AI Dominates the agenda at esomar Congress 2025, Prague

The 2025 ESOMAR Congress in Prague was dominated by one theme above all others:, and that theme was artificial intelligence. From the exhibition floor to the presentation sessions and corridor conversations, AI was the connective tissue running through the programme. What had been emerging in previous years became fully mainstream in 2025. Far from being a specialist topic, AI now underpins the methodologies, business models and strategic debates across the market research and insights industry.

Synthetic Data: A Lexicon and Taxonomy

Here is my attempt at an updated Lexicon and Taxonomy for Synthetic Data. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Neuroscience and Plato’s Cave: What can science tell us about the possibility of synthetic participants

For me the jury is out on the discussion about what synthetic data might be able to achieve in replicating human decisions and behaviour. I am worried by some of the overclaims and appalled by the number of people who reject the notions as being self-evidently wrong (without feeling the need to support their rejection with data). In this post, I want to explore one line of thinking relating to the broader debate, namely, what is the human brain doing and how might that help or hinder the creation of predictive models (AKA synthetic data).

AI Moderation in Pharma: IDIs with B2B Healthcare Experts in Days

When a new pain relief product sees a slower-than-expected start, there’s no time to wait for traditional research cycles. For large OTC and personal care manufacturer, a global leader in consumer health, every day counted — especially with advertising already in full swing.

This case study explores how an OTC brand responded to early sales pressure with speed and precision. Using an AI-powered research tool yasna.ai, they engaged both consumers and the notoriously hard-to-reach pharmaceutical technical assistants (PTAs) in just 10 days — a timeline that would normally take at least six weeks.

Exploring CoLoop: A Powerful AI Tool for Qualitative Research

By Ray Poynter15 September, 2025 I recently had the chance to sit down with Jack Bowen, founder of CoLoop, to explore what this innovative platform can do for insights professionals. This post accompanies the video demonstration (see below). My aim […]

AI making a difference to real people

I think too much of the discussion about AI is focused on what it might deliver in the future. I believe it is important that we look at what has already been achieved to get a sense of where we are and where it might go soon. This post presents a set of examples from around the world and across various fields.

The AI Territory – A Tool for Strategic Planning

In the fast-moving world of AI, organisations often struggle to decide which initiatives to prioritise. The opportunities seem endless, yet resources are limited, and different parts of the business may disagree on what matters most.

To cut through this, I use a framework I call The AI Territory. It adapts classic strategy tools (such as the Eisenhower Box and Value–Effort matrix) to the specific challenges of AI adoption.

The AI Revolution is Different in Speed and Nature to the Internet Revolution

As somebody who was a pioneer during the uptake of the Internet by the research ecosystem, I have been struck by how different I think the AI impact will be.

My feeling is that, compared with the Internet, the AI changes will be:

Faster
Driven by the big players
Take senior as well as junior jobs

AI Needs to be Compulsory

There is widespread agreement amongst seasoned consultants that if an organisation is going to realise the benefits of AI fully, it needs to be adopted throughout the organisation. I firmly believe this to be true, and I am working with a number of organisations to help them achieve this. However, there are good ways and bad ways of going about this that I will illustrate with three case studies. Norges Bank, Shopify, and Klarna.

Using an Agent to Summarise Documents for a Research Audience

Here is an example of using a simple agent to make your life slightly easier. I will show the example using Copilot, but you could just as easily use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude etc. You can use the same Instructions that I use for the Copilot.