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 (November 28 – December 4, 2025)
AI and Tech Innovations in Market Research
- PSB’s AI-Driven “Narrative Intelligence” for Unstructured Surveys: Research firm PSB Insights debuted Narrative Intelligence, an AI tool that analyzes open-ended consumer conversations without a traditional survey, claiming to yield richer, bias-free insights. The AI poses follow-up questions and mines themes and emotions from responses, helping uncover “hidden insights” and blind spots that static questionnaires miss. PSB’s CEO Christopher Frank says the tool bridges how customers actually talk about a brand with strategic insights, processing unstructured data at scale to surface surprises that can reshape strategy.
- Discuss Launches Virtual Personas and AI Upgrades: Seattle-based platform Discuss (fresh off a merger with Voxco) rolled out three new capabilities to accelerate research, including Virtual Personas – AI-generated persona models for quick idea testing. These Virtual Personas serve as a “needed layer” between gut instinct and formal studies, built from real past qual research and customizable to specific audiences. Discuss also expanded its AI Interview Agent (allowing researchers to fine-tune an AI moderator’s tone, probing depth, etc.) and embedded new Data Visualization tools into its Insights Agent. CEO Daniel Graff-Radford said the Virtual Personas, smarter Interview Agent and integrated visuals bring teams “closer to real human understanding” while speeding up decisions – exactly the momentum they envisioned when Voxco joined Discuss.
- Rival Technologies’ AI Training Program for Insight Teams: Canada’s Rival Technologies introduced “Innovation Insiders,” a 12-month AI training program to help corporate research departments move from AI theory to practice. The program offers monthly workshops, AI tools, and a private peer community to spur experimentation and adoption of AI in research. Initial participants include insight teams at People Inc. and Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO Andrew Reid noted the initiative is meant to be a learning-centric space “not just another product pitch,” giving brands a front-row seat to how AI is transforming the industry.
- Unacast Secures $28M for Location Data Expansion: Location intelligence firm Unacast raised $28 million in new funding to accelerate its product roadmap, improve data quality/transparency, expand go-to-market efforts and fund acquisitions. The New York-based company (known for mobility and foot-traffic insights) says the investment will help scale its solutions and potentially acquire complementary businesses. Unacast plans to leverage the capital to meet growing demand for accurate location data in retail and real estate analytics, as well as to integrate more AI-driven features.
B2B Market Research Developments
- Touchstone Offers Legal Market Research Services: U.S. firm Touchstone Research expanded into the legal arena, launching Mock Jury and Legal Research support for law firms and trial consultants. The service recruits vetted mock jurors (via Touchstone’s qual recruiting division), handles secure evidence sharing, and captures jurors’ feedback in real time. COO Travis Santa says with legal teams increasingly turning to research to inform trial strategy, there’s a need for trusted partners to manage sensitive content and provide reliable jury insights. Touchstone aims to give attorneys data-driven guidance to refine arguments and case strategy.
- Strat7 Launches Health-Focused Insight Unit: UK-based analytics group Strat7 opened a specialist division Strat7 Health, consolidating 20+ years of life sciences research expertise under one umbrella. Led by Lizzie Eckardt (Managing Director at Strat7 Incite) with a global team, Strat7 Health will serve pharmaceutical, biotech, med-tech and healthcare providers. The unit offers services from segmentation and analytics to cultural trend analysis and insight communities tailored to health clients. Strat7’s CEO Barrie Brien said the new arm combines “deep healthcare knowledge” with fresh thinking from outside the sector, helping clients spot opportunities others miss.
- Bilendi Expands Global Panel to 44 Countries: Paris-based research tech firm Bilendi dramatically grew its respondent panel coverage, adding panels in 8 Eastern European markets (including Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and more) for a total of 44 countries worldwide. This expansion – accelerated by last year’s US panel launch and the acquisition of Netquest (opening Latin America) – bolsters Bilendi’s ability to deliver large-scale international samples. All Bilendi panels feature rigorously validated respondents using a proprietary 5-layer quality scoring system and ISO 20252 certification. Founder & CEO Marc Bidou emphasized that clients need both global scale and high data quality, and Bilendi’s continual panel growth with strict quality controls ensures reliable data for any market.
Partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions
- Pattern Acquires ROI Hunter for SKU-Level Retail Media Insights: U.S.-based Pattern Group (an e-commerce accelerator) acquired ROI Hunter, a retail media platform that integrates product, marketing and merchandising data to inform SKU-level advertising decisions. Pattern, which applies AI to 46 trillion data points for global brands’ e-commerce optimization, says ROI Hunter will enhance its ability to provide granular product-level performance analysis across channels (Google, Meta, Snap, etc.). Pattern’s CEO Dave Wright noted that combining ROI Hunter’s product-data infrastructure with Pattern’s machine learning and marketplace expertise unlocks a “uniquely granular view” of how each product performs, strengthening Pattern’s position as a leading e-commerce insights provider.
