opened a new research and testing facility in London, marking its first permanent UK presence. Founders Mark Kikel and Chris Sluder launched the joint venture site on a busy London street to support central location tests, product trials, taste tests, in-store shopper research and more. The firm, which provides recruitment, interviewing, and reporting services at dozens of testing locations across the U.S. (and in Frankfurt), says the bustling London location offers rich intercept and pre-recruited sample opportunities. The expansion aims to better serve global clients’ B2B and consumer research needs in Europe.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions
- Kantar and Cint’s Expanded Alliance – Research tech provider Cint and global insights leader Kantar announced a significant multi-year extension of their partnership. The deal deeply integrates Kantar’s proprietary panels and survey platforms with Cint’s global respondent exchange, giving Kantar scalable, API-powered access to millions of panellists worldwide. Kantar’s CEO Chris Jansen said access to the world’s largest panel network will help “shape the brands of tomorrow” by understanding people everywhere. Cint CEO Patrick Comer noted the agreement is “much more than a renewal,” calling it a forward-looking partnership that validates Cint’s new platform built for scale, speed, and AI-enhanced data quality.
- Amplitude Acquires Kraftful for Unified Feedback – Digital analytics firm Amplitude acquired Kraftful, an AI-native voice-of-customer platform, to blend product usage data with customer feedback at scale. San Francisco-based Amplitude helps companies analyze user behavior in their apps, while Kraftful’s AI automatically ingests and summarizes qualitative feedback from support tickets, reviews, call transcripts, and surveys using large language models. By integrating Kraftful, Amplitude will enable clients to see not just what users do but why: for example, detecting a spike in checkout complaints, watching session replays to diagnose the issue, A/B testing a fix, and messaging users – all within one platform. The CEOs of both firms say combining quantitative user analytics with AI-driven qualitative insight will power faster product improvements and “more comprehensive insights” for product teams.
- Comscore’s CTV Data Partnership – Comscore struck a multi-year partnership with startup HyphaMetrics to enhance measurement of connected TV audiences. HyphaMetrics – founded by former Comscore execs – runs a panel of 5,000 U.S. homes with a patented device that tracks viewing on every screen (linear TV, streaming, gaming, etc.) down to program-level detail. Under the deal, Comscore will incorporate HyphaMetrics’ granular “Unified Individual Media Metric” data (which captures who is watching and if multiple people co-view) into its own cross-platform measurement services. The companies say this will deliver more precise, person-level insight on streaming and linear TV audiences, helping advertisers value media and optimize campaigns with greater accuracy. Comscore’s commercial chief praised HyphaMetrics’ sophisticated panel, calling the partnership a natural fit to provide clients the clearest view of today’s fragmented viewing behaviors.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes
- MarketCast Names Amy Fenton as CEO – In Los Angeles, media research and analytics firm MarketCast promoted Amy Fenton to Chief Executive Officer. Fenton, who joined MarketCast in 2023 and was serving as Co-President, previously spent ~25 years in senior roles at Nielsen, Ipsos, and Kantar. She succeeds John Batter (who departed in May) and plans to accelerate MarketCast’s product modernization with AI and real-time data capabilities. MarketCast’s owners at Kohlberg & Co. expressed confidence in Fenton’s mix of client-centric focus and tech-driven vision, as she leads the firm’s push to deliver predictive, ROI-focused insights in the dynamic media industry.
- Angus Reid to Chair Rival Group – Renowned pollster Dr. Angus Reid was appointed Chair of the Board at Rival Group, the newly merged entity combining Rival Technologies, Reach3 Insights, and Angus Reid Group. Reid founded the original Angus Reid Group in 1979 (later sold to Ipsos) and launched a new firm under his name in 2015. With the May merger of his firm with Rival and Reach3, Rival Group now houses their tech, panels, and consulting under one roof. Reid’s move to Chairman signals a focus on growth in North America; he emphasized keeping the merged company true to its values of rigor, independence, and strategic insight as it scales.
- Shazia Ginai Joins Lumen as Global VP – Attention analytics company Lumen Research hired Shazia Ginai as Global Vice President of Consulting. Ginai, former UK CEO of Neuro-Insight, brings a background in neuromarketing and has led insight teams at GHD, while also serving on the boards of industry diversity groups like Colour of Research (CORe) and WIRe. In her new London-based role, Ginai will help brands and agencies translate Lumen’s eye-tracking and attention data into business outcomes. Lumen’s CEO said her mix of neuroscience expertise and commercial acumen will strengthen the leadership team as attention metrics become a “defining metric for modern advertisers” looking to connect consumer attention with results.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
- Data Quality Collaboration Urged – A new study by the Data Quality Co-op found that improving market research data quality requires shared signals and cooperation across the industry. The researchers tested a cross-industry approach to flagging bad respondents and discovered not all low-quality data is outright fraud – panel choice, survey design, and cleaning methods also materially affect results. By grouping survey participants into segments like “fraudulent fingerprint” (11%), “bad open-enders” (26%), “overly professional” (29%), and “survey newbies” (34%), the study showed the diverse origins of quality issues. The white paper calls for buyers, suppliers, and platforms to share data quality signals and adopt common standards, to build a more complete picture of respondent behavior and stop treating quality as something “cleaned up after the fact.” Co-founders Bob Fawson and Ian Haynes argue that “quality starts upstream,” urging transparency in how respondents are sourced and how research design decisions impact data integrity.
- Insights Job Market Trends – An industry commentary outlined key hiring trends in the market research sector as it emerges from a turbulent few years. Top trend: AI skills are now in high demand, with hands-on experience in new research tech and digital methods becoming essential for mid-level roles. At the executive level, many new hires are tasked with business development and growth, more so than operational leadership. Technical requirements for quantitative researchers have risen – fluency in advanced analytics, coding or programming is increasingly the norm. Qualitative research roles are also evolving, as firms integrate AI and new participant engagement techniques to counter declining traditional qual participation. The piece noted an “employer’s market” dynamic post-pandemic: many candidates are available and being selective, while employers are taking longer to fill specialized roles and often opting for lateral hires over leaps, leading both sides to prioritize long-term skill development and careful career moves.
- Diversity & Inclusion Stalling – A UK MRS Inclusion survey found little improvement in perceived fairness and inclusion within the insights industry since 2022. Only 21% of research professionals in 2024 felt the industry is “fair” (virtually unchanged from 2022), while 40% still saw it as unfair. Workplace culture scores dipped on several dimensions: fewer respondents feel they belong or are supported at work compared to two years prior. Notably, 36% said they experienced some form of discomfort or discrimination in the past year, up from 19% in 2022. The MRS report suggests pandemic-era boosts in cohesion may have faded, compounded by inflation’s impact on wages and ongoing talent challenges. It calls for renewed focus on inclusive culture, warning that progression and diversity efforts have stalled. On a positive note, flexible working is widespread (89% can work flexibly) and willingness to act as allies is rising (70% of respondents would advocate for others) – but overall, the data shows that meaningful change on EDI in research has yet to be achieved.
