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Episode Summary: AI, Innovation, and Market Research Trends (September 5 – 11, 2025)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research
- Enlightn Launches AI Sampling Quality Platform – In Montreal, Adrien Vermeirsch (formerly of Potloc) launched Enlightn, an API-first platform using AI to assess panelists and improve survey sampling quality. The system uses open-ended profiling and semantic search to match the right respondents to surveys, moving beyond recent industry trends of synthetic respondents and aiming to reduce screen-outs and bias by verifying respondent eligibility with AI.
- Acutus Unveils On-Demand Synthetic Data Engine – India-based startup Acutus AI, founded by ex-Cint and Lucid executives, rolled out a platform to instantly generate high-quality synthetic datasets for research and product testing. The on-demand tool combines digital twins and AI-driven personas so brands can experiment and validate ideas before real-world deployment. Acutus also hired Yashash Gupta (Thrifty AI co-founder) as Product & AI Lead to develop its next-gen simulation engine “ZCoded” for lifelike synthetic users.
- Sphinx Raises $9.5M for AI Data Copilot – New York-based Sphinx emerged with a $9.5 million seed round to launch its AI “copilot” for data professionals. Unlike general AI chatbots, Sphinx’s tool is purpose-built for interpreting tabular data and building evidence-based forecasts and models. It integrates into data teams’ existing workflows (like Jupyter notebooks and VS Code) and uses agentic reasoning to refine business predictions. The startup is led by former Citadel AI leader Rohan Kodialam and ex-MosaicML engineer Jamie Bloxham, and is backed by Lightspeed and Bessemer Ventures.
B2B Market Research Developments
- Mortar AI Opens APAC Hub for Real-Time Insights – Australia’s Mortar AI, a real-time marketing intelligence platform (MMM and incrementality testing), opened its first international office in Singapore as its Asia-Pacific headquarters. The move is the “first step in a global expansion,” bringing Mortar’s end-to-end measurement and optimization tools to clients across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, India and more. Tech industry veteran Shane Mitchell joined as APAC Strategy Director to lead regional growth.
- Ipsos Extends PRS IN VIVO Packaging Suite to India – Global agency Ipsos is rolling out the packaging research solutions of its recently acquired behavioral science firm PRS IN VIVO in the Indian market. The suite offers five core services – from packaging design workshops and category strategy to design testing and performance benchmarking – aimed at helping brands make shopper-centric package decisions. Ipsos India’s innovation lead Anthony Dsouza says the combined Ipsos–PRS expertise will “revolutionize pack testing” in a market where shelf impact and packaging influence are increasingly pivotal.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions
- Brave Bison Acquires MTM to Expand Insights Division – In the UK, marketing group Brave Bison purchased London-based insights consultancy MTM for £6 million upfront (plus up to £6 million earn-out). Founded in 2005, MTM provides qual & quant research, market analysis, and has a global network of software developers for B2B tech insights. The deal boosts Brave Bison’s revenue by ~25% and will see MTM operate as an independent insights and consulting arm within Brave Bison, retaining its brand and leadership while collaborating with the parent’s marketing and sports engagement units.
- Stagwell & Żabka Partner on Polish Consumer Insights – Marcom group Stagwell formed a joint venture with Poland’s largest convenience chain Żabka Polska to launch In-Pulse, an advanced consumer analytics platform for the Polish market. Żabka’s massive retail footprint (11,600+ stores and 4+ million daily transactions) and 10 million loyalty app users are combined with Stagwell’s data-driven marketing tech to deliver real-time insights on Polish shoppers’ preferences and habits. The JV enables on-demand consumer surveys, product tests, and behavior forecasting, which Stagwell EMEA CEO James Townsend says will bolster Poland as a digital commerce and insights hub for the CEE region.
- J.D. Power Adds SIA for Auto Data Capabilities – Analytics firm J.D. Power acquired Superior Integrated Auctions (SIA), an online vehicle auction platform, to enhance its used-car marketplace offerings. The deal brings SIA’s digital auction tech into J.D. Power’s fold, marrying it with J.D. Power’s extensive vehicle data and predictive analytics to streamline automotive remarketing. SIA’s team and leader Jeremie Beckner joined J.D. Power’s “Marketplace” unit, as the company aims to deliver a one-stop digital solution for auto dealers to source inventory and leverage real-time valuation insights.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes
- Kantar Media Appoints New CFO – Audience measurement firm Kantar Media named Rainer Fuchs as Chief Financial Officer and added him to the executive team. Fuchs, who previously led finance transformations at Superstruct Entertainment and CSM Sport & Entertainment, joins just weeks after Kantar Media’s sale to private equity firm H.I.G. Capital. CEO Patrick Béhar welcomed Fuchs’ track record of driving growth in media businesses, noting the timing is ideal as Kantar Media begins a new chapter under its new owners.
- WPP Installs New COO and Agency Chiefs – Advertising and communications giant WPP saw a C-suite shakeup under new CEO Cindy Rose. Devika Bulchandani (formerly Ogilvy’s CEO) was promoted to WPP’s Global Chief Operating Officer, responsible for cross-agency offerings and growth. To fill her old role, Laurent Ezekiel became Global CEO of Ogilvy, and Floriane Tripolino stepped up as CEO of WPP’s OpenX unit (the dedicated Coca-Cola team). Rose said the trio’s client-focused leadership will help drive WPP’s next phase of growth and innovation across its agencies.
- Atlas Primary Rebrands as Manifest Health – US-based healthcare fieldwork firm Atlas Primary has rebranded to Manifest Health, reflecting an expanded mission to improve inclusivity in patient research recruitment. Founded in 2021, the company connects researchers with diverse and hard-to-reach healthcare professionals and patient populations. Along with the name change, Manifest Health enhanced its tech and outreach methods to reach rarer patient segments and ensure higher data integrity. CEO Roni DasGupta says the new identity underscores a commitment to making research more inclusive and “human,” while maintaining Atlas’s legacy of quality and trust in data collection.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
- AI Social Listening: Finding Needles in the Haystack – GreenBook’s Senior Content Coordinator Ashley Shedlock explored the evolution of AI-driven social media insights tools and how they help brands turn online “chatter” into strategy. The piece highlights companies like Converseon, Wonderflow, and Revuze, which use advanced tech to sift through fragmented social conversations and extract meaningful signals. These next-gen platforms go beyond simple keyword tracking – identifying emerging trends or reputational risks in real time – effectively finding the “needle in the haystack” of social data to guide marketing decisions.
- Balancing AI and Empathy in Insights – In a thought-provoking OpinionRoute blog, CEO Terence McCarron questions whether the industry’s recent AI automation wave is undermining the human empathy at the core of research. He notes “empathy” became a buzzword in insights during the 2020s – describing understanding clients, colleagues, and consumers – and warns that while AI can mimic empathetic responses, it cannot truly “be empathetic.” McCarron argues that successful research organizations will embrace AI efficiencies for rote tasks without losing the human-centric mission of understanding people, urging the industry to keep empathy as its calling card even as automation expands.
