Blog

Analysis, AI updates and practical guidance for market researchers and insights professionals, written by Ray Poynter and guests.

Featured The Pew Study Is Interesting, But It Does Not Settle Whether Synthetic Data Works Pew’s new study of synthetic respondents is one of the strongest public tests yet, but it should not be treated as a final verdict on synthetic data. It reveals important failure modes in prompt-based digital twins, while leaving open a… October 2026 · Ray Poynter
The Pew Study Is Interesting, But It Does Not Settle Whether Synthetic Data Works
The other existential risk for market research AI The other existential risk for market research Market research is debating whether AI will replace researchers, research agencies, panels, and much of the work people… 12 September 2026 When several AI services fail at once: the continuity question for insights teams AI When several AI services fail at once: the continuity question for insights teams Several leading AI services were disrupted within the same few hours on Thursday. OpenAI reported around two hours… 4 September 2026 What Is So Worrying About Recursive Self-Improvement? AI What Is So Worrying About Recursive Self-Improvement? Recursive self-improvement, or RSI, sounds like science fiction. RSI is when AI improves itself, then the improved AI… 5 August 2026 AI Update – 3 August 2026 AI AI Update – 3 August 2026 Here are three big themes from last week';s AI news. AI moves from conversation to action: three developments… 3 August 2026 Open-weight AI: four ways to use it and why access matters AI Open-weight AI: four ways to use it and why access matters Open-weight AI is often discussed as though releasing the model automatically makes AI accessible. In practice, access depends… 1 August 2026 When the model vanishes overnight: the lessons from the Fable ban and its implications for your AI supply line AI When the model vanishes overnight: the lessons from the Fable ban and its implications for your AI supply line Anthropic's two most capable models disappeared for everyone in a single evening. For research teams now building on… 20 June 2026 Myth Number 2: MIT Showed That 95% of AI Pilots Fail AI Myth Number 2: MIT Showed That 95% of AI Pilots Fail Perhaps the most commonly quoted statistics about AI projects is that 95% of them fail, according to MIT.… 31 May 2026 AI Myth Number 1: AI Cannot Produce Anything New AI AI Myth Number 1: AI Cannot Produce Anything New AI only repeats what it was taught. That is a comforting line that appears whenever AI comes up… 25 May 2026 Calling All Runners: Take Part in Our Research Race Calling All Runners: Take Part in Our Research We are looking for regular runners based in the UK to take part in a research project about… 15 April 2026