- Havas Buys Unnest to Boost Data Engineering and AI: French advertising group Havas acquired Paris-based data consulting and engineering firm Unnest, to bolster Havas Media Network’s analytics and technology capabilities. Founded in 2021, Unnest specializes in building cloud data platforms and AI solutions, and its entire team (including founders Nicolas Chollet and Mehdi Moreau) will join Havas – creating a combined 120-person data unit in France. Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré said Unnest’s expertise will “accelerate the group’s AI strategy,” helping drive AI-powered solution adoption across its client base. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the move underscores holding companies’ push to deepen first-party data and AI talent.
- CMA and Fonto Partner on Australia’s Petrol & Convenience Data: In Australia, research agency Convenience Measures Australia (CMA) announced a partnership with transaction data firm Fonto to produce new syndicated insights on the petrol and convenience store sector. The collaboration merges CMA’s shopper survey know-how with Fonto’s real-time financial transaction data (from 90,000+ Australian consumers via Mastercard Open Banking) to capture what shoppers do and why in the Petrol & Convenience channel. The resulting “CMA Shopper Reports” will continuously track category performance, linking actual purchase behavior with survey feedback to bridge the classic “say–do gap”. Fonto CEO Ben Dixon said the partnership gives brands and retailers a single credible source of missions, drivers and purchases in this sector, enabling faster, data-led decisions.
Industry Leadership & Organizational Changes
- Stagwell Appoints Gardner as CEO of Harris Quest: Marketing conglomerate Stagwell named Jonathan Gardner as Chief Executive of Harris Quest, its suite of AI-enabled research and brand management tools within The Harris Poll/Marketing Cloud. Gardner is a 30-year insights veteran who previously served as COO of The Harris Poll for 8+ years. In his new role, he will oversee Harris Quest’s self-service real-time survey platform and brand health trackers that leverage gen-AI and AR tech. Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema praised Gardner for helping the firm stand out with trustworthy, accessible data, and Stagwell’s Marketing Cloud chief said his expertise in research tech will be critical as Harris Quest evolves its tools with a blend of AI and human insight – speeding delivery while maintaining quality.
- M/A/R/C Research Hires New Insights VP: U.S.-based M/A/R/C Research brought on Randi Etzkin (former NielsenIQ and Savanta exec) as Vice President of Insights & Strategies. Etzkin, who has 25 years of quant and qual experience across client- and supplier-side roles, will help lead M/A/R/C’s custom research offerings and its suite of “Accelerated” agile products. Her hiring follows several other senior additions this year at M/A/R/C as the firm bolsters its leadership team. Etzkin’s background – which includes senior insights roles at Savanta and NielsenIQ (and earlier stints at GfK and client organizations like Olympus) – aligns with M/A/R/C’s focus on marrying traditional research rigor with faster, tech-enabled solutions for clients.
- New CEO for The Young Foundation: In the UK, social research charity The Young Foundation announced Dr. Susan Griffiths as its next Chief Executive, effective March 2026. Griffiths joins from Social Development Direct (an international development research consultancy) where she has been Managing Director since 2020. She brings experience in research-driven social impact and policy consulting, and previously held leadership roles focusing on gender equality and inclusion. The Young Foundation – known for community research and social innovation projects – noted that Griffiths’ background in tackling inequalities and driving societal change makes her well-suited to advance the organization’s mission. She succeeds Helen Goulden, who stepped down after eight years, and will work with the team to amplify the foundation’s impact on critical social, economic and environmental issues.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
- ASC Launches Research Technologist Hall of Fame: The UK’s Association for Survey Computing (ASC) unveiled an initiative to honor the unsung innovators behind research technology breakthroughs. The new “Research Technologist Hall of Fame” will recognize developers, data scientists and tech leaders whose contributions have advanced the research industry, shining a spotlight on those who typically work behind the scenes. Announced at ASC’s annual conference, the Hall of Fame aims to inspire future innovation by celebrating these individuals’ impact on how research is conducted. (The first inductees are expected to be announced in 2026 after an open nomination process.)
- Gong’s “State of Revenue AI 2026” underscores AI’s mainstream role in revenue operations: The report finds that 7 in 10 enterprise revenue leaders now trust AI to regularly make business decisions — a shift from AI once being seen as a tactical add-on toward being a core strategic capability. Teams using AI as a core driver are 65% more likely to increase win rates, and generate 77% more revenue per sales rep. The report signals a major turning point: AI has moved from experiment to essential, reshaping how revenue teams forecast, win deals, and plan growth.