Innovations

As we embark on the exciting journey of technological progress, we ask ourselves how can we in insights take advantage of AI rather than have it take advantage of us? How much can it amplify our capabilities?

This is the second half of our article on sustainability say-do gap. Part 1 explained why we shouldn’t hold consumers responsible for it. In this second part, we look at where we should focus our efforts.

Happily, a lot has happened in the field of statistics since the Roaring Twenties, when writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Ernest Hemmingway were getting their careers underway.

Those pesky consumers. If only they would really do what they say they will – buy the sustainable product, do the recycling, eat a plant-based diet – we would be able to save the planet, right?

AI was once the least exciting subject area in tech. We wanted cyborg pets and robot manservants. What we had was reliable data transfers and more targeted email marketing.

When it comes down to it, we will use every sophisticated tool in very human ways. I wonder if ChatGPT will survive what humans do to it!

This edition takes a deeper dive into data-driven insights' role for the global technology leader Google, from understanding consumer tendencies to market trends.

An eye-watering nine million adults in the UK are economically inactive. The UK is the only G7 country still with a smaller economy than pre-COVID.

“The only constant thing in life is change.” So (apparently) said Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher of about 2,500 years ago.

“Think like a content creator” is a suggestion I keep hearing as we at Alpha-Diver continually look for ways to make our insights more actionable and easier for clients to digest and disseminate within their organizations.

Oh good. Another article espousing the secrets of persuading young consumers.

In Part Two, we looked at how this is changing the way in which insight operates within the strategy, marketing and insight disciplines, introducing the seven ‘Power Skills’. In this final instalment, we put the spotlight on each of these skills.

Experts across every field often point to continual learning as a foundation for their expertise. The same tends to hold true for market research and insights.

This article acknowledges the leaps AI has made for our industry but also highlights the pitfalls of distancing ourselves from the people we seek to understand.

In the first part of this article, we established that we now face a genuinely new paradigm for insight. But just how will the arrival of generative AI change the overall business structure within which insight operates.

We’ve always been wary of tech. But eventually, each new tech gets absorbed in a new normal, and life goes on... with man still in control! Is AI different?

AI has long promised to change the way we live, but until now, it has remained as technology at the margins. Not anymore! Ian Morris, in his book ‘Why The West Rules’, sums up human progress as ‘almost invisible until it isn’t’.

Having attended a number of conferences over the past couple of weeks, I have been amazed not only at how ChatGPT has dominated almost all conversations and presentations, but also at the almost total absence of any cautionary note regarding its usage!

New privacy regulations, lockdowns by big players like Apple and Google, and general consumer skepticism about sharing personal data are having profound impacts on audience understanding.

A focus in market research studies is sometimes on understanding customer or prospect optimal communications channels for hearing about a new, or existing, product or service